Closing the opportunity gap: Exploring micro-enterprises' behavioral intention to integrate with digital platforms for a broader agri-food system

Digital agriculture platforms offer marginalized micro-enterprises a vital pathway to bridge the opportunity gap and overcome structural dependencies on focal companies. However, mainstream literature's focal-firm bias leaves the adoption logic of these grassroots operators underexplored. Addressing this gap, we operationalize an integrated Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework. Using PLS-SEM on data from 167 micro-enterprises, this study investigates their platform integration behaviors. Results reveal distinct adoption pathways: a platform's operational simplicity cannot trigger adoption without first cultivating a favorable organizational mindset (full mediation). Conversely, its tangible strategic benefits—unexpectedly anchored in macro-systemic food safety guarantees and ecological conservation rather than mere short-term profits—motivate integration both directly and indirectly (partial mediation). Socio-psychologically, although micro-enterprises clearly perceive external pressures like government mandates and peer emulation, these fail to translate into adoption intent—a recognition-action gap that leaves adoption strongly conditioned by financial affordability and technical readiness instead. Ultimately, these dynamics reframe the presumed myopic rationality of micro-enterprises: viewed through the lens of push-pull theory, the strategic draw of sustainable platform value is offset by baseline capability constraints, such that this value becomes actionable only when matched by sufficient capability. Theoretically, this demonstrates that cultivating truly inclusive digital ecosystems necessitates shifting the analytical focus from top-down focal designs to bottom-up grassroots decision-making. Practically, it advises policymakers and platform sponsors to move beyond normative persuasion toward tangible capability empowerment and value-driven platform architectures.