Based on social exchange, rational choice, and perceptual choice theory, this paper examines the influence of professional competence, personal relationship, and their interaction on repeated purchase intention in the context of rural agricultural marketing. Adopting the survey method and hierarchical regression analysis, this study tested the hypotheses with a data set of 578 farmers from China, and assessed the robustness of the results by structural equation modelling. The results show that both personal relationship and professional competence have a significantly positive impact on repeated purchase intention while the interaction between the two has a significant negative effect on repeated purchase intention. The results expose the struggle farmers experience in choosing between emotional and rational thinking when making purchasing decisions in the urbanization and industrialization process of a rural area. The results also enrich the research on the marketing of agricultural resources and have important implications to agricultural retailers.
Keywords: agricultural marketing; personal relationship; professional competence; repeated purchase intention.