FACTORS DETERMINING THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIVESTOCK: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF INNOVATION IN KAZAKHSTAN
Livestock development has encountered various challenges that have increased the rate of hunger and poverty among the stakeholder and led to low economic growth. However, Livestock entrepreneurship plays a significantly important role globally in ending malnutrition and hunger, increasing economic growth and creating a faster method for poverty reduction. In Kazakhstan, livestock development experienced a huge loss in productivity, resulting in poor leadership ability, competition orientation, production orientation, financing, and innovation. It further reduces Kazakhstan's GDP growth and effectively reduces the stakeholders' expansion of livestock. Hence, this study aimed to examine the factors determining livestock development: the mediating effect of innovation in Kazakhstan. Simple random sampling was adopted to aid quantitative analysis in generating data from the respondents (farmers and livestock stakeholders). The questionnaire was self-administered in obtaining data that previously performed an expert validation to review the items. A pilot study with 100 respondents was conducted before the field study. Out of 430 questionnaires distributed, the researcher received 388, which gives success and a response rate of 90.23%. Hence, the sample size of this study was 388 and which met the required criteria. The researcher adopted the use of SPSS (version 26.0) and SmartPLS (PLS-SEM) version 3.36 in analysing the data obtained from the respondents, which helped to test the hypothesis of this study. This study confirmed a positive and significant relationship between leadership ability, competition orientation, production orientation, financing, innovation, and livestock development. It further proved that the result obtained from the discriminant validity ranged from 0.753 to 0.843 and proved a positive correlation. The mediating effect of innovation between leadership ability, competition orientation, production orientation, financing, and livestock development has shown positive and significant. It further yielded that the nine (9) hypotheses were positive and significant. In conclusion, the improvement of leadership ability, competition orientation, production orientation, financing and innovation has significantly impacted the development of livestock in Kazakhstan, which proved significant in promoting the economic growth of Kazakhstan. This study has helped address the gap found in the previous studies while contributing to the body of knowledge and enhancing livestock development in Kazakhstan.
Livestock Development, Innovation, Leadership Ability, Orientations, Financial Constraints.