Can E-Commerce Adoption Improve Agricultural Productivity? Evidence from Apple Growers in China

Beibei Yan and Tianjun Liu ()
Additional contact information
Beibei Yan: School of Management, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China
Tianjun Liu: College of Economics & Management, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Xianyang 712100, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: E-commerce is not only a new channel through which farmers can sell agricultural products, but also an important engine for transforming agricultural development and modernizing agriculture in the era of the digital economy. Analyzing the adoption of e-commerce from the micro level to improve farmers’ production efficiency has practical value. On the basis of theoretical discussion and analysis and on the survey data of 827 apple farmers in Shaanxi Province, China, we used propensity score matching (PSM) and stepwise regression to test the effects of e-commerce adoption on agricultural production efficiency and the mechanism through which these effects occur. The results showed that e-commerce adoption has a significant positive impact on agricultural production efficiency. The allocation of agricultural factors plays a mediating role in the impact of e-commerce adoption on agricultural production efficiency. Specifically, e-commerce adoption can effectively encourage farmers to rationally allocate agricultural labor, land, and capital production factors, promote the sustainable development of the environment and contribute to creating a harmonious community atmosphere. Therefore, we propose strengthening rural e-commerce support and the publicity and guidance regarding e-commerce adoption by farmers, holding e-commerce training, and promoting the popularization of rural e-commerce to help promote the modernization of agriculture.

Keywords: apple growers; e-commerce adoption; agricultural production efficiency; element configuration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/150/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/150/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:150-:d:1011292

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().