From Online Markets to Green Fields: Unpacking the Impact of Farmers’ E-Commerce Participation on Green Production Technology Adoption

Zhaoyu Li, Kewei Gao and Guanghua Qiao ()
Additional contact information
Zhaoyu Li: College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010010, China
Kewei Gao: College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010010, China
Guanghua Qiao: College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010010, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-31

Abstract: Amid the global push for agricultural green transformation, sustainable agriculture requires not only technological innovation but also market mechanisms that effectively incentivize green practices. Agricultural e-commerce is increasingly viewed as a potential driver of green technology diffusion among farmers. However, the extent and mechanism of e-commerce’s influence on farmers’ green production remain underexplored. Using survey data from 346 rural households in Inner Mongolia, China, this study develops a conceptual framework of “e-commerce participation–green cognition–green adoption” and employs propensity score matching (PSM) combined with mediation analysis to evaluate the impact of e-commerce participation on green technology adoption. The empirical results yield four main findings: (1) E-commerce participation significantly promotes the adoption of green production technologies, with an estimated 29.52% increase in adoption. (2) Participation has a strong positive effect on water-saving irrigation and pest control technologies at the 5% significance level, a moderate effect on straw incorporation at the 10% level, and no statistically significant impact on plastic film recycling or organic fertilizer use. (3) Compared to third-party sales, the direct e-commerce model more effectively promotes green technology adoption, with an increase of 21.64% at the 5% significance level. (4) Green cognition serves as a mediator in the relationship between e-commerce and green adoption behavior. This study makes contributions by introducing e-commerce participation as a novel explanatory pathway for green technology adoption, going beyond traditional policy-driven and resource-based perspectives. It further highlights the role of cognitive mechanisms in shaping adoption behaviors. The study recommends that policymakers subsidize farmers’ participation in e-commerce, invest in green awareness programs, and support differentiated e-commerce models to enhance their positive impact on sustainable agricultural practices.

Keywords: agricultural e-commerce; farmers’ e-commerce behavior; green production technology; level of green production cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/14/1483/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/14/1483/ (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:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:14:p:1483-:d:1699023

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

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