Study On The Effect Of Government Regulation And Environmental Literacy On Farmers’ Green Entrepreneurship

With the advancement of the strategy of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation",more and more farmers have joined the ranks of entrepreneurship with entrepreneurial dreams.Among them,some farmers have realized intra-agricultural entrepreneurship by upgrading their business scale in the field of planting industry or establishing new organizations(such as family farms and farmers’ professional cooperatives).Agricultural entrepreneurship has become an important field for farmers to start businesses and has achieved significant economic benefits.However,driven by profits,farmers’ entrepreneurship is mainly based on the traditional way of pooling resources and consumption,with excessive use of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides,and insufficient harmless treatment or resource utilization of wastes such as straw and agricultural film,which causes serious problems of agricultural non-point source pollution,ecosystem degradation and pesticide residues in agricultural products.There is an urgent need to find a development model that takes into account economic,environmental and social benefits.As a new entrepreneurial model,green entrepreneurship takes into account the "triple bottom line" of economic growth,environmental friendliness and social prosperity.With the advancement of the sustainable development of China’s economy and society,especially the commitment to reach the "3060" goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,green entrepreneurship has attracted widespread attention from government departments and academia.As the decision-makers and actual executors of green entrepreneurship,the green degree of farmers’ production mode directly determines the green transformation process of farmers’ entrepreneurship.Agricultural environmental pollution is a typical negative externality problem.The economist Pigou proposed to strengthen the direct regulation of the government by means of taxation or subsidies,which provide a theoretical basis for this paper to explore the influencing factors of farmers’ green entrepreneurship from the perspective of government regulation.According to the "Lewing Behavior Model" proposed by American social psychologist Kurt Lewing,individual behavior is not only restricted by the external environment,but also affected by the internal factors of the individual.Generally speaking,individual behaviors are closely related to their literacy,and different literacy leads to different individual behaviors.Environmental literacy reflects individual values,sense of responsibility,knowledge and skills related to the environment and the relationship between people and the environment.Promoting green entrepreneurship puts forward certain requirements for farmers’ level of environmental literacy,environmental literacy may have an important impact on farmers’ green entrepreneurship.However,the existing research has not paid enough attention to the issue of farmers’ green entrepreneurship.Although some scholars have explored the impact of government regulation or environmental literacy on farmers’ environment-friendly production willingness or environment-friendly production behavior,they are mainly discussing its impact on general farmers.In view of this,this paper focuses on the research of farmers’ green entrepreneurship,breaking through the deficiencies of previous research on farmers’ green entrepreneurship.On the basis of fully considering the internal and external motivations of farmers’ green entrepreneurship,this paper exploratively integrates external government regulation,internal environmental literacy and farmers’ green entrepreneurship into the same research framework,reveals the impact of government regulation and environmental literacy and their internal relationship on farmers’ green entrepreneurship,with a view to deeply exploring the promotion mechanism of farmers’ green entrepreneurship driven by government regulation and environmental literacy.Based on entrepreneurship theory,externality theory,social cognition theory,sustainable development theory and government regulation theory,this paper constructs a theoretical logic framework of the impact of government regulation and environmental literacy on farmers’ green entrepreneurship.This paper measures the level of government regulation and farmers’ environmental literacy,and analyzes the characteristics of farmers’ green entrepreneurship based on the survey data of 788 entrepreneurial farmers in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces.This paper uses the ordered Logit model and the multiple linear regression models to test the impact of government regulation and its three dimensions and environmental literacy on farmers’ green entrepreneurship cognition.The multiple linear regression models was used to test the effects of government regulation and its three dimensions and environmental literacy on farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness and green entrepreneurship behavior.This paper uses the mediation effect model to explore the mediating role of green entrepreneurship cognition in the influence of government regulation and its three dimensions on farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness,and the mediating role of green entrepreneurship willingness in the influence of government regulation and its three dimensions on farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior.The moderated mediation effect model is used to test the moderating effect of environmental literacy in government regulation and its three dimensions affecting farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness through green entrepreneurship cognition,and the moderating effect of environmental literacy in government regulation and its three dimensions affecting farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior through green entrepreneurship willingness.Using multiple linear regression models and quantile regression model,this paper explores the impact of green entrepreneurship on farmers’ entrepreneurial performance.Based on the theoretical analysis and empirical test results,this paper proposes policy recommendations to improve government regulations and enhance farmers’ environmental literacy to optimize farmers’ green entrepreneurial environment and enhance farmers’ green entrepreneurial ability,and ultimately help farmers’ green transformation of entrepreneurship.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The government regulation is at a general level.Among the three dimensions of government regulation,the level of government restraint regulation is the highest and the level of government incentive regulation is the lowest.The level of farmers’ environmental literacy is medium,and there is a certain gap among different farmers.In terms of farmers’ cognition of green entrepreneurship,farmers have a high level of cognition of green entrepreneurship to reduce agricultural environmental pollution and provide high-quality agricultural products for the society,but a low level of cognition of green entrepreneurship to promote farmers to increase production and income.In terms of farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness,farmers are more willing to invest labor and time,but less willing to invest capital.In terms of farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior,the degree of purchasing green agricultural materials before production is relatively low,and the proportion of farmers who regularly and completely standardize the use of inputs and adopt green production technologies in production accounts for less than half.The proportion of green entrepreneurial behavior after production at the general level or above is high,but the proportion of regular and full adoption needs to be improved.(2)The government regulation and its three dimensions,environmental literacy have significant positive impact on farmers’ cognition that green entrepreneurship reduces agricultural environmental pollution,green entrepreneurship can provide high-quality agricultural products for society,and green entrepreneurship improves farmers’ production and income.Government regulation and its three dimensions and environmental literacy improve farmers’ cognition of green entrepreneurship has been verified.(3)The government regulation and its three dimensions,environmental literacy have significant positive impact on farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness,and it has been confirmed that government regulation and its three dimensions and environmental literacy enhance farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness.Green entrepreneurship cognition plays a partial mediation role in government regulation and its three dimensions affecting farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness.However,in the three specific mediation paths,green entrepreneurship reduces agricultural environmental pollution does not play significant mediating role in the influence of government regulation on farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness,green entrepreneurship increases farmers’ production and income does not play significant mediating role in the influence of guiding regulation on farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness.It has been partially verified that environmental literacy plays a moderating role in the process of constraint regulation affecting farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness through green entrepreneurship cognition.It has been verified that environmental literacy plays a moderating role in the process of government regulation,incentive regulation and guidance regulation affecting farmers’ green entrepreneurship willingness through green entrepreneurship cognition.(4)The government regulation,incentive regulation and guidance regulation have significant positive impact on farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior,but the impact of restraint regulation is not significant;environmental literacy has a significant positive impact on farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior,and environmental literacy is an important factor affecting farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior.The green entrepreneurial willingness plays a partial mediation role in the influence of government regulation and guidance regulation on farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior,and green entrepreneurial willingness plays a complete mediation role in the influence of incentive regulation and restraint regulation on farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior.Environmental literacy plays a moderating role in the impact of government regulation and its three dimensions on farmers’ green entrepreneurship behavior through green entrepreneurial willingness.(5)The green entrepreneurship has a significant positive impact on farmers’ entrepreneurship performance,economic performance,environmental performance and social performance.That is,promoting green entrepreneurship can not only improve the overall performance of farmers’ entrepreneurship,but also improve economic performance,environmental performance and social performance.The green entrepreneurship can achieve the unification of economic performance,environmental performance and social performance of farmers’ entrepreneurship.The green entrepreneurship has the greatest impact on farmers with low entrepreneurial performance,economic performance,environmental performance and social performance,while it has the least impact on farmers with high performance.The green entrepreneurship can narrow the gap of farmers’ entrepreneurship performance,economic performance,environmental performance and social performance,and becomes an effective model to promote the upgrading of farmers’ entrepreneurship.According to the theoretical analysis and empirical research conclusions,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations: improve the government incentive mechanism;strengthen the government restriction regulation;strengthen the government guidance mechanism;strengthen the strategic and systematic improvement of farmers’ environmental literacy;promote the effective connection between farmers’ environmental literacy education and farmers’ support policies of entrepreneurship education;expand the ways to improve farmers’ environmental literacy.