Influence Of Information Communication Technology Use On Farmers' Market Behavior

Small-scale part-time farmers are the main organizational form of agricultural operations in China,the small-scale production brought by small-scale farmers cannot effectively connect with the current large-scale market demand.The contradiction between "small production" and "big market" is an urgent problem to be solved in the development of rural economy in China.At present,in the process of production and sales,farmers are facing small and fragmented business scales,low technological innovation and application rates,unstable transaction prices and transaction relationships,and poor product circulation,which cause many problems such as low agricultural production efficiency and industrial chain integration,unbalanced supply and demand of agricultural products,and weak market bargaining power of farmers,etc.From the perspective of transaction cost economics,the essence of the above problems lies in the increasing transaction costs of farmers after entering the product and factor markets.Transaction costs have become the main friction that hinders farmers from participating in the market.With the advent of the information age,profound changes have taken place in the construction of rural informatization and information channels for farmers.In particular,the popularization and application of information communication technologies represented by mobile phones and the Internet have greatly weakened and eliminated barriers to market information in terms of time and space.Information communication technology,as one of the important ways for small farmers to organically connect with the big market,can reduce the transaction costs of farmers participating in the production factor market and product market.On the one hand,by allowing farmers to obtain effective information,various elements in the production process can be rationally integrated and used to reduce production costs and improve production efficiency.On the other hand,it is possible to use infromation communication technology to understand market information such as prices and channels in the sales link to enhance farmers' bargaining power and ultimately increase sales revenue.Therefore,it has important practical and theoretical significance to link information communication technology with transaction cost,and to examine whether the introduction of information communication technology can influence transaction costs in different markets to prompt small farmers to change market behaviors,enhance market participation,and improve market performance.Based on the above background,the key questions to be answered in this study include:How does the use of information communication technology(represented by mobile phones and computers)affect the transaction costs of different markets? What mechanism does this influence have on farmers' market behaviors? What impact does it ultimately have on farmers' market performance? Focusing on these issues,this thesis starts from the use of information communication technology by farmers,based on the perspective of transaction cost,expounds and summarizes relevant domestic and foreign research results and multiple theories such as information asymmetry theory,bounded rationality theory,transaction cost theory,and farmer behavior theory.Using the survey data of 1989 farm households in Hebei,Shandong and Shaanxi provinces,the use of information communication technology and existing problems of farm households in the sample area are analyzed and summarized,and select different proxy variables,use factor analysis to measure the transaction cost of farmers in the production factor market and product sales market.Based on this,different empirical methods are used to examine the effect of the use of information communication technology on the different market behaviors of farmers in the production factor market and product sales market,as well as the mechanism of transaction costs in the impact process.Finally,based on the empirical test results,corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward,hoping to provide theoretical and empirical support for improving the participation of small farmers in the market,increasing agricultural income and performance,and promoting the development of modern agriculture.The main research contents and conclusions of this article are as follows:(1)Among the 1989 valid samples obtained by the survey,the sample of farmers owning mobile phones and computers accounted for 97.79% and 59.98% respectively,but compared with the ownership rate,only 682 households were willing to actively use mobile phones or computers to obtain agricultural information during the production and sales process,accounting for 34.29% of the sample.It shows that a single technology ownership rate cannot fully reflect the use and contribution rate of information communication technology in the production and sales of farmers,as well as its actual effect on agricultural production and sales.In addition,farmers who mainly use information communication technology to obtain agricultural information account for only 11.42% of the total sample,other information acquisition channels such as: training and promotion related to agricultural information or technology are also rare.The sample farmers who have received information technology-related training and promotion only accounted for 20.93% and 31.88% of the total sample.In general,farmers currently have insufficient awareness of the role and importance of information communication technology in agricultural production and sales,and there are still deficiencies in the government's information infrastructure construction and promotion training.(2)Based on the concept of transaction costs,starting from the specific classification of transactions in different markets,a total of 20 proxy variables were selected in the production factor market and product sales market,including understanding market prices,price fairness,defaults,and transportation difficulties.The factor analysis method is used to systematically and comprehensively measure the transaction costs of farmers participating in different markets from the four dimensions of information search,negotiation,supervision and execution,and transportation costs.In terms of characteristic analysis,the sample farmers have relatively accurate understanding of the market information of agricultural material products and agricultural technology in the production factor market.In the process of purchasing agricultural materials,farmers generally choose merchants that they trust and can actively fulfill the contract but are not overly dependent on transactions,and believe that the prices sold by the merchants are fair,and the difference between the final purchase price and the expected purchase price is relatively small.The sample farmers in the product sales market will try their best to obtain more accurate market information in the process of selling vegetables,and choose more trusted purchasers for transactions,but they are still in a disadvantaged position in bargaining.The purchase price offered by the purchaser is relatively fair,but there is often a big difference between the final sale price and the price expected by farmers.In addition,the comprehensive index of transaction costs and the indexes of various dimensions are different in different research areas and the use of information communication technology.All indicators of transaction cost of farmers who use information communication technology are higher than those of unused farmers(the larger the index value is,the lower the transaction cost),which reflects that the use of information communication technology can reduce the transaction cost of farmers to a certain extent.(3)By using the multivariate Logit model,the influence of the use of information communication technology on the transaction mode and market scope selection in the purchase of farmers' production materials is investigated.The study found that the use of information communication technology has a positive effect on the transaction mode and market scope of farmers' purchase of agricultural materials,that is,the use of information communication technology has expanded the transaction channels and scope of farmers.Farmers who use information communication technology are more willing to purchase agricultural materials through middlemen,cooperatives or online trading rather than close to the market,and they are more willing to choose a wide range of non-village-level towns,cross-regional or online markets to purchase.Further use the intermediary effect test method to test the linkage mechanism of the transaction cost in the process of using information communication technology to influence the purchase transaction mode and market scope of farmers' agricultural materials.The research results show that transaction costs have a significant mediating effect.The use of information communication technology can also indirectly affect the transaction mode and market range selection behavior of farmers in purchasing agricultural materials by reducing the market transaction cost in the process of purchasing agricultural materials.(4)The Heckman two-stage model is used to examine the influence of information communication technology use and transaction costs on the choice and intensity of adoption of farmer greenhouse technologies.The study found that farmers who use information communication technology can choose to use greenhouse technology and increase the area of vegetable greenhouses by broadening technical information channels and understanding the effects of technology adoption.The transaction cost has a significant negative impact on the selection and intensity of greenhouse technology adoption.The higher the transaction cost,the less conducive to the adoption of greenhouse technology and the increase in the area of vegetable greenhouses.Based on this,the thesis further investigates the mechanism and path of transaction costs in the process of using information communication technology to influence farmers' technology adoption behavior.The test result of the intermediary effect shows that transaction costs have a partial intermediary effect in the process of using information communication technology to increase the utilization rate of farmer greenhouse technology and increase the area of vegetable greenhouses.The use of information communication technology can indirectly increase the adoption rate and intensity of new technologies by reducing transaction costs in the technology trading market.(5)From the two aspects of whether farmers use information communication technology and whether they actively use it to obtain the necessary agricultural information,a more comprehensive investigation is carried out on the influence of the use of information communication technology on the choice of farmers' sales channels.Using the binary Probit model,the different vegetable sales channels(self-selling,intermediaries,cooperatives)of farmers are respectively regressed and found,whether farmers use information communication technology and whether they actively use it has a significant negative impact on self-sales channels,and is significantly positively correlated with intermediary channels and cooperative channels.It shows that the farmers with the higher the use of information communication technology and the higher the active use rate are more inclined to sell vegetables through the channels of middlemen and cooperatives rather than through self-selling channels.Further use the Bootstrap test method to verify the use of information communication technology to influence the transaction cost linkage mechanism and path that affect the choice of farmers' sales channels,found that transaction costs play a part of intermediary role in the process of using information communication technology to influence farmers' choice of sales channels.Farmers use information communication technology to increase agricultural market information,which can not only directly affect their choice of sales channels,but also indirectly affect their choice of vegetable sales channels by reducing transaction costs in the sales market.(6)Based on the two-main links of production and sales,the use of information communication technology,transaction costs,farmers' market behaviors and their market performance are included in the same research framework.Investigate whether the use of information communication technology can change farmers' behavior in different markets(purchase behavior of agricultural materials,technology adoption behavior and sales decision behavior)by reducing transaction costs,and ultimately improve farmers' market performance(net sales revenue,bargaining power and sales loss).First of all,in the benchmark OLS analysis,the use of information communication technology,transaction costs,and farmers' market behavior have a significant impact on the net income of market performance,bargaining power,and sales loss.The use of information communication technology can increase farmers' net income and bargaining power and reduce sales losses.The higher the transaction cost,the lower the net income and bargaining power,and the higher the sales loss.The purchase of production factor markets and product sales markets and the expansion of sales channels and scope can significantly increase net income and farmers' bargaining power.The higher the adoption rate of greenhouse technology,the higher the net income and bargaining power of farmers.Further use the KHB model to examine whether the use of information communication technology can change the market behavior of farmers and ultimately improve market performance by reducing transaction costs.The study found that the use of information communication technology can significantly and indirectly affect the market performance of farmers by reducing transaction costs and changing the five behavioral variables of farmers(selection of purchase channels and market scope of agricultural material purchase behavior,greenhouse technology adoption rate and intensity of technology adoption behavior,and sales channel and market scope selection of sales selection behavior).Combined with the decomposition table of indirect effects,it can be seen that the choice of sales channel and scope has the greatest impact on the net income,bargaining power and sales loss of market performance,followed by technology adoption behavior,and the relative impact of agricultural material purchase channels and scope variables is the least.(7)Increasing the training and promotion of information communication technology to improve farmers' awareness of the importance of information communication technology in agricultural production and operation and the efficiency of utilization.The government should continue to increase the supply of market information and reduce transaction costs in the agricultural market,by optimizing the information and technology policy environment to improve the adoption rate and intensity of agricultural technology.The government should guide farmers to participate in cooperatives and other organizations,increase the participation of farmers' organizations,and further broaden the sales channels of agricultural products.Finally,it is necessary to improve information subsidy policies and supporting measures to increase the channels for farmers to obtain information,reduce the transaction costs of farmers' production and management,increase farmers' market participation,increase farmers' income and market performance,and provide thinking directions and policy reference for small farmers to integrate into the modern agricultural market.