Evolutionary Mechanism Of The Social Embedding Process Of Agricultural E-Commerce Small Business Face To BOP Producers

In the context of the national strategy of industrial poverty alleviation and rural revitalization,Chinese agricultural e-commerce enterprises have made useful attempts to alleviate poverty and rural development for the Bottom of the Pyramid(hereinafter referred to as BOP)by rooting in rural areas through the "embedded" mechanism.However,rural e-commerce,represented by small agricultural e-commerce enterprises,still faces problems such as lack of resources and survival risks,while the BOP population is also generally weak in risk resistance and lacks various abilities to efficiently create economic value.In this situation of “both scarce about resources”and“both weak in risk resistance”,how can small agricultural e-commerce enterprises integrate BOP producers into the enterprise value network in the social embedding process? In this process,the enterprise BOP embedding decision mechanism becomes an important element that affects the enterprise itself,the BOP population and rural development.Taking this phenomenon and problems as the entry point,the author combs through the literature and finds that there are many static linear studies and few dynamic process studies in this field,especially the lack of research on the evolutionary mechanism of complex embedding process.In addition,there is a serious lack of empirical studies on small enterprises in agricultural e-commerce in China.Based on theoretical literature combing and preliminary exploratory research,this paper uses qualitative research methods to explore the aforementioned evolutionary mechanisms.The author interviewed 42 middle and senior managers from small agricultural e-commerce companies,rural cadres and local farmers,obtained more than 479,000 words of in-depth interview data,wrote 205 research memos,and collected second-hand data from multiple sources for triangulation of mutual evidence.Using the coding method of grounded theory,this paper systematically summarizes the evolutionary mechanism of social embedding process of small agricultural e-commerce enterprises for BOP producers,and deeply describes the three successive and logical dimensions of cognitive cultural embedding,network embedding and technological embedding respectively.Ultimately,the author present an integrated model,theoretical propositions,and framework for this evolutionary process.Main findings include:(1)Corporate cognitive culture embedding in BOP is a process that is both influenced by the cognitive factors of BOP environment and involved in the construction of BOP cooperative consensus,which goes through three stages of "building cooperative relations→adjusting cooperative relations → deepening cooperative consensus".With the gradual deepening of "initial cognition→empirical cognition→deep cognition",enterprises gradually build up the BOP producers’ cooperative consensus through "evaluation mechanism →classification mechanism → conservation mechanism" in turn.Specifically,enterprises will transform BOP producers from general partners with "cooperation potential" to identity partners with "growth space",and further cultivate them as loyal partners with "cooperative spirit",finally realize BOP cognitive empowerment.(2)Corporate network embedding in BOP has gone through three stages of network"building period → expansion period → maturity period",including the three important meanings of "influenced by the network,constructing the network,and maintaining the network",especially promoting the generation of BOP network structure.Influenced by changes in internal and external network conditions,enterprises gradually integrate BOP producers into their structure network through mechanism of "structural lock-in→structural expansion → structural divestment".Specifically,the enterprise takes the "local network resources" as the base to expand outside the region,gradually establishes,strengthens and consolidates the "bridging" role between BOP products and external markets.Ultimately,enterprise were integrated BOP producers into the "local production network,cross-regional network,and external network”in turn,and finally achieve BOP network empowerment.(3)Corporate technology embedding in BOP environment is a dynamic evolutionary process driven by the triple task of technical " innovation,diffusion,application",and logically connected by "antecedent conditions → technological innovation diffusion mechanism →application results".At different embedding stages,enterprises gradually completed "product base remodeling → production process remodeling → circulation process restructuring" for BOP producers through "exploration mechanism → persuasion mechanism → institutional mechanism".Ultimately,the enterprise shapes BOP producers into new skilled farmers who match the modern production needs of the enterprise and realize BOP technology empowerment.(4)Integrating the aforementioned studies,it is found that the social embedding of small agricultural e-commerce enterprises for BOP producers is a "multi-order and multi-dimensional" dynamic evolutionary process that flexibly adjusts the embedding mechanism with the changes of internal and external contextual conditions.Under the perspective of cognitive and cultural embedding,network embedding,and technological embedding,enterprises gradually realize cognition,network and technology empowerment of BOP producers through multiple embedding mechanisms,and finally integrate BOP producers into the corporate value network.This paper finally constructs and refines the integration model,evolutionary mechanism and theoretical framework about the evolutionary process of social embedding of BOP-oriented producers in agricultural e-commerce small enterprises.The main innovations of this paper are as follows.First,it logically shows the complex dynamic BOP social embedding of small enterprises in agricultural e-commerce,thus breaking through the static linear process research in the literature.Secondly,it empirically explores the social embedding process of BOP with small enterprises as the main body,which makes up for the lack of attention to small enterprises in the literature.Third,it theoretically generalizes new indicators of the theoretical dimensions of corporate BOP social embedding and expands the connotation of social embedding theory.These findings contribute to the field of BOP social embedding research and also provide some insights into the management practices of small enterprises in agricultural products e-commerce in China.