Researchonthe Influenceof E-Commerce Participationon Green Production Behaviorof Vegetable Growersin Facilities

Green production is an important part of promoting the green transformation of agriculture and a key link to achieve high-quality agricultural development.As an important part of Chinese vegetable industry,facility vegetables play an important role in alleviating the contradiction between seasonal production and balanced consumption of vegetables.However,the safety of production caused by excessive dependence on pesticides and fertilizers has been widely concerned by the society.Facility vegetable growers are the main body of facility vegetable production,and whether their production behavior is green or not is the key to the safety of residents’ tongue tip.In recent years,with the development and popularization of Internet technology,rural e-commerce has gradually become an important platform connecting producers and consumers.During the epidemic period,rural e-commerce vegetable sales effectively solved the problem of vegetable consumption faced by residents who were isolated at home,and buying vegetables online has increasingly become one of the trends of consumer consumption mode transformation.Participation in e-commerce has become a bridge of communication between facility vegetable growers and consumers,and also contributes to the organic connection between green vegetable production and green consumption.In view of this,whether the green consumption demand of consumers can be transmitted to farmers through participation in e-commerce,so as to promote farmers to realize the green transformation of vegetable production mode has become an important issue to be urgently solved in the research on green production of facility vegetables.Based on digital empowerment theory,stakeholder theory,information asymmetry theory and transaction cost theory,this paper constructs an analysis framework of the influence of e-commerce participation on the green production behavior of facility vegetable farmers.On this basis,the research data of 986 facility vegetable farmers in 11 counties(districts)of five cities in Shandong Province are collected.Porbit model,Logit model,propensity score matching method,instrumental variable method,mediating effect model and moderating effect model were used to study the following problems:(1)The current situation of green production behavior of vegetable farmers participating in e-commerce facilities;(2)Influencing factors and hierarchy of facility vegetable growers’ participation in e-commerce;(3)The influence effect,intermediate influence mechanism and heterogeneity analysis of participating in e-commerce on green production behavior of vegetable growers in facilities;(4)The moderating effect of realistic situation on green production behavior of vegetable growers participating in e-commerce facilities.On the basis of the above research,countermeasures and suggestions were put forward to promote the participation of facility vegetable growers in e-commerce to drive their implementation of green production behavior,in order to provide theoretical basis and empirical support for promoting the high-quality development of facility vegetable planting industry.This paper mainly draws the following research conclusions:(1)The adoption degree of green production behavior of vegetable growers participating in e-commerce facilities is generally higher than that of vegetable growers not participating in e-commerce facilities.The green production behavior of vegetable growers participating in e-commerce and facilities shows the following characteristics: first,the overall participation rate of e-commerce is low;Most of the facility vegetable growers who participated in e-commerce adopted platform e-commerce mode.Vegetable growers with high sales income preferred to use platform e-commerce,while vegetable growers with low income facilities had a slightly higher proportion of platform e-commerce than social e-commerce.Second,the overall green production level of facility vegetable growers needs to be improved;The adoption of various green production behaviors is inconsistent.Third,the green production level of facility vegetable growers who adopt platform e-commerce mode is higher than that of those who adopt social e-commerce mode.The green production level of vegetable growers with high intensity participation in e-commerce is higher than that of vegetable growers with low intensity facilities.(2)Influencing factors and hierarchical structure of facility vegetable growers’ participation in e-commerce behavior.First,for individual characteristics,part-time employment of facility vegetable growers is not conducive to their participation in e-commerce.In addition,the higher the education level of facility vegetable growers,the more likely to participate in e-commerce.Second,in terms of operation characteristics,the higher the proportion of agricultural income and the larger the number of labor force,the more conducive to the participation of facility vegetable growers in e-commerce.Third,for the characteristics of the Internet,the frequency of Internet use,e-commerce cognition and technical training have significantly promoted the participation of facility vegetable growers in e-commerce.Fourthly,the analysis of hierarchical structure found that the proportion of agricultural income,the number of labor force and the frequency of Internet use were the surface direct factors of whether the planted vegetable farmers participated in e-commerce,the middle-level indirect factors of part-time work behavior and technical training,and the deep root factors of education level and e-commerce cognition.Fifth,the expansion analysis shows that the mode and intensity of participation in e-commerce are affected by the individual characteristics,management characteristics and Internet characteristics of vegetable growers.(3)Participation in e-commerce can significantly promote the green production behavior of facility vegetable growers.First,the baseline regression results showed that participation in e-commerce significantly promoted the green production behavior of vegetable growers in facilities.The endogeneity test was conducted by instrumental variable method,and the results were still robust.Second,the results of intermediate action mechanism test showed that the e-commerce participants improved the green production behavior of vegetable growers through price expectation incentive,transaction cost reduction,convenient information acquisition and quality reputation evaluation.By comparison,the effects of price anticipation incentive and transaction cost reduction on improving the green production behavior of vegetable growers are superior to information access convenience and quality reputation evaluation.Third,the heterogeneity test results showed that,in terms of crop categories,the participation of root and stem facility vegetable growers in e-commerce had a greater promoting effect on their green production behavior than that of leaf vegetable facility vegetable growers.In terms of crop growth cycle,participation in e-commerce promoted the green production of vegetables with long cycle facilities more than those with short cycle facilities.In terms of the degree of specialization,participation in e-commerce can promote the green production behavior of professional vegetable growers than that of non-professional vegetable growers.In terms of operation scale,the effect of e-commerce participation on the green production of facility vegetable growers is from high to low in the order of medium scale facility vegetable growers,large scale facility vegetable growers and small scale facility vegetable growers.In terms of e-commerce participation mode,the promotion effect of facility vegetable farmers’ participation in e-commerce platform on their green production behavior is greater than that of participation in social e-commerce.In terms of the intensity of participation in e-commerce,the higher the intensity of participation in e-commerce,the more conducive to the adoption of green production behavior by plant vegetable growers;In terms of individual risk preference,participation in e-commerce of facility vegetable growers with risk preference can improve their green production behavior better than that of risk-neutral and risk-averse farmers.(4)Government policies and cooperatives are the key moderating variables that influence the green production behavior of vegetable growers in facilities by participating in e-commerce.First,the test of the moderating effect of government policy variables found that the financial support(policy subsidies and credit preferences),risk protection(agricultural insurance coverage),human capital cultivation,facility vegetable brand construction,logistics optimization in the supportive policy,as well as the whole traceability mechanism of facility vegetable in the restrictive policy had a significant positive moderating effect.Second,the test of the adjustment effect of cooperatives showed that participation in cooperatives was beneficial to improve the promotion effect of participation in e-commerce on the green production behavior of vegetable growers in facilities,and the higher the demonstration level of cooperatives,the greater the promotion effect;The agricultural supplies supply service,technical guidance service,production standard in the production link,storage service and logistics service in the circulation link,facilities in the sales link,vegetable brand registration and product acquisition standard also have a significant positive adjustment effect.Based on the above theoretical analysis and empirical research conclusions,this paper puts forward the following countermeasures and suggestions: First,guide vegetable growers to participate in e-commerce,increase the diversity of participation modes and the intensity of participation in e-commerce;The second is to rely on the power of e-commerce to take classified measures to improve the green production behavior of vegetable growers in facilities;Third,give full play to the role of government policies to improve the enthusiasm of facility vegetable growers to participate in e-commerce;Fourth,guide facility vegetable farmers to participate in cooperatives,improve the level of facility vegetable farmers to participate in the organization of e-commerce;Fifth,establish the system of "facility vegetable green production Specialist" to promote the participation of facility vegetable growers in e-commerce to promote green production.