| Competition in urban e-commerce is intensifying,and domestic e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Jingdong are enthusiastic about the strategy of rural e-commerce growth.Additionally,in order to promote rural economic transformation,consolidate poverty alleviation outcomes,and promote rural revitalization,China has successively issued a package of policies and measures to encourage the development of rural e-commerce and support rural e-commerce entrepreneurship.For example,the No.1 central document in 2023 emphasized the importance of expanding the concept of ‘digital business to promote agriculture’ and using the ‘Internet’ to market agricultural goods from villages to cities.It is also encouraging people return to their hometowns and start enterprises.Simultaneously,with the gradual narrowing of the urban-rural digital divide,there is a flourishing rise of e-commerce entrepreneurship,particularly among low-income people who serve as the main entrepreneurial force.The current research on entrepreneurship argues that low-income people face dual constraints imposed by individual and external resources.On the one hand,low-income people lack practical experience in acquiring entrepreneurial opportunities and managing the entrepreneurial process.This hampers their ability to effectively access resources for rural e-commerce entrepreneurship,thereby hindering the value creation function of entrepreneurial activities.On the other hand,compared to urban entrepreneurship,rural areas face challenges such as sparse institutions,a more difficult entrepreneurial environment,and a scarcity of entrepreneurial resources.However,there are numerous successful cases of rural e-commerce entrepreneurship in the vast rural areas of China.It can be observed that current theoretical study on entrepreneurship among low-income people leg behind the growth of practice.In 2013,the Journal of Business Venturing published a column highlighting the significance of entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation.However,the unique constraints faced by low-income people in underdeveloped regions have raised concerns among scholars about the feasibility of successful entrepreneurship for this demographic.This thesis,based on typical instances of successful rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among low-income people,addresses research topics in the academic community related to entrepreneurship among this demographic.This thesis specifically addresses the following three questions: First,where do opportunities come from for rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among the low-income people? Second,how can low-income people break through resource constraints and enhance their entrepreneurial capabilities in the field of rural e-commerce entrepreneurship? Thirdly,how can rural e-commerce entrepreneurship by low-income people contribute value and returns to their local communities? To address the aforementioned research questions,this thesis conducts research using the theory of entrepreneurial value creation contained in entrepreneurial process theory.Specifically,we adhere to the framework of entrepreneurial opportunity,entrepreneurial competence,and entrepreneurial reward.Using survey data,the county-level digital rural indices and other relevant data,the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method was used to analyze the causal complex mechanisms for the source of low-income people’s rural e-commerce entrepreneurial opportunities and the resource constraint breakthrough of low-income people’s rural e-commerce entrepreneurship,and the multi-case study method was used to analyze the value reward of low-income people’s rural e-commerce start-ups in exploring the mechanisms of value creation.The following are the thesis’ major conclusions:The study on question one is based on the opportunity shaping viewpoint,which asserts that low-income people’s entrepreneurial opportunities are influenced by both external and internal elements in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.This study identifies three sorts of driving pathways for high rural e-commerce entrepreneurship opportunity shaping.The first type is government-led shaping,which indicates that in the situations where resource endowment is underdeveloped or nonexistent,the government can assist in shaping high entrepreneurial opportunities by improving infrastructure and market conditions and by focusing on the development of low-income people’s human capital.The second kind is a dual interaction model in which the government and potential entrepreneurial individuals shape each other.This setup demonstrates that the dual interaction between the government and prospective entrepreneurial participants is primarily responsible for the formation of high entrepreneurial opportunities.Market-driven shaping is the third type.This configuration implies that external factors such as market environment,resource endowment,and infrastructure shape high entrepreneurial opportunities,which are subsequently conveyed to potential entrepreneurial individuals and have an effect on their entrepreneurial intention.The study on question two is conducted via the lens of spatial connectedness.We argue that low-income people engaged in rural e-commerce entrepreneurship face the potential risk of local resource depletion.To enhance entrepreneurial capabilities,there is a need to transcend the limitations of the local spatial environment and access resources from beyond the immediate locality.The findings indicate that there are four driving pathways for high-performing rural e-commerce entrepreneurship to overcome resource constraints.Among them,the technology-driven breakthrough path suggested that when technological resources are advanced,rural e-commerce entrepreneurship implement by low-income people can compensate for the lack of local networks,intangible resources,natural resources,financial resources,and market resources.The financial resource breakthrough path under the market-led logic,posits that in counties with low intangible resources and insufficient natural and technical resources,the development and utilization of local natural resources and intangible resources is limited due to backward technical resources.In this case,rural e-commerce entrepreneurship implement by low-income people primarily activate local resources by connecting with external markets and increasing capital investment.The breakthrough path of capital and local network under the market-led logic asserts that in counties with low development and utilization of intangible resources and natural resources,rural e-commerce entrepreneurship implement by low-income people mainly leverage the local network advantages established in the early stage to connect with the external market and increase funds investment to stimulates resource development.The breakthrough path of intangible resources emphasizes the development and utilization of local intangible resources by low-income people’s rural e-commerce entrepreneurship,which may compensate for the deficiencies in local networks,natural resources,market resources,financial resources,and technical resources.The study on question three is based on the perspective of value creation through entrepreneurial enterprises to promote the resilient development of rural areas.The study found that,in the initial stage of value creation,rural e-commerce entrepreneurial enterprises among low-income people reshape their soft and hard competence through capacity enhancement and overcoming resource constraints.This lays the foundation for their growth and early-stage resilience development.In the intermediate stage of value creation,rural e-commerce entrepreneurial enterprises among low-income people promote the resilience development of the local rural e-commerce entrepreneurial ecosystem by addressing information asymmetry,implementing novel business models,and fostering collaborative division of labor.Rural e-commerce entrepreneurial enterprises among low-income people jointly fuel rural resilience growth in the final stages of value creation from three perspectives:economics,society,and environment.It is emphasized that this process of value creation is not a simple,linear manifestation based solely on income as the baseline condition.Instead,it involves a comprehensive balance of resilience among economic,social,and environmental aspects.The lack of resilience development in any of these aspects may weaken the value creation capability of rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among low-income people,thereby hindering opportunities for sustainable resilience development in rural areas.This thesis,based on the research findings,primarily provides research innovations in the following three areas: First,this thesis introduces forward the entrepreneurial opportunity shaping view,reveals the causally complex mechanisms shaping the opportunities for rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among low-income people.Due to the limited entrepreneurial resources available to low-income people,existing views on opportunity identification,opportunity creation,and a combination of both cannot comprehensively explain the sources of opportunities for rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among this demographic.Following the entrepreneurial ecosystem theory,this thesis presents the entrepreneurial opportunity shaping view from the perspective of ‘subject-environment’ interaction and holds that the entrepreneurial opportunity of rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among low-income people is the result of the comprehensive shaping of internal and external factors.Second,introducing the perspective of spatial connections into the study of resource constraint breakthroughs in rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among low-income people.Traditional views of resource patchwork and local embedment have the harm of resource exhaustion and over-embedment resulting in single resource dependence.The concept of spatial linkage provides a new way to obtain non-local resources beyond the local environment.At the same time,the introduction of this point of view has cross-field innovation.Third,the concept of resilience is introduced into the intersection of local entrepreneurship and rural development in this thesis,as well as expanding research on entrepreneurial returns in the theory of entrepreneurial value creation.While a few local researchers have demonstrated the rationale and viability of entrepreneurship among low-income people,the discussion on its value creation has mainly been limited to economic and social aspects.This thesis also reveals that low-income entrepreneurs not only tend to get and possess entrepreneurial profits after successful entrepreneurship,but strive to fully promote the resilient development of rural regions from economic,social,and environmental perspectives.Currently,China’s rural e-commerce development level ranks among the highest globally,providing a rich practical foundation for research on entrepreneurial opportunities shaping,breakthroughs in resource constraints,and value creation for rural e-commerce entrepreneurship among low-income people.However,entrepreneurship,being a high-risk activity,should raise caution among followers even in the high-yield field of rural e-commerce.On the one hand,the findings of this thesis may serve as practical assistance for local low-income people engaging in rural e-commerce entrepreneurship.On the other hand,they can serve as a reference for rural e-commerce entrepreneurship in other nations worldwide,particularly in developing countries.However,it is important to emphasize that this thesis’ conclusion is based on local practice investigation in China,and thus may have certain limitations in terms of universality.Rural e-commerce entrepreneurs from different nations or regions should adapt and develop strategies in light of their unique circumstances during the referencing process. |
PDF Full Text Request