Influence Of Social Networks On The Income Of Specialized Apple Growers

In existing resources environment,how to give full play to advantages of specialized farmers who are the main force for the development of modern agriculture,and realize the continuous growth of efficiency and agricultural income is the key to booming agricultural industry and activating rural economy.However,due to thin rural financial markets,the shortage of capital has become a major factor of hindering specialized farmers from increasing investment and expanding land scale,which inhibit the improvement of specialized farmers' agricultural income.As an informal system to supplement the market mechanism in rural society,social networks play a role in adjusting the structure and efficiency of resource allocation,which has a non-negligible impact on operating status and agricultural income for specialized farmers.Thus,what is the internal mechanism that social networks affecting the change of agricultural income for specialized farmers? How do social networks affect the allocation efficiency of capital for specialized farmers? Therefore,this paper analyzes the influencing mechanism of social networks on income using the cases of specialized apple growers to explore the resources embedded in the rural social network,help alleviate the financial constraints faced by farmers,and explore ways and paths to optimize the agricultural operating environment of and improve the level of income.On the basis of summarizing and evaluating relevant classic,frontier and progressive literature,this paper employing mostly normative analysis analyzes the impact of social networks on income for specialized apple growers and evaluates the differences of its impact in the different land scales.The direct and indirect effects of social networks on income for specialized apple growers are analyzed using the survey data of 698 specialized apple growers from the advantageous regions of apple and the new analyzing procedures of mediating effects.According to the trend and characteristics of large-scale operation for specialized apple growers,the impact of social networks on income is analyzed and compared in different sample groups for specialized apple growers.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:1.Social networks can significantly promote income for specialized apple growers.Social network index,network size index and relationship strength index can significantly improve income for specialized apple growers.However,with the expansion of land scale,the "role space of social network" is compressed,and consequently,social networks' role in promoting income for specialized apple growers is gradually weakened.2.Compared with informal credit,social networks have a stronger positive effect on formal credit.Social network index,network size index and relationship strength index can significantly promote formal credit access and informal credit access for specialized apple growers,but the positive effect of formal credit is stronger than that of informal credit,because the size of informal credit,compared with formal credit,is smaller and informal credit put more emphasizes on the extent of trust rather than social relationships.In addition,with the expansion of land scale,the positive effect of social networks on formal credit is gradually enhanced,while that on informal credit has not changed significantly.3.There is a substitutive relationship between the impact of formal credit on income and the impact of informal credit on income for specialized apple growers.Both formal credit and informal credit have a positive impact on income for specialized apple growers by improving capital liquidity.However,due to the lack of effectiveness of rural formal financial markets,specialized apple growers usually take informal credit as an alternative when the supply of formal credit funds is insufficient.4.Compared with informal credit,formal credit has a weaker mediating effect for the impact of social networks on income for specialized apple growers,but its differences among the three sample groups with different sizes are more significant.Both formal credit and informal credit have partial mediating effects for the impact of social network on income for specialized apple growers.However,as a main way for specialized apple growers to obtain investment,the mediating effects of informal credit on income are more significant than that of formal credit on income.However,with the expansion of land scale,the intermediary effect of social networks for the impact of formal credit on income gradually increases.Based on the theoretical and empirical analysis conclusions,this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions from the perspective of guiding farmers to develop and integrate into the social networks,promoting and cultivating professional farmers' management system,regulating and improving the efficiency of agricultural support services of formal agricultural financial institutions,innovating and standardizing the organization of informal finance and market order,and improving the social security system of farmers.