Research On Farmers’ Social E-commerce Participation Behavior From The Perspective Of Social Embedding

With the support of rural revitalization strategy and digital village construction,digital transformation has continued to deepen in rural China.And digital infrastructure has been effectively improved.The penetration of the Internet into rural areas not only expands the social network of individuals,affects the lifestyle of rural residents,but also profoundly changes the traditional agricultural production and operation model.All kinds of Internet personal applications continue to develop,in the field of e-commerce,new formats represented by social e-commerce are becoming a strong driving force for the development of rural industries with wider category coverage and more application scenarios.Social e-commerce sales of agricultural products can integrate production,circulation and sales links,improve farmers’ market dominant position and broaden agricultural products sales channels.It is a vital means to connect small farmers with large markets.At the same time,the number of Taobao villages in the western region of China is only 1.6% of the eastern region,showing huge regional differences.With the withdrawal of traditional agricultural producers,the previous agricultural production and operation methods will also undergo corresponding changes.Therefore,in this context,this study discusses the role of real and virtual social networks on the participation behavior of farmers’ social e-commerce in underdeveloped areas in western China,the mechanism of their role and its subsequent impact on agricultural production and operation activities from the perspective of social embedding.It provides a new perspective for evaluating the development of rural e-commerce in the underdeveloped areas of western China in the whole process of agricultural production decision-making.From the perspective of social embedding,the popularity of the Internet has enabled individual farmers to be embedded in virtual and real social networks.So what is the impact of virtual and real social networks on farmers’ social e-commerce participation behavior? What is the impact of farmers’ participation in social e-commerce on their agricultural income and agricultural production inputs? What is the mechanism of social network on farmers’ social e-commerce participation behavior?By combing and summarizing the relevant concepts and literature research results,this study constructs a theoretical analysis framework of “social networks-farmers’ cognition-social e-commerce participation behavior” based on embedding theory,the SO-R theory,and the farmer behavior theory.Winter jujube growers in the winter jujube producing area of Dali facility in Shaanxi Province were selected as the research objects.In the empirical analysis,measurement methods and data processing methods such as endogenous switching regression model,counterfactual analysis,threshold regression model,binary logit regression model,and factor analysis method are comprehensively used.The paper aims to empirically analyze the role of social network on farmers’ participation in social e-commerce,the subsequent impact of participation in social ecommerce on agricultural production and operation,and the mechanism of social network influence on social e-commerce participation.The main conclusions of this study are as follows: Firstly,in terms of the impact of farmers’ social e-commerce participation on agricultural production and operation,social e-commerce participation has a positive effect on agricultural income and agricultural production input,and the effect is more obvious among farmers who did not participate.Farmers’ participation behavior in social e-commerce has significant scale heterogeneity in increasing agricultural income per unit area.When agricultural income increased,farmers in the participating group and non-participating group tended to increase fixed and variable agricultural production inputs,respectively,with structural heterogeneity.Secondly,in terms of the influencing factors of farmers’ social e-commerce participation behavior,neighborhood involvement,number of friends in social software and information dissemination all had a significant positive impact on farmers’ social ecommerce participation behavior,while information reception had a negative impact in it.In terms of cognitive factors,self-competence recognition significantly positively affected their participation behavior.Thirdly,from the perspective of the comprehensive impact of social network,neighborhood effect,network communication and network participation have a significant positive impact on farmers’ participation in social ecommerce.Interaction analysis shows that neighborhood effect and network participation complement each other.Finally,the analysis of the mechanism of social network on farmers’ social e-commerce participation behavior shows that both neighborhood effect and network participation promote farmers’ participation behavior through selfcompetence recognition,while the perception of revenue increase effect does not have a mediating role.Based on the above conclusions,the following policy suggestions are put forward:in terms of supporting policies for rural e-commerce,first of all,training and guidance on social e-commerce should be promoted in order to improve the ability level of rural households.Focus on enhancing the socialization of technology related to social ecommerce,and promote the sinking of e-commerce technology in rural areas by providing farmers with basic operation materials such as brochures and guidance videos,carrying out knowledge popularization such as training lectures and household guidance,and online and offline consultation activities.Secondly,it is indispensable to improve the construction of rural e-commerce supporting facilities and strengthen the supervision of agricultural production processes.With the government-led model and enterprises providing technical support,establish a county-level farmland information exchange platform,and accelerate the construction of infrastructure such as logistics and agricultural product sorting and processing sites.In terms of quality control of agricultural products,government departments should refer to the national pesticide limit standards,formulate pesticide residue limit standards and punishment measures for characteristic agricultural products,and strengthen quality and safety sampling in the whole process of agricultural product planting.Finally,in order to improve the initiative of farmers to participate in social e-commerce,it is also necessary to strengthen the publicity of typical cases of grassroots agricultural products social e-commerce and form a demonstration and leading role.