Research On The E-Commerce Adoption And Income-Increasing Effects Of New Agricultural Business Entities

As the new form of combination between Internet and agriculture,e-commerce of agricultural products is an inevitable trend of economic and social development.Because of the unique business patterns,e-commerce has eliminated the defects of the agricultural industry,facilitated the standardization of agricultural production and management,reduced the intermediate links in conventional channels for agricultural product circulation,and expanded the price range of agricultural products.Besides,consumers' sense of trust has also been enhanced by the openness and transparency of online information.Therefore,state government and local governments have introduced relevant policies for integrating e-commerce,agricultural industry and rural regions,aiming to promote agricultural informatization and modernization through electronic commerce.In the academic community,it is generally believed that new agricultural business entities indicate certain levels of systematization,scale and socialization.They also have the pioneering and innovative resources for agricultural development compared with ordinary peasant households.If e-commerce of agricultural products is generally adopted by new agricultural business entities,“online sales of agricultural products” can be popularized.In addition,e-commerce can be applied in agriculture more extensively.However,according to some surveys,less than half of the new agricultural business entities have truly implemented e-commerce of agricultural products.The favorable policy of “poverty relief through e-commerce” has achieved remarkable success in rural regions due to the continuous efforts by governments at all levels.Why e-commerce of agricultural products is still not extensively applied is an important social phenomenon that is worth further consideration and pondering.Therefore,how to promote new agricultural business entities to adopt e-commerce of agricultural products become practical problems that are urgently to be solved.The problem-solving ideas of this research are as follows.At first,recognize and distinguish factors that prevent new agricultural business entities from applying e-commerce of agricultural products.Then deeply analyze the fundamental reasons to clearly get the basic conditions to apply e-commerce of agricultural products;Next,the focus shall be put on the promotion of increasing income,to enhance the source power of the adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products,the relationship between theadoption of e-commerce of agricultural products and the income changes is analyzed;Finally,in combination with two aspects of the condition of adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products and increasing income effectively,a path to promote the new agricultural business entities' adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products is discussed.So,“what are the factors that prevent new agricultural business entities from applying e-commerce of agricultural products?” “Can apply e-commerce of agricultural products make new agricultural business entities get increasing income growth?” “For different types of new agricultural business entities,are their income changes different when adopting e-commerce of agricultural products?” “Does ‘e-commerce absorption'degree of agricultural products influences income-increasing effect?” “If the application e-commerce of agricultural products can achieve income-increasing effect,what is its function mechanism?” Questions like these are important scientific problems that need to be given deep and systematic illustration.Based on this,the research takes “the decision to apply e-commerce of agricultural products----measurement of income changes----the analysis of increment mechanism” as the logical thread.The layout of the thesis is as follows.In the first part(chapter1-3),it introduces the origin,relevant theories,and document analysis in the hope of introducing the research purpose,basic thinking,methods and potential innovations of the research topic;Meanwhile,through using literature research methods and survey study methods,it introduces relevant theories on income-increasing effect produced by new agricultural business entities through applying e-commerce of agricultural products.Then it summarizes and analyzes the situation of applying e-commerce of agricultural products by new agricultural business entities so as to summarize the situation,characteristics,modes and problems in developing e-commerce of agricultural products.In the second part(chapter 4 and chapter 5),it mainly illustrates the factors that prevent new agricultural business entities from applying e-commerce of agricultural products.Through integrating TRA,TTF and TOE with other technology adoption theory models,the thesis constructs an influential factor model for new agricultural business entities to apply e-commerce of agricultural products.Then through using a multi-group structural equation model,it compares and analyzes the influence factors that prevent different types of new agricultural business entities from applying e-commerce of agricultural products.In the third part(chapter 6),it mainly analyzes whether income changes can beproduced when new agricultural business entities carry out e-commerce of agricultural products.Based on transaction cost theory and technology treadmill test,aiming at the influence of applying e-commerce of agricultural products on income taken by new agricultural business entities,an income determining equation is set,which separately measures income changes in family farms and large and specialized agricultural family operations through applying e-commerce of agricultural products and income changes in farming cooperatives and agribusinesses through applying e-commerce of agricultural products to motivate farmers or contract with them.Based on the resource-based view,it constructs an intermediate effect model “adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products----dynamic capability---income-increasing effect”,and makes environmental dynamics the regulated variable to reveal the “black box” mechanism between the inherent conversion of applying e-commerce of agricultural products and income-increasing effect.In the fourth part(chapter 7),the concept of e-commerce assimilation of agricultural products is raised based on the IT Assimilation Theory.The process of new agricultural business entities' adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products is divided into three dimensions of low,middle and high levels according to different degrees of e-commerce assimilation.The relationships of incomes changes in different level are observed.In the fifth part(chapter 8),relevant countermeasures and suggestions are raised for the factors that could restrict the new agricultural business entities' adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products and impede the display of e-commerce of agricultural products' s effect in increasing income.Through carrying out the research above,the following conclusions are achieved:(1)In promoting new agricultural business entities to carry out e-commerce,some general conditions,like the talent with e-commerce operational capacity,favourable logistics transportation in the region,enough fund needed in carrying out e-commerce and policies support,should be satisfied.Family farms and large and specialized agricultural family operations pay more attention to manpower resource and policies support,while farming cooperatives are greatly influenced by the effect and fund.(2)The investment in the application of e-commerce of agricultural products will be helpful to get added income.However,at present,it has less income-increasing effect than the input of other factors,like the land area,labor force and brand agricultural products.At the advanced stage of“e-commerce absorption” of agricultural products,scale effect of internet begins to appear and the decreasing marginal cost intensifies the income-increasing effect ofe-commerce of agricultural products.(3)Investment to human capital in e-commerce of agricultural products has more influences on income growth than capital investment;When family farms and large and specialized agricultural family operations implement e-commerce of agricultural products,income-increasing effect they get is more prominent than other new agricultural business entities.(4)The reason why adopting e-commerce of agricultural products can produce income-increasing effect is that its circulation channel,transaction expenses and information interconnection all play a part in improving business performance.Among the ways mentioned above,dynamic capability actively plays an intermediate role and environmental dynamics positively regulate the mesomeric effect.(5)Some factors can greatly affect the income-increasing effect of e-commerce of agricultural products,like the understanding of e-commerce policy,fans communities,the entrance of e-commerce incubation base,with pollution-free agricultural products and green food and organic agricultural products and geographical indications of agricultural products.Although the new agricultural business entities' subjective initiative is the fundamental condition for e-commerce of agricultural products achieving increased income,the reasonable coordination and configuration of resources during each levels of the adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products is a key in of obtaining increased income.(6)If the income-increasing effect of e-commerce of agricultural products needs to be intensified,the dynamic capability of new agricultural business entities in applying e-commerce of agricultural products should be improved,that is to say,“e-commerce adaptability” transformation in agricultural production and management should be carried out.The potential innovations of the research are mainly shown in the following aspects:(1)In this paper,includes the attributes of agricultural products,agricultural production and management processes,characteristics of agricultural production operators into the theoretical category,a systematic analysis framework is constructed for e-commerce adoption of agricultural products where the dynamic cycle mechanism is clarified“adoption of e-commerce of agricultural products? e-commerce application capability enhancement? income effect generation? wider and deeper e-commerce adoption of agricultural products”.(2)A comparative analysis of new agricultural business entities is carried out by classification,so as to present diverse characteristics of e-commerce adoption and income increasing effect of agricultural products among varied agricultural operators.(3)The IT assimilation theory is introduced to explain the staged differences inincome-increasing effects due to new agricultural business entities have started e-commerce of agricultural products,proving the positive impact of e-commerce of agricultural products assimilation on income-increasing effects,It also clarifies the intensity of the role of resource allocation at various stages in income-increasing effect.(4)The concept “e-commerce adaptability of agricultural products” is put forward tentatively to provide a possibly innovative theoretical thinking on the application level of e-commerce of agricultural products from the perspective of new agricultural business entities in a scientific evaluation.