IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i23p10220-d1526846.html

Digital Environment, Digital Literacy, and Farmers’ Entrepreneurial Behavior: A Discussion on Bridging the Digital Divide

Author

Listed:
  • Jiaojiao Chen

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 625014, China)

  • Hongkai Hou

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 625014, China)

  • Zujun Liao

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 625014, China
    Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, Chengdu 625014, China)

  • Li Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 610032, China)

Abstract

To promote sustainable rural development and digital transformation and based on 2018 county-level digital rural indices and microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPSs), this study examines how the digital environment impacts the entrepreneurial behavior of rural households. The results of the study were as follows: (1) The optimization of the digital environment significantly increases entrepreneurial possibilities for farmers, indicating that, the higher the digital rural development index, the easier it is for farmers to start their own businesses. (2) As digital village construction progresses, the impacts of digital hard environments on rural household entrepreneurship decrease, while the influence of digital soft environments increases. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that digital literacy facilitates farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior through the digital environment. Farmers with stronger intentions to participate in commercial activities and information acquisition more actively utilize the digital environment to seek business opportunities and make entrepreneurial decisions. (4) Further analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between the “second-level digital divide”, represented by digital literacy, and the development of digital villages. (5) To fully implement China’s Digital Rural Strategy, it is crucial to not only establish digital infrastructure but to also enhance farmers’ digital literacy and promote the development of a digital soft environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiaojiao Chen & Hongkai Hou & Zujun Liao & Li Wang, 2024. "Digital Environment, Digital Literacy, and Farmers’ Entrepreneurial Behavior: A Discussion on Bridging the Digital Divide," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10220-:d:1526846
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10220/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10220/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xiumei Wang & Yongjian Huang & Yingying Zhao & Jingxuan Feng, 2023. "Digital Revolution and Employment Choice of Rural Labor Force: Evidence from the Perspective of Digital Skills," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Shijiang Chen & Mingyue Liang & Wen Yang, 2022. "Does Digital Financial Inclusion Reduce China’s Rural Household Vulnerability to Poverty: An Empirical Analysis From the Perspective of Household Entrepreneurship," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    3. Satish Nambisan, 2017. "Digital Entrepreneurship: Toward a Digital Technology Perspective of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 1029-1055, November.
    4. Li, Fanghua & Zang, Dungang & Chandio, Abbas Ali & Yang, Dongmei & Jiang, Yuansheng, 2023. "Farmers' adoption of digital technology and agricultural entrepreneurial willingness: Evidence from China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Zhou, Di & Zha, Fangjing & Qiu, Wenyan & Zhang, Xiaoru, 2024. "Does digital literacy reduce the risk of returning to poverty? Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6).
    6. Wei Chen & Quanzhong Wang & Hong Zhou, 2022. "Digital Rural Construction and Farmers’ Income Growth: Theoretical Mechanism and Micro Experience Based on Data from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-21, September.
    7. Ziqiang Liu & Yihao Zhang & Hongyi Li, 2021. "Digital Inclusive Finance, Multidimensional Education, and Farmers’ Entrepreneurial Behavior," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Hindawi, vol. 2021, pages 1-13, October.
    8. Plekhanov, Dmitry & Franke, Henrik & Netland, Torbjørn H., 2023. "Digital transformation: A review and research agenda," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 821-844.
    9. Lythreatis, Sophie & Singh, Sanjay Kumar & El-Kassar, Abdul-Nasser, 2022. "The digital divide: A review and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    10. Yan Mei & Jingyi Miao & Yuhui Lu, 2022. "Digital Villages Construction Accelerates High-Quality Economic Development in Rural China through Promoting Digital Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-29, October.
    11. Shaoyang Zhao & Mengxue Li & Xiang Cao, 2024. "Empowering Rural Development: Evidence from China on the Impact of Digital Village Construction on Farmland Scale Operation," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, June.
    12. Putra Hilmi Prayitno & Sheerad Sahid & Muhammad Hussin, 2022. "Social Capital and Household Economic Welfare: Do Entrepreneurship, Financial and Digital Literacy Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Zhang, Jian & Wang, Dongqiang & Ji, Ming & Yu, Kuo & Qi, Mosha & Wang, Hui, 2024. "Digital literacy, relative poverty, and common prosperity for rural households," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yanling Wang & Zhijun Li & Guangsheng Zhang, 2025. "Could Digital Literacy Transform Farmers With E-Commerce Entrepreneurial Intentions Into Actual Entrepreneurs? The Moderating Effect of Organizational Support," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(4), pages 21582440251, December.
    2. Muchen Li & Shining Guo & Qianyi Zhang, 2025. "The Impact of Central Bank Digital Currency on Rural Revitalization: An Empirical Analysis of Data from 284 Cities in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    3. Kewei Gao & Guanghua Qiao, 2025. "How Social Capital Drives Farmers’ Multi-Stage E-Commerce Participation: Evidence from Inner Mongolia, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, February.
    4. Dimitrios Petropoulos & Georgios A. Deirmentzoglou & Nikolaos Apostolopoulos & Bas Paris & Dimitris Michas & Athanasios T. Balafoutis & Elena Athanasopoulou & Leonardo Nibbi & Hailong Li & Lara Carval, 2025. "Digital and Entrepreneurial Competencies for the Bioeconomy: Perceptions and Training Needs of Agricultural Professionals in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jianling Qi & Huanjiao Li & Wenlong Li & Jing Jin & Feng Ye, 2024. "The Influence of Digital Skills on Farm Households’ Vulnerability to Relative Poverty: Implications for the Sustainability of Farmers’ Livelihoods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Cunjing Liu & Ying Dong & Huiai Yuan & Yuen Cai & Zhezhou Li & Banglu He, 2025. "Research on the Role Mechanism and Path of Digital Technology Empowering Farmers’ Common Prosperity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-24, September.
    3. Shao, KaiChao & Ma, Ruixue & Kamber, Joseph, 2023. "An in-depth analysis of the entrepreneurship of rural Chinese mothers and the digital inclusive finance," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(7).
    4. Yu Shuai & Wenjing Li & Fubin Huang, 2025. "The impact of internet use on the well-being of rural residents: evidence from formerly impoverished areas in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Liu, Muziyun & Wang, Jinyu & Li, Hai, 2025. "Can farmers’ digital economy participation promote their conservation tillage behavior under the perspective of agricultural industry chain?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Zeng, Yuan & Yang, Yusen & Wang, Chun & Zou, Jianke, 2025. "Exploring the digital divide–poverty link: Roles of education and family dependency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PC).
    7. Wang, Shumin & Qu, Caiping & Yin, Lingyan, 2025. "Digital literacy, labor migration and employment, and rural household income disparities," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. Bachmann, Nina & Rose, Robert & Maul, Valeska & Hölzle, Katharina, 2024. "What makes for future entrepreneurs? The role of digital competencies for entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    9. Hanjie Wang & Hao Leng & Minglu Yuan, 2025. "From opportunity to inequality: how the rural digital economy shapes intra-rural income distribution," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Yunwen Zhou & Zhijian Cai & Jie Wang, 2023. "Digital Rural Construction and Rural Household Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-17, September.
    11. Yangbin Liu & Gaoyan Liu & Longjunjiang Huang & Hui Xiao & Xiaojin Liu, 2025. "Impact of Digital Infrastructure on Farm Households’ Scale Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-20, July.
    12. Wang, Juan, 2025. "Can digital literacy improve income mobility? Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(6).
    13. Qiu, Jiuyun & Cheng, Lei & Hu, Qiwen & Wang, Peigang, 2025. "How digital and social isolation drive frailty transitions in middle-aged and elderly adults populations: a seven-year multicohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 383(C).
    14. Magnus Schückes & Tobias Gutmann, 2021. "Why do startups pursue initial coin offerings (ICOs)? The role of economic drivers and social identity on funding choice," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1027-1052, August.
    15. Muhammad Farooq Islam & Ozge Can, 2024. "Integrating digital and sustainable entrepreneurship through business models: a bibliometric analysis," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    16. Boeker, Warren & Howard, Michael D. & Basu, Sandip & Sahaym, Arvin, 2021. "Interpersonal relationships, digital technologies, and innovation in entrepreneurial ventures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 495-507.
    17. Jin, Laiqun & Dai, Jiaying & Jiang, Weijie & Cao, Kairui, 2023. "Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Alessandro Margherita & Emanuele Banchi & Alfredo Biffi & Gianluca di Castri & Rocco Morelli, 2022. "Beyond Total Cost Management (TCM) to Systemic Value Management (SVM): Transformational Trends and a Research Manifesto for an Evolving Discipline," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, October.
    19. Stefano D’Angelo & Angelo Cavallo & Antonio Ghezzi & Francesco Di Lorenzo, 2024. "Understanding corporate entrepreneurship in the digital age: a review and research agenda," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(12), pages 3719-3774, December.
    20. Cong Cheng & Hongfang Cui, 2024. "Combining digital and legacy technologies: firm digital transformation strategies—evidence from Chinese manufacturing companies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10220-:d:1526846. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.