IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0342687.html

Businessmen-driven village governance: A viable path for rural collective economic development?

Author

Listed:
  • Yuyuan Yi
  • Furong Chen
  • Lulu Yuan
  • Caiyan Liu
  • Yu Hu
  • Yifu Zhao

Abstract

In recent years, businessmen-driven village governance (BVG) has become increasingly common in rural grassroots governance in China, though its feasibility and impact remain subjects of academic debate. Using micro-survey data collected in 15 provinces from 2021 to 2023 in China, our study examines the effect of BVG on the rural collective economy. Results show that BVG significantly increases rural collective income, with village secretaries who were former business owners exerting a greater positive effect than those with only self-employed experience. Mechanism analysis reveals that government project-based support and rural entrepreneurship activity partially mediate this effect. Moreover, clan network, as an informal institution, does not significantly moderate the effect of BVG on rural collective income, whereas the formal democratic consultation system exhibits a significantly negative moderating effect. Further analysis shows that village secretaries with self-employment experience do not significantly affect farmers’ trust in village cadres, whereas those with business owner backgrounds significantly enhance such trust. This suggests that BVG does not necessarily provoke a trust crisis and may instead help strengthen grassroots trust. Our study provides a theoretical and empirical discussion of the advantages and limitations of BVG, envisioned to provide insights for village cadres selection and governance optimization.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuyuan Yi & Furong Chen & Lulu Yuan & Caiyan Liu & Yu Hu & Yifu Zhao, 2026. "Businessmen-driven village governance: A viable path for rural collective economic development?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(2), pages 1-22, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0342687
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0342687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0342687
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0342687&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0342687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brennan Lowery & John Dagevos & Ratana Chuenpagdee & Kelly Vodden, 2020. "Storytelling for sustainable development in rural communities: An alternative approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1813-1826, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.
    2. Siow‐Kian Tan & Siow‐Hooi Tan, 2023. "A creative place‐making framework – Story‐creation for a sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 3673-3691, October.
    3. repec:osf:africa:t3anz_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Saastamoinen, Uula & Vikström, Suvi & Helminen, Ville & Lyytimäki, Jari & Nurmio, Kimmo & Nyberg, Elina & Rantala, Salla, 2022. "The limits of spatial data? Sense-making within the development and different uses of Finnish urban-rural classification," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    5. Purvis, Ben & Genovese, Andrea, 2023. "Better or different? A reflection on the suitability of indicator methods for a just transition to a circular economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    6. Liu, Dianfeng & Li, Fuxiang & Qiu, Mingli & Zhang, Yang & Zhao, Xiang & He, Jianhua, 2024. "An integrated framework for measuring sustainable rural development towards the SDGs," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    7. Jari Lyytimäki, 2023. "Storylines nailing or failing sustainability: Energy, mining and mobility as narrative arenas for societal transition," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 170-179, February.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0342687. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.