IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/agribz/v41y2025i1p238-259.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neighborhood effect, virtual social networks, and farmers' social e‐commerce participation behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Chan Wang
  • Xiao Wu
  • Tinggui Chen

Abstract

The development of social e‐commerce can integrate the production, circulation, and sales of agricultural products; realize the digitalization of the agricultural production process; and promote farmers' savings and profits. On the basis of the stimulus–organism–response theory and the embedding theories, microsurvey data of 302 farmers regarding the winter jujube production area of the Dali facility in the Shaanxi Province were used to empirically test the impact of neighborhood effect (NE) and virtual social networks on farmers' participation in social e‐commerce, and the interaction effect of the two aspects. Additionally, we analyzed its mechanism under the framework of “social networks‐farmers' cognition‐social e‐commerce participation behavior (SEPB).” The research results are as follows. First, neighborhood participation, social software friends, and information release have a significant positive impact on farmers' SEPB, whereas information reception has a negative impact. Second, the empirical results considering the comprehensive effects of various variables show that NE, network communication, and network participation (NP) can all promote farmers' participation in social e‐commerce, and NP is complementary to NE. Third, mechanism analysis shows that NE and NP produce partial mediating effect and complete mediating effect, respectively, through self‐competence recognition (SR), which in turn positively impacts the SEPB. In the heterogeneity analysis, for farmers with a plantation area of less than or equal to 0.447 ha, SR has a partial mediating effect on the process of NE affecting SEPB, whereas the motivating factor is NP. In terms of labor force structure, only the percentage of nonagricultural workers exceeds 0.253, NE and NP affect SEPB through SR. This study can provide a reference for farmers to rationally use their social networks, and guide the formulation of social e‐commerce support policies at the national level.

Suggested Citation

  • Chan Wang & Xiao Wu & Tinggui Chen, 2025. "Neighborhood effect, virtual social networks, and farmers' social e‐commerce participation behavior," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 238-259, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:41:y:2025:i:1:p:238-259
    DOI: 10.1002/agr.21885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21885
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/agr.21885?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. Christian E. Vazquez & Megan J. McBride & Katherine E. Hess & Catherine Cubbin & Sarah Kate Bearman & Esther J. Calzada, 2022. "Examining School and Neighborhood Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Childhood Obesity in the U.S," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-12, May.
    2. Dan Qiao & Ningjie Li & Li Cao & Desheng Zhang & Yanan Zheng & Tao Xu, 2022. "How Agricultural Extension Services Improve Farmers’ Organic Fertilizer Use in China? The Perspective of Neighborhood Effect and Ecological Cognition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    4. Eliyas Assefa & Zemen Ayalew & Hawlet Mohammed, 2022. "Impact of small-scale irrigation schemes on farmers livelihood, the case of Mekdela Woreda, North-East Ethiopia," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 2041259-204, December.
    5. Smirnov, Oleg A., 2010. "Modeling spatial discrete choice," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 292-298, September.
    6. Susan (Sixue) Jia & Xiaobing Xu, 2021. "Community‐level social capital and agricultural cooperatives: Evidence from Hebei, China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(4), pages 804-817, October.
    7. William Clark, 2013. "Neighborhood Effects Research: New Perspectives," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(1), pages 132-133, March.
    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. Fabrice Gilles & Sabina Issehnane & Florent Sari, 2022. "Using short-term jobs as a way to find a regular job. What kind of role for local context?," TEPP Working Paper 2022-07, TEPP.
    2. H Peyton Young, 2014. "The Evolution of Social Norms," Economics Series Working Papers 726, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Ruomeng Cui & Dennis J. Zhang & Achal Bassamboo, 2019. "Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1216-1235, March.
    4. Gautier, Pieter & van Vuuren, Aico & Siegmann, Arjen, 2007. "The Effect of the Theo van Gogh Murder on House Prices in Amsterdam," CEPR Discussion Papers 6175, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Dostie, Benoit & Jayaraman, Rajshri, 2006. "Determinants of School Enrollment in Indian Villages," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 405-421, January.
    6. Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew & Gerber, Nicolas & Matz, Julia Anna, 2018. "Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 321-335.
    7. Yamada, Katsunori & Sato, Masayuki, 2013. "Another avenue for anatomy of income comparisons: Evidence from hypothetical choice experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 35-57.
    8. Toni Mora & Beatriz G. Lopez‐Valcarcel, 2018. "Breakfast choice: An experiment combining a nutritional training workshop targeting adolescents and the promotion of unhealthy products," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 306-319, February.
    9. Peter Bergman, 2020. "Nudging Technology Use: Descriptive and Experimental Evidence from School Information Systems," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(4), pages 623-647, Fall.
    10. Ali Palali & Jan C. Van ours, 2017. "Love Conquers all but Nicotine: Spousal Peer Effects on the Decision to Quit Smoking," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1710-1727, December.
    11. Sandy Fréret & Denis Maguain, 2017. "The effects of agglomeration on tax competition: evidence from a two-regime spatial panel model on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(6), pages 1100-1140, December.
    12. Francesco Amodio & Miguel A. Martinez-Carrasco, 2023. "Workplace Incentives and Organizational Learning," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 453-478.
    13. Wei He & Qian Wang, 2020. "The peer effect of corporate financial decisions around split share structure reform in China," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(3), pages 474-493, July.
    14. Kiichi Tokuoka, 2017. "Is stock investment contagious among siblings?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1505-1528, June.
    15. Adam S. Booij & Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2017. "Ability Peer Effects in University: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(2), pages 547-578.
    16. Andersson, Fredrik W. & Bokenblom, Mattias & Brantingson, Staffan & Brännström, Susanne Gullberg & Wall, Johan, 2011. "Sick listing—Partly a family phenomenon?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 496-502.
    17. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2008. "Detection Of Local Interactions From The Spatial Pattern Of Names In France," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 67-95, February.
    18. Feng, Yao, 2011. "Local spillovers and learning from neighbors: Evidence from durable adoptions in rural China," MPRA Paper 33924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Awudu Abdulai, 2023. "Information acquisition and the adoption of improved crop varieties," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(4), pages 1049-1062, August.
    20. Fishman, Arthur & Fishman, Ram & Gneezy, Uri, 2019. "A tale of two food stands: Observational learning in the field," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 101-108.

    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:wly:agribz:v:41:y:2025:i:1:p:238-259. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6297 .

    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.