Effects and mechanisms of rural E‐commerce clusters on households' entrepreneurship behavior in China

• Published in: Growth and change Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 1588 - 1610
• Main Authors: Mei, Yan, Mao, Danling, Lu, Yuhui, Chu, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lexington Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2020
• Subjects: Behavior; Clustering; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Households; Innovations; Leadership; Provinces; Trade; Villages; China
• ISSN: 0017-4815; 1468-2257
• DOI: 10.1111/grow.12424

The vigorous development of rural E‐commerce reveals a powerful pattern of economic clustering. Recently, many Taobao Villages have formed in more than 80% of the provinces in rural China, and increasingly households are using E‐commerce for entrepreneurial innovation in Taobao Villages. However, the effect and mechanism of the Taobao Village model on households' entrepreneurship behavior remain unclear. Using survey data and structural equation modeling, we analyzed the factors of households' entrepreneurship behavior and investigated the mechanism of rural E‐commerce clustering on the households' entrepreneurship behavior in Taobao Villages. The results show that: (1) rural E‐commerce clusters stimulated entrepreneurial enthusiasm and increased entrepreneurial behavior; (2) local resource endowment, entrepreneurial atmosphere and culture, threshold for entrepreneurship, and demonstrative leadership had significant positive effects on households' entrepreneurship behavior; (3) external environmental support, including government, and external business environment support had significant positive effects on E‐commerce development. All these results indicate that rural E‐commerce clusters promote households' entrepreneurship behavior.