Research on rural e-commerce and influential factors of product diversification: Based on the field investigation and analysis of taobao villages in Zhejiang province

Abstract

With the rapid development of e-commerce, Taobao village has become one of the most influential economic geography phenomena in China. However, little is known about how to promote product diversification of Taobao villages as yet. Based on the field research data of 282 Taobao villages in Zhejiang Province, this study measured the ability of Taobao villages to apply e-commerce to realize path creation from the aspects of vertical diversification and horizontal diversification of products, and analyzed the improvement of product diversification in Taobao villages after the introduction of e-commerce. This study constructed the influential factor models of product vertical and horizontal diversification improvement in Taobao villages, which include the ordinary least square (OLS) model and spatial econometric models. The mechanisms of the models were also analyzed. We found that: 1) The overall improvement of product diversification in Taobao villages is polarized and the improvements of vertical diversification and horizontal diversification are roughly the same. It was believed that in 40.4% and 42.6% of the villages the degrees of product vertical diversification and horizontal diversification have been improved greatly or very greatly since they became Taobao villages, while in 28.7% and 32.6% of the villages the improvement is small or very small. 2) The spatial agglomeration characteristics of improvement of product diversification in Taobao village of Zhejiang Province are obvious. The high-value gathering points of improvement of product vertical diversification are mainly located in Lin'an, Huzhou, Cixi, Yuyao, and other regions. The high-value gathering points of improvement of horizontal diversification are located in the Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou area, Cixi, as well as Yuyao. The low-value gathering points of improvement of both horizontal diversification and vertical diversification are mainly located in Yiwu City. 3) The result of OLS model shows that the improvement of vertical diversification of products is significantly positively correlated with product deepening processing and policy support. 4) The result of spatial error model (SEM) shows a significant positive correlation between improvement of product horizontal diversification and mechanized operation level, and a significant negative correlation with the establishment of e-commerce associations.