E-commerce digitalization for sustainable agricultural and rural development: models and pathways
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study adopts the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework as its core meso-level integrated explanatory framework, embedding digital empowerment theory to guide variable selection and causal logic. Meanwhile, it classifies the core conditional variables into technological capabilities, organizational capabilities, and environmental/structural factors, avoiding the stacking of practical dimensions in variable selection. We find that sustainable agricultural and rural development (SARD) outcomes are not driven by single factors but by the synergistic effect of multiple configurations. Analysis identifies three distinct pathways: digital technology and agile response-driven, service and channel optimization, and comprehensive synergy. The most effective pathway synergistically combines high channel integration, high digitalization of service experience, high marketing response agility, and high precision in consumer insight. These pathways enhance agricultural marketing efficiency and advance SARD across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Furthermore, substitution effects exist among some auxiliary factors; for instance, depth of digital technology application and precision of consumer insight can be functionally equivalent in the digital technology and agile response-driven pathway. The core theoretical contribution of this study is breaking through the traditional linear cognition of single-factor driving in the research of digital agriculture and SARD, which is prevalent in both domestic and international academia. By adopting the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method, we identify and theorize three typical configurational driving archetypes of e-commerce-driven SARD, namely Technology-Agile type, Service-Optimized type and Comprehensive Synergy type, reveal the mechanisms of multiple concurrent causality and equifinal paths in the digital empowerment of SARD, supplement the configurational analysis perspective for the digital empowerment theory, and provide micro-practical support for the sustainable transition theory in the context of global digital agriculture and platformization development. We recommend that agricultural enterprises strengthen digital technology, build distinctive product identities based on consumer insights, and enhance service experiences to foster sustainable transitions.
Author: Qian Shan
Institution: Beijing Open University
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,353
OpenAlex ID: W7214123656