Influence of Information Ability on E-commerce Behavior of Farmers and Its Spatial Dependence

This paper uses the Probit and Logit models to analyze how the information ability of farmers influences their e-commerce behavior based on a questionnaire survey with 378 farmers, and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) is used to verify the spatial dependence in the e-commerce behavior of farmers. The research results indicate that: the e-commerce behaviors of farmers are significantly influenced by the information awareness and information access in information ability and also by the educational degree, number of cell phone contacts, and size of online social groups in endowment differences. In addition, the e-commerce behavior of farmers is influenced by the information access of neighboring farmers. Estimates of the direct effects, indirect effects, and total effects of different variables on the e-commerce behavior of farmers show that the size of online social groups has the greatest influence on the e-commerce behavior of farmers and thus is an important factor in endowment differences that promotes the e-commerce behavior of farmers. The empirical results of this paper reveal the heterogeneity of endogenous drivers behind the e-commerce behavior of farmers and provide a reference and policy recommendations for offering targeted training on modern information skills to farmers and promoting the deepening development of agricultural e-commerce and the construction of digital villages.