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The effects of e-commerce adoption on the financial performance of agri-food enterprises in China

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Abstract

This study empirically analyzes the impacts of e-commerce adoption by Chinese agri-food companies on their financial performance, with a nationwide dataset of Chinese agri-food companies. Results show that, on average, the adoption of e-commerce can significantly improve the financial performance of Chinese agri-food companies by 20%. The impacts of e-commerce adoption on financial performance are heterogeneous regarding enterprise scale, industry type, enterprise ownership, enterprise location, and enterprise maturity. In light of these findings, this study discusses the suggestions to encourage e-commerce adoption and improve the financial performance of companies from the perspectives of business operators and policymakers.

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Notes

  1. Our focus is not on establishing causal differences in the impact of e-commerce adoption across different enterprises. Instead, we explored correlations to illuminate how enterprises, based on size, ownership, location, industry type and maturity, responded differently to e-commerce adoption.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72103180; 72161147001, 71861147002),  National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences (21&ZD091, 21&ZD092), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (S20230068), the Ministry of Education of China (22JJD790077), the Zhejiang Province Soft Science Research Program (“Research on the Mechanism, Effects, and Policy Optimization of Digitization Empowering Value Addition throughout the Agricultural Industry Chain”, No. 2024C35001), Zhejiang Province Philosophy and Social Science Planning Leading Talent Cultivation Project General Subproject (No. 24YJRC01ZD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Academy of Rural Development, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Chen Ji & Wen Lin

  2. School of Public Health, Peking University, Bei**g, China

    **aodong Dong

  3. China Center for Health Development Studies, Peking University, Bei**g, China

    **aodong Dong

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  1. Chen Ji
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  2. **aodong Dong
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Correspondence to Wen Lin.

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Ji, C., Dong, X. & Lin, W. The effects of e-commerce adoption on the financial performance of agri-food enterprises in China. Electron Commer Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-024-09810-z

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