How Does Internet Use Promote Farmer Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Rural China

Entrepreneurship and innovation are important driving forces for economic sustainable development. Despite the rapid popularity of the Internet in rural areas, whether—and if so, how—the Internet use may affect farmer entrepreneurship remains a key research gap. This paper studies the impact of the use of the Internet on farmer entrepreneurship and its mechanism by using Probit model, the Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) method and China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) dataset from 2014 to 2018. It is found that: (1) Use of the Internet has a positive impact on farmer entrepreneurship, and this result remains robust after addressing endogeneity. (2) Necessity entrepreneurship is more likely to be affected by use of the Internet than opportunity entrepreneurship. (3) Use of the Internet can significantly influence necessity entrepreneurship by affecting farmers’ risk attitude, social capital and information acquisition, while opportunity entrepreneurship is not affected by these mediating effects. (4) Among three mediating effects, the effect of social capital accounts for the largest contribution to the impact of the use of the Internet on farmer entrepreneurship. Our empirical findings could provide theoretical references for policies or reforms intended to promote entrepreneurship in rural regions.