Agglomeration and Spatial Distribution of E-Commerce Sector in China: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

The research intends to examine the pattern of e-commerce and to investigate the clustering of e-commerce activities in the Jiangsu Province of China. The development of “Taobao villages” has become a new growth pattern for the economy of rural areas in China. This typical model of e-commerce industry agglomeration has generated huge sales, which is not only important for local economic development but also has some implications for other places with underdeveloped e-commerce industries. The proposed study combines theory and empirical evidences based on panel data generated from “Taobao villages” in all 13 regions of Jiangsu Province, China. To explore the spatial distribution and economic returns of e-commerce in the perspectives of economic agglomeration, data of five years—2016 to 2020—is exploited. Samples of regions are selected based on different agglomeration types. The type of e-commerce industry agglomeration in the form of “Taobao villages” is measured by constructing a spatial weight matrix. Using the facts and figures of the five years, a Moran scatterplot and a Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) cluster map are drawn. From the perspective of economic agglomeration, the e-commerce industry in Jiangsu Province presents three basic patterns: High-High cluster, Low-High cluster, and Low-Low cluster. In addition, the Location Quotient (LQ) was used to quantitatively characterize the agglomeration of “Taobao villages.” Findings of the analysis revealed that there is a positive spatial correlation between the clusters of Taobao villages, mainly between the H-H cluster and L-L cluster. The results are summarized and the most useful solutions for promoting the e-commerce industry in China. The empirical model proposed has great significance in e-commerce and may be used to enhance rural economy of China.