ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1599629
High-quality development and rural revitalization: The role of rural e-commerce
Provisionally accepted
- Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
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Amidst China's modernization drive, rural revitalization (RR) is a cornerstone strategy. This study investigates the impact of high-quality development (HQD) on RR, examining rural e-commerce (RE) as a key mediating channel. Using Chinese provincial panel data from 2011-2021, we employ a panel quantile regression model to capture non-linear dynamics. The findings are threefold: (1) HQD exhibits an inverted U-shaped effect on RR. Its promotional impact is strongest at the 50th quantile of the RR distribution but becomes suppressive when the HQD index exceeds a threshold of 0.795, indicating that excessive development can hinder rural progress. (2) The moderating effect of RE is found to be statistically significant only in regions with medium-to-high RR levels, suggesting that the enabling conditions for RE to effectively drive rural development are more pronounced in relatively developed rural areas. (3) Significant regional heterogeneity exists: the identified threshold effect is primarily confined to China's eastern provinces, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and economically developed region. These findings provide a granular, evidence-based framework for optimizing rural development policies by tailoring HQD initiatives to specific regional contexts and developmental stages.
Keywords: High quality development, Rural revitalization, rural E-commerce, non-linear, China
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 10 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 You, Zihao and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuan Zihao, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
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