The Emergence of Self-organizing E-commerce Ecosystems in Remote Villages of China.pdf

The Emergence of Self-organizing E-commerce Ecosystems in Remote Villages of China: A Tale of Digital Empowerment for Rural Development Carmen Leong UNSW Business School, University of New South Wales carmen.leong@.au Shan L Pan UNSW Business School, University of New South Wales shan.pan@.au Sue Newell School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex Sue.Newell@sussex.ac.uk Lili Cui Research Center for Management Science and Information Analytics Shanghai University of Finance Economics cui.lili@ Ye is a 38-year-old farmer from a rural village in Zhejiang Province, China. In 2004, he left for a better paid job in Guangzhou, which is 1240km away from home. “I couldn’t take care of my family. My wife was having a hard time taking care of our parents and the children. I missed them dearly,” said Ye. is a stor y about China’s migrant workers… THE STORY BEHIND OUR RESEARCH ? So cieta l cha llenges p ers ist (U n ited N a t ions 2 01 3): § Rural hollowing: small young workforce for rural development § Left-behind elderly: 40 million with many suffering physical and psychological issues § Left-behind children: 61 million children (1/5 of youth in China) RURAL POVERTY IN CHINA Photography by Jie, Liu, Rural hollowing, 2011, S, /c/slide_1_815_19147.html#p=3 ? Taobao is an onl ine marketplace near ly equivalent to eBay, operated by Al ibaba Group (a China’s e-commerce giant) ? Taobao Village § a village in which at least 10% of its residents operate an online store, generating at least an annual sale of RMB10 million (USD 1.6 million) § 211 Taobao villages in China (as of 2014), selling agricultural products, consumer goods, traditional arts and crafts products ? Create ~60,000 (2013) and ~280,000 (2014) job opportunities in rura l China TAOBAO E-COMMERCE VILLAGES VISITS TO TAOBAO VILLAGES Beijing Zhejiang Suichang (遂昌)Villages Jinyun (缙云) Villages Shanghai CHINA Research Question: “How does ICT create and empo