Digital empowerment: the impact of rural digitization on the total factor productivity of agro-related enterprises

Rural digitization helps to enhance the efficiency of the use of digital resources in the agricultural industry, stimulate the endogenous development power of the traditional countryside, and then improve the total factor productivity of agro-related enterprises to achieve transformation and development. Based on an empirical study of panel data of agro-related enterprises among 235 A-share listed companies in China from 2011 to 2022, this paper analyzes the impact and mechanism of rural digitization on the total factor productivity of agro-related enterprises in terms of the multidimensional perspective of human capital, technological innovation and transaction costs. The results of the study show that the digital transformation of agro-related enterprises can significantly increase the total factor productivity of the enterprises, but its effect will be slightly different depending on the differences in ownership and regions. The study suggests that policy support for the digital transformation of agro-related enterprises should be increased, state-owned enterprises should be used as a model to lead the digital transformation of enterprises, the construction of digital countryside should be used as a basis to make up for differences in region, and the digitalization of countryside should be used as an opportunity to promote economic development.