Embeddedness at varying depths: interactions between rural e-commerce entrepreneurs and China’s local politico-economic contexts

Abstract

Using data collected from face-to-face interviews, on-site observations, and other archival records, this article builds upon the mixed embeddedness framework to develop four concepts—hyper-, hypo-, governed, and dis-embeddedness—to capture the varied depths of rural e-commerce entrepreneurs’ embeddedness within multiple levels of contexts in response to four different local politico-economic conditions in China. This study finds that entrepreneurs in coastal province interiors are hyper-embedded in multiple levels of contexts that are interlinked through personal ties, while in the Pearl River Delta area, entrepreneurs’ hypo-embeddedness within multiple levels of contexts both enables and constrains their abilities to develop rural e-commerce businesses. Moreover, in the Yangtze River Delta area, in addition to entrepreneurs making their own efforts, local governments mobilize a variety of resources to affect the size, depth, and dynamics of entrepreneurs’ embeddedness, while in central and western provinces, entrepreneurs have not completely embraced the e-commerce economy because they face weak politico-economic conditions. This article further explores policy changes that would help entrepreneurs take full advantage of rural e-commerce in China.