Social embeddedness and agricultural technology diffusion from the perspective of scale differentiation – a case study from China

Abstract

Social embeddedness always plays important role in facilitating agricultural technology diffusion. However, in China, dramatic changes have occurred in the social embeddedness of rural households in the transition from ‘acquaintance society’ to ‘semi-acquaintance society’. Could this be the reason for the debate over the role of social embeddedness? What are the differences in the role of social embeddedness between farmers with different land scales? Based on survey data from 583 rural households from Zhejiang Province, China, we used an endogenous switching regression model to answer these questions. The results indicated there are significant differences in social embeddedness between large- and small-scale households. Although the influence of social embeddedness on technology adoption remains significant, its function is significantly different between small- and large-scale farmers. To avoid technological lock-in for small-scale farmers, the government should strengthen the information push and expand the coverage of environmental-friendly agricultural subsidies for them.