Call for Research Papers on E-commerce for Rural and Agricultural Development

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E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to online sales or purchases of goods and services via electronic platforms (e.g. Amazon, eBay, and Taobao). Supported by the global digital revolution, e-commerce has accelerated in recent years. The occurrence of COVID-19 has further boosted e-commerce development, especially in rural areas. The fast development of e-commerce prioritizes rural and agricultural development by reshaping people’s production and consumption patterns and daily lives. Previous studies have shown that rural e-commerce development can improve farm production and farmers’ access to domestic and international markets, alleviate poverty, narrow rural-urban income gaps, foster agricultural entrepreneurship, and create rural employment. Nevertheless, e-commerce remains relatively uncommon in most rural areas worldwide. More importantly, e-commerce’s potential to foster rural development is far from being fully exploited and concluded. Thus, more research is warranted to clarify the relationship between e-commerce development and rural and agricultural development.

In this call, we collect high-quality theoretical and empirical articles investigating the barriers and drivers in the development and adoption of e-commerce and those papers exploring the impacts, outcomes, and implications of e-commerce adoption. This special issue will enrich our understanding of the current status of e-commerce development and how e-commerce development contributes to rural and agricultural development. The findings of this special issue are expected to provide insights for policymakers to design appropriate policy instruments to boost rural and agricultural development by stimulating e-commerce development.

Contributions related to (but not limited to) research investigating the following themes may be considered:

Drivers and constraints of e-commerce development and adoption

  • Barriers and solutions to rural e-commerce development and adoption (e.g., technological gaps, digital literacy, internet access, gender inequality, and regulatory environment)
  • Development programs (e.g. e-commerce education and training, the construction of related infrastructure, and government policy initiatives) and rural e-commerce development
  • The role of transport services, legal frameworks, payment systems, mobile devices, and the types of products
  • Opportunities and barriers faced by rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in e-commerce
  • Consumer trust and security concerns on e-commerce adoption
  • Challenges and innovations in logistics, including last-mile delivery
  • E-commerce in post-COVID world
  • The role of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in e-commerce development
  • Solutions to overcome the drawbacks of e-commerce (e.g. internet fraud, moral hazard, and excessive consumption)

Impacts of e-commerce development and adoption

  • Household objective well-being (e.g. income, consumption, income and consumption diversification, healthcare, food security, nutrition intake, and obesity)
  • Rural residents’ subjective well-being (e.g. happiness and loneliness);
  • Farm performance (e.g. crop yields, crop diversification, agricultural input upgrading, agricultural product quality, farm profit, agricultural brand building, labor productivity, and production efficiency)
  • Poverty alleviation, vulnerability mitigation, resilience enhancement, and inclusive growth
  • Digital inclusion and accessibility
  • Gender equality and women’s empowerment
  • Urban-rural income gap reduction and rural income growth
  • Rural business efficiency
  • Traditional retail and local market development
  • Rural entrepreneurship, rural industrial development, and employment
  • Empowerment of vulnerable and marginalized rural people
  • The role of e-commerce in offsetting the drawbacks of COVID-19
  • The role of e-commerce in tackling the challenges of an ageing society (e.g. the elderly’s subjective well-being, nutrition, entertainment, and healthcare)
  • Access to domestic and international markets

Submission Guidelines

Authors should submit manuscripts of 7,000-10,000 words, including references and footnotes but excluding figures and tables, via this link by 30 June 2025. Meanwhile, the authors should also submit their manuscript in Word and title page to Prof. Wanglin Ma at [email protected].

All submissions must be original and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

The guest editors are Prof. Wanglin Ma, Lincoln University, New Zealand, Dr. Dil Rahut and Prof. Tetsushi Sonobe, Asian Development Bank Institute.

Arrangements for Selected Papers

The corresponding author of selected papers will be invited to deliver a 5-minute lightning presentation at the virtual conference hosted by ADBI in June or July 2025. The corresponding authors are expected to review two manuscripts submitted by others.
After rigorous peer review, accepted papers will be included as chapters in an open-access book edited by the guest editors. The book is expected to be published by early 2026.

An honorarium of 1,000ドル will be paid to the corresponding author upon approval of all deliverables.

Contact

For inquiries, please contact Prof. Wanglin Ma at [email protected] and Dr. Dil Rahut at [email protected].

This Call for Papers can be downloaded here.