Understanding the phenomenon of Digital Transformation in Farmers’ Cooperative——Evidence from Zhejiang, China

Farmers’ cooperatives, as one of the new agricultural operating entities, are an effective carrier of agricultural digital transformation, and their digital transformation is of great significance in promoting the overall agricultural digital development, however, existing studies have paid less attention to how farmers’ cooperatives realize digital transformation. Based on the SACIP theoretical framework, this paper utilizes a multi-case study approach to explore the process and mechanism of digital transformation in farmers’ cooperatives. The results show that the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives presents a practical logic of spatial extension, subject-driven, gradual-selection and benefit-directed; The driving factors for the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives are, in order, cooperative leaders, government policies, and market demand, while the hindrance factors are, in order, lack of funds, immature technology, and lack of high-quality technical personnel. This study enriches the research on the process of digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives and provides an effective theoretical reference for the digital transformation of farmers’ cooperatives.