Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online

Maintaining stable sales of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs is vital for the sustainable development of rural e-commerce. Exploring consumers’ thematic cognition and emotional expressions can help better understand their consumption behavior, thereby boosting the sales of agricultura...

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Main Authors: Guojie Xie, Haiquan Chen, Wenjuan Wu, Jebbouri Abdelhamid, Weiwei Cai, Yu Tian
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11082157/
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author Guojie Xie
Haiquan Chen
Wenjuan Wu
Jebbouri Abdelhamid
Weiwei Cai
Yu Tian
author_facet Guojie Xie
Haiquan Chen
Wenjuan Wu
Jebbouri Abdelhamid
Weiwei Cai
Yu Tian
author_sort Guojie Xie
collection DOAJ
description Maintaining stable sales of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs is vital for the sustainable development of rural e-commerce. Exploring consumers’ thematic cognition and emotional expressions can help better understand their consumption behavior, thereby boosting the sales of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs. This paper applies the customer-value hierarchy model (C-VHM) as the theoretical research framework. It employs Mini Tag Cloud, a text analysis software, to analyze 8,227 consumer reviews on agricultural and sideline foodstuffs purchases from a well-known e-commerce platform in China. The research reveals that when purchasing agricultural and sideline foodstuffs online, customers primarily focus on four themes: product taste, product logistics, seller service, and cooking methods and target consumers. Among these, product taste and cooking methods and target consumers are the themes most likely to trigger consumer dissatisfaction. Furthermore, our semantic network analysis, theme classification, and sentiment analysis support Propositions of the C-VHM, particularly at the attribute and consequence levels. However, no factors related to social value goals were identified in the review texts. Instead, we observed personal goals such as care for family members, especially children and the elderly. Our study enriches the literature on consumer behavior related to rural e-commerce and the purchase of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs. It is expected to provide practical insights for stakeholders such as rural e-commerce platforms and logistics service providers, promoting the sustainable development of rural e-commerce.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-74006756978d47bcbf2e2f41b6d33b092025-08-20T03:41:01ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-011313565213566810.1109/ACCESS.2025.358986911082157Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs OnlineGuojie Xie0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8637-6559Haiquan Chen1https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3162-4582Wenjuan Wu2Jebbouri Abdelhamid3Weiwei Cai4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8992-9999Yu Tian5School of Economics and Management, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen, ChinaSchool of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, ChinaGathering Stars School of Digital Economy, Haikou University of Economics, Haikou, ChinaSchool of Tourism Management, Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics, Hohhot, ChinaSchool of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, ChinaSchool of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, ChinaMaintaining stable sales of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs is vital for the sustainable development of rural e-commerce. Exploring consumers’ thematic cognition and emotional expressions can help better understand their consumption behavior, thereby boosting the sales of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs. This paper applies the customer-value hierarchy model (C-VHM) as the theoretical research framework. It employs Mini Tag Cloud, a text analysis software, to analyze 8,227 consumer reviews on agricultural and sideline foodstuffs purchases from a well-known e-commerce platform in China. The research reveals that when purchasing agricultural and sideline foodstuffs online, customers primarily focus on four themes: product taste, product logistics, seller service, and cooking methods and target consumers. Among these, product taste and cooking methods and target consumers are the themes most likely to trigger consumer dissatisfaction. Furthermore, our semantic network analysis, theme classification, and sentiment analysis support Propositions of the C-VHM, particularly at the attribute and consequence levels. However, no factors related to social value goals were identified in the review texts. Instead, we observed personal goals such as care for family members, especially children and the elderly. Our study enriches the literature on consumer behavior related to rural e-commerce and the purchase of agricultural and sideline foodstuffs. It is expected to provide practical insights for stakeholders such as rural e-commerce platforms and logistics service providers, promoting the sustainable development of rural e-commerce.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11082157/Agricultural and sideline foodstuffscustomer-value hierarchy modelemotional expressionsustainable development of rural e-commercethematic cognition
spellingShingle Guojie Xie
Haiquan Chen
Wenjuan Wu
Jebbouri Abdelhamid
Weiwei Cai
Yu Tian
Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online
IEEE Access
Agricultural and sideline foodstuffs
customer-value hierarchy model
emotional expression
sustainable development of rural e-commerce
thematic cognition
title Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online
title_full Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online
title_fullStr Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online
title_full_unstemmed Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online
title_short Sustainable Development of Rural E-Commerce: Exploring the Cognitive Themes and Emotional Expressions of Consumers When Purchasing Agricultural and Sideline Foodstuffs Online
title_sort sustainable development of rural e commerce exploring the cognitive themes and emotional expressions of consumers when purchasing agricultural and sideline foodstuffs online
topic Agricultural and sideline foodstuffs
customer-value hierarchy model
emotional expression
sustainable development of rural e-commerce
thematic cognition
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11082157/
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