Empirical research on rural e-commerce development level index system based on catastrophe progression method

This paper constructs a rural e-commerce development evaluation system in terms of the preparation, application and impact of rural e-commerce development. It takes OECD e-commerce performance evaluation system as the framework of this paper’s index system and is based on diffusion of innovation theory. This paper also carries out the empirical research on development level of rural e-commerce in 14 provinces’ (autonomous regions’) of China, by using catastrophe progression method and gets a combined development index of China’s rural e-commerce. The results show that Zhejiang province is the highest echelon of the development level of rural e-commerce, the second echelon includes Guangdong province, Jiangsu province and Hebei province, the third echelon includes Shandong province, Fujian province, Henan province, the fourth echelon covers Heilongjiang province, Hunan province, Anhui province, Jiangxi province, and the fifth echelon covers Jilin province, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning province. According to the calculation results, the rural e-commerce development evaluation index system built by this paper is reasonable, and this index system can correctly measure the development level of rural e-commerce.