Digital finance and agricultural entrepreneurship

Using Chinese prefecture-level panel data (2011–2022), we demonstrate that digital finance significantly stimulates agricultural entrepreneurship. This effect is driven by usage depth and digitization level, not mere coverage breadth. While payments and insurance act as catalysts, direct credit exhibits a crowding-out effect. The entrepreneurial boost is concentrated in eastern and e-commerce-rich regions, highlighting a persistent digital divide. Dynamically, digital finance induces Schumpeterian ‘creative destruction’ by accelerating both firm entry and exit. This study contributes to the literature in two main ways. First, it identifies the substantive boundaries of financial inclusion. We show that genuine inclusion relies on functional usage instead of nominal coverage. Second, the research empirically captures a process of ‘creative destruction’ within the agricultural sector. Digital finance directly drives this market dynamic. Our findings underscore the critical distinction between nominal financial access and substantive inclusion.