The integration of digital technologies into rural industries is reshaping traditional development pathways, giving rise to novel sectors and innovative business models. Using a balanced panel dataset comprising observations from 30 Chinese provinces over the period 2013–2021, we analyze a structured sample encompassing agricultural professional cooperatives, family farms, new professional farmers, agricultural enterprises, and ordinary farmers. We utilize a mediation model to identify the channels through which digital factors facilitate rural industrial integration (RI), emphasizing rural entrepreneurship and agricultural innovation. Our analysis demonstrates that digital factors significantly enhances RI, notably in China’s central region and major grain-producing areas. We highlight rural entrepreneurship and agricultural innovation as crucial mediators, with regional disparities in their relative importance. Specifically, rural entrepreneurship exerts a stronger mediating influence in eastern regions and non-major grain-producing areas, while agricultural innovation plays a dominant mediating role in central and major grain-producing regions. Our findings advocate for intensified digital integration within rural economies, targeted enhancements in agricultural innovation, and strengthened entrepreneurial ecosystems to further elevate RI.
Jia et al. (2025) studied this question.