The Impact of the Digital Economy on High-Quality Development of Specialized Farmers’ Cooperatives: Evidence from China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The work has no scientific novelty. Topic focus on local issues. There is no reference to international research. Of the 36 bibliographic entries, only one is by non-Chinese authors. The text requires editing (no spaces, no explanation of the abbreviations used, no reference to the content of the tables, e.g. 1,2, 4) and language edition. The work contains very long fragments of text not supported by any references to literature. The note applies to the Introduction.
The authors did not specify the purpose of the work. There is no discussion of their results. Conclusions are too long. The general impression after reading the text of this manuscript - simple and obvious things have been subjected to statistical analysis, which does not change the fact that the conclusions are predictable and do not require the use of such a complex calculation apparatus. It is also difficult to find any connection with sustainable development.
The work has no scientific novelty. Topic focus on local issues. There is no reference to international research. Of the 36 bibliographic entries, only one is by non-Chinese authors. The text requires editing (no spaces, no explanation of the abbreviations used, no reference to the content of the tables, e.g. 1,2, 4) and language edition. The work contains very long fragments of text not supported by any references to literature. The note applies to the Introduction.
The authors did not specify the purpose of the work. There is no discussion of their results. Conclusions are too long. The general impression after reading the text of this manuscript - simple and obvious things have been subjected to statistical analysis, which does not change the fact that the conclusions are predictable and do not require the use of such a complex calculation apparatus. It is also difficult to find any connection with sustainable development.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper is an interesting attempt to evidence the impact of the digital economy on farmers’ cooperatives having China as a case study. Its argumentation is interesting and highlights the critical role of digitalisation in promoting specialisation across different sectors.
The authors should place the whole discussion under the notion of sustainable development. Thus, a short discussion of the term should be provided in the introduction. In this vein, the following two papers should be included. (a) Manioudis, M. & Meramveliotakis, G. (2022) "Broad strokes towards a grand theory in the analysis of sustainable development: a return to the classical political economy", New Political Economy, 27(5), pp. 866-878, and (b) Tomislav, K. (2018) "The concept of sustainable development: From its beginning to the contemporary issues", Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business, 21(1), 67-94.
Authors point out (lines 36-37), “Furthermore, the establishment of specialized cooperatives, tailored to local conditions, should be encouraged throughout the country”. This view should be further evidenced as it seems as a normative thesis.
The notion of shell cooperatives should be further exemplified. See, among others: Hu, Zhang, Donaldson (2017). Farmers’ Cooperatives in China: A typology of Fraud and Failure. The China Journal, 78.
The Internet of Things (IoTs) is an essential aspect of digitalisation. The authors should place IoTs’ role in promoting the development of specialised farmers’ cooperatives. In addition, it is a misunderstanding of what the authors mean by “strengthen farmers’ leadership” (line 121).
Minor:
Think of rephrasing lines 10-103 in “Specialized farmers' cooperatives have higher production efficiency and operating performance than individual farmers”.
The paper needs to be read by a native English person.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The article entitled The Impact of Digital Economy on High-Quality Development of Specialized Farmers’ Cooperatives: Evidence from China
focuses on a topical issue and adopts an appropriate analytic approach from a statistic and territorial perspective.
In view of publication some minor changes should be had in view by the authors as follows:
- In the abstract some terms and affirmations need supplementary explanations and clarifications (e.g. line 14 mechanisms ?; line 21 agree with the affirmation but authors should also identify or suppose in their study the reasons for this situation)
- Line 207 there are two letters “wh”
- Based on adopted methodology and obtained results I recommend the authors to specify at the end of their paper also the limits of their study and further possible directions of research
- Some comparisons with other regions around the world where extended digitalization occurred in agriculture might also enrich the theoretic background and the discussions of the results in the case of this study. Digitalization in centralized vs democratic economies occurred differently and brought different results if only the American or European models alone are studied. Comparisons with China would be a valuable element for the reader.
- How is Chinese system responding to digital challenges and which are the practical factors to be considered for this phenomenon if regional differences in China are regarded could also be more commented when presenting empirical results and on discussions.
Overall the paper presents an accurate logical analysis and presents a convincing discourse. Therefore I recommend it for publication after revising the above signaled changes and suggestions.
However some more problematization of the topic in its geographical context and comparisons with other regions of the world would be an added value for the paper in view of its publication in Sustainability journal.
The paper is well written in English language and presents no major errors. I recommend only a final proofreading after making necessary corrections in view of publication.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Congratulations on the choice of subject matter. The layout of the manuscript is correct. The literature cited is relevant to the topic undertaken. I believe that the subject matter is original and important from the point of view of the development of science, although in my opinion, the following elements need to be clarified:
1. In the article, we write impersonally. I suggest avoiding the term "We" or “Our country”.
2. The purpose of the article needs to be clarified. Now, the stated purpose is too ambiguous.
3. The research methodology needs to be expanded. Please provide reasons for using the listed research methods and techniques.
4. The bibliography, there is no balance between Chinese and non-Chinese authors. We don't have any information on what this problem is like in the world, just a few sentences on the subject.
5. No indication of the application value of the research, both in the theoretical and practical parts.
6. I could not find information on whether the hypotheses were verified positively or negatively.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I appreciate the efforts of the authors in creating a new version of the manuscript. However, most of the introduced changes instead of improving the quality of the text, only worsened it.
In the current version of the manuscript, the purpose of the work is still not clearly defined.
The text is difficult to read due to the style of writing. It is very confusing and the authors try to refer to sustainable development by force. In my opinion, the word development is overused here. As a result, there are repetitions in several places in the text of the work. Unfortunately, but I do not agree that the authors conducted a discussion of their results. This small part of text is not a discussion. Conclusions must follow directly from their own results and not be general statements.
The References needs improvement. The authors confuse names with surnames.
The text is grammatically correct. However, I rate the writing style of the authors very low.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
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Reviewer 2 Report
I believe that the authors have sufficiently addressed my previous comments and that their additions have improved the paper.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your time to review this manuscript. We really appreciate your comments and professional advice. These opinions help to improve the quality of our article. Besides, we have checked the all references carefully in our revised manuscript and hope the correction meets approval.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Xinrui Liu
Reviewer 4 Report
I thank the authors for their insightful analysis of the reviewers' comments. The authors have significantly improved the article, which in my opinion meets the formal requirements. I accept the article in its current form
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We feel great thanks for your valuable feedback that we have used to improve the quality of our manuscript. We have seen that your Review Report Form indicated that the purpose of the work and the results need to be improved. Therefore, according to the suggestions of other reviewers, we made modifications highlighted in the paper. In addition, we have checked the literature carefully in our revised manuscript and hope the correction meets approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and professional suggestions.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Xinrui Liu
