Digital transformation of the agricultural industry: Behavioral decision-making, influencing factors, and simulation practices in the Yunnan highlands

Motivating the agricultural industry to engage in digital transformation is a challenge academically and socially. It is of great significance to study the choice of digital transformation mode of agricultural industrial organization and analyze its driving factors for promoting the sustainable development of agricultural industrial organization. This study adopts a bilateral evolutionary game to construct a decision-making model for behavioral decision-making during the digital transformation of the agricultural industry. The contingent-actual logical framework and multiple case studies of Yunnan highland agriculture are used to explore the impact of various factors on behavioral decision-making during the digital transformation of the agricultural industry. Additionally, a simulation analysis is used to verify the validity of the bilateral evolutionary game model. The results demonstrate that: (1) When the agricultural industry chooses "active transformation," behavioral decision-making during the digital transformation of the agricultural industry reaches a Nash equilibrium; (2) transformation costs, industry revenue, and reward and penalty mechanisms are the main driving factors for whether or not the agricultural industry chooses to actively engage in digital transformation; and (3) the probability of active digital transformation increases when agricultural industry organizations obtain higher returns at lower costs. Simultaneously, the higher the government's incentives, the greater the enthusiasm. However, when the penalty is excessive, the digital transformation takes the shape of either passive transformation or forced active transformation. Subsequently, it is necessary to improve the digital transformation planning of the agricultural industry, strengthen this field's cooperation mechanism, and formulate a reasonable reward and penalty system for digital transformation.