Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model of the Farmers’ Sense of Gain in the Provision of Rural Infrastructures: The Case of Tourism-Oriented Rural Areas of China

Abstract

During the rapid development of rural infrastructures in China, many important issues such as the real wishes of farmers and the proper management of the infrastructure have been overlooked, resulting in a weak sense of gain among farmers. To propose effective improvement strategies, this research aimed to explore the influence mechanism of the farmers’ sense of gain and to build a comprehensive evaluation model of farmers’ sense of gain in the provision of rural infrastructure. To achieve the above aims, we first proposed hypotheses among four constructs and selected an evaluation index for each construct. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and a questionnaire survey, we then verified the proposed hypotheses and developed a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model of the farmers’ sense of gain in the provision of rural infrastructure. The results first showed that the content of gain and the way of gain directly affect the farmers’ sense of gain, and the governance indirectly affects the farmers’ sense of gain. Moreover, the way of gain has the greatest impact on the sense of gain, followed by the governance and the content of gain. Furthermore, the analysis results demonstrate that the developed fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is feasible and effective in evaluating farmers’ sense of gain in the provision of rural infrastructures. The findings of this study first enrich the relevant theories of farmers’ sense of gain in the provision of rural infrastructure. The findings also provide theoretical support for the government authorities to put forward effective governance strategies for rural infrastructure from the perspective of farmers’ sense of gain.