couplingcoordinateddevelopmentmodelofurban-rural...

Research ArticleCoupling Coordinated Development Model of Urban-RuralLogistics and Empirical Study

Xianwen Gong

School of Economics and Business Administration Chongqing University of Education Chongqing 400065 China

Correspondence should be addressed to Xianwen Gong gongxianwen126com

Received 6 May 2019 Revised 27 July 2019 Accepted 29 August 2019 Published 16 September 2019

Academic Editor Francesco Zammori

Copyright copy 2019 Xianwen Gong +is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licensewhich permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited

+is paper builds a coupling coordinated development model for urban-rural logistics based on coupling theory and synergytheory designs an index system for the coordinated development of urban-rural logistics based on supply chain management anddetermines the weight of the index system using the entropy method Supported by official statistics this paper measures the leveland analyzes the changing trend of the coupling coordinated development of urban-rural logistics from 2001 to 2015 in China+eresults show that in the study period the orderly development level of both urban and rural logistics was improved and thecoordinated development level of urban-rural logistics generally maintained a slow upward trend However the interactivecoupling level between urban and rural logistics was stagnant and the orderly development differences were gradually enlarged+is study suggests that setting up urban-rural logistics integrated systems including material flow financing flow informationflow and commerce flow has become an effective way to break through the division between urban and rural logistics and realizethe coordinated development of urban-rural logistics

1 Introduction

+e growth of the logistics industry such as warehousingtransportation and distribution has strongly promoted thedevelopment of cities and countryside and enhancedcommunication between urban and rural areas [1] In-creasing attention has been paid to the impact of the de-velopment of the logistics industry on cities [2] With thedevelopment of rural e-commerce the importance of rurallogistics has been widely recognized [3] +e logistics in-dustry is an important link between urban and rural areasCoordinated development between urban and rural logisticscould help to break the economic and social system divisionbetween urban and rural areas achieve a reasonable allo-cation of resources between urban and rural areas give fullplay to the role of urban and rural logistics support in re-gional economic integration and promote the new urban-ization process and urban-rural integration development Inrecent years urban logistics and rural logistics have achievedvarying degrees of development [4] However the imbalanceand uncoordinated situation between urban and rural

logistics have intensified over time On the one handtransportation and logistics clusters are concentrated pri-marily in metropolitan areas and urban logistics has a re-source advantage and its development speed is acceleratedOn the other hand the development of rural logistics isrelatively backward and thus the gap between urban andrural logistics is gradually widening [5] +e dual structurebetween urban and rural logistics in China has distorted theallocation of market resources which is not conducive to thedevelopment of the regional economy +is has not only ledto the urban logistics being developed in the self-enclosedself-circulation environment but also increased the cost ofcirculation hindered the development of agriculturalproduct circulation and the rural economy [6] and re-stricted the development of urban-rural integration andurbanization +erefore it is of great theoretical significanceand practical value to pay attention to the coordinateddevelopment of urban-rural logistics

In China with the development of urbanization and theintegration of urban and rural areas the problem of urbanand rural logistics has gradually aroused the interest of

HindawiMathematical Problems in EngineeringVolume 2019 Article ID 9026795 12 pageshttpsdoiorg10115520199026795

researchers Academic circles have mainly focused on thecharacteristics functions difficulties and solutions of urbanand rural logistics For example Liu believed that urban-rural logistics in China presented a typical dualistic structurefeature and that a solution was to build an urban-ruralintegrated logistics system and realize its coordinated de-velopment [6] Zhang conducted an empirical study on therelationship between urban-rural logistics development andthe income gap between urban and rural areas using thepanel data of 31 provinces and regions in China for theperiod 1998ndash2007 +e study found that the development ofthe logistics industry can promote the narrowing of theincome gap between urban and rural areas [7] Ding furthernoted that the integrated development of urban-rural lo-gistics played an important role in eliminating the in-stitutional obstacles that restrict the coordinateddevelopment of urban and rural areas overall planning ofurban and rural development optimizing the rural marketsystem and improving the living standards of rural residents[8] Song studied the problems and countermeasures in theconstruction of urban and rural logistics systems It is be-lieved that the development of urban and rural logisticsshould be devoted to the transformation of governmentfunctions improvement of the modernization level of rurallogistics and establishment of a government managementsystem that is adapted to the two-way logistics developmentof urban and rural areas in order to realize the integration ofurban-rural trade economy [9] Taking Chongqing as anexample Qin et al analyzed the development of urban andrural logistics using the SWOT method and proposed thebuilding of a two-way urban-rural logistics system inChongqing [10] Lu established the network optimizationmodel of the distribution center and the purchase center ofagricultural products and demonstrated the optimizationproblem of the chain management distribution networkunder the integration of urban-rural logistics [11] From theperspective of public service equalization using the theory oflogistics system engineering Zhou et al studied the in-tegrated development of urban and rural logistics under anew situation [12] Based on the national statistical data ofthe period 2004ndash2013 Liang and Zhang empirically analyzedthe impact of urban-rural integration rural logistics andrural finance on farmersrsquo income using principal componentanalysis [13] In summary the existing achievements havelaid the foundation for further research

+is paper differs from the previous research in thefollowing two respects First unlike most articles thatconsider urban logistics and rural logistics separately as twoindependent issues and neglect the connection between thetwo this paper considers urban-rural logistics a unifiedsystem +is paper regards urban and rural logistics as asystem establishes a model of urban-rural logistics complexsystems using coupling theory and synergy theory designsan index system based on the concept of supply chainmanagement and analyzes the mutual coupling degree andcoordinated development level of various elements in theurban-rural logistics complex system Second most of thearticles in this area have mainly focused on theoreticalanalysis and qualitative research while studies using

empirical analysis and quantitative research are lackingBased on the statistical data from 2001 to 2015 this paperconducts empirical research on urban-rural logistics usingcoupling coordinated development models quantitativelycalculating the orderly development level of urban-rurallogistics subsystems and coupling the coordinated degree ofcomposite systems and proposing corresponding counter-measures and suggestions

+is paper is organized as follows In Section 2 wedesign an index system for urban-rural logistics A co-ordinated development model of urban-rural logistics isproposed in Section 3 Section 4 presents the empiricalresearch including the data processing index weight cal-culation and coupling coordination analysis of urban-rurallogistics Section 5 discusses the results and Section 6concludes the paper

2 Index System

Supply chain management as the inevitable outcome whenlogistics is developed in both breadth and depth the logicalextension of logistics and a more advanced stage of logisticsmanagement [14] has become a new management mode toimprove operating efficiency In the new normal develop-ment stage of the economic growth rate shift structuraladjustment and optimization and reform and opening up inChina one important development trend of the logisticsindustry is the movement toward supply chain management[15] According to the definition implemented by the na-tional standard in 2001 supply chain management refers tocomprehensive planning of business flow material flow(logistics) information flow and capital flow in the supplychain by the use of computer network technology as well asorganizing coordinating and controlling +e four flows ofthe supply chain are closely linked +e capital flow in-formation flow and business flow are a strong support basicguarantee and important premise in the development oflogistics Based on this thinking the paper could establishthe index system of coordinated development between ur-ban and rural logistics considering the above four aspects

21 Urban-Rural Material Flow Under the long-term eco-nomic and social dualistic structure system in China urbanlogistics has developed rapidly but rural logistics has laggedbehind In the process of urbanization the gap betweenurban and rural logistics has gradually increased leading tothe dualistic structure between urban and rural logistics +ekey to breaking the dualistic structure between urban andrural logistics and realizing the integration of urban andrural commodity circulation is the construction of an urban-rural two-way logistics system named ldquoindustrial productsgoing to the countryside and agricultural products enteringthe cityrdquo+erefore the urban-rural material flow focuses ontwo aspects +e first is the logistics activities in which in-dustrial products and consumer goods flow from the city tothe countryside through the wholesale market or logisticsdistribution center +e other is the logistics activitiesin which agricultural products flow from farmers or

2 Mathematical Problems in Engineering

agricultural managers in the countryside to terminal marketconsumers in the city Considering the approaches of otherscholars this study reflects the logistics demand and logisticsscale of industrial products using the industrial output valueand the total amount of industrial logistics Similarly thepaper adopts the total output value of agricultural productsand the total amount of agricultural products logistics toreflect the demand and scale of agricultural products lo-gistics respectively In addition the mileage of the postalservice delivery route reflects the logistics size to a certainextent +erefore urban and rural postal service deliveryroutes could represent the logistics size of the city andcountryside to some extent

22Urban-RuralCapital Flow Safe and efficient capital flowis a basic guarantee for logistics to operate smoothly whichrequires the reasonable allocation of financial resourcesbetween urban and rural financial markets establishessmooth and efficient urban and rural financial channels andprovides more funding for the development of logistics andthe logistics systems of urban and rural construction It isnecessary to establish an urban-rural capital operationsystem when facing the need for logistics as well as toscientifically and rationally allocate the flow of money forlogistics activities through the application and developmentof a variety of financial products +e indexes commonlyused to measure the development of urban and rural financeare financial development size and financial developmentefficiency One of the typical indexes used to measure thesize of financial development is McKinnonrsquos index that isthe proportion of M2 accounted for in GDP +e studyshows that Chinarsquos financial structure is bank-oriented sousing the proportion of bank loans to GDP as an index tomeasure the scale of financial development is reasonableBased on previous scholars considering the availability ofstatistical data this study adopts the index to measure theurban financial scale using the ratio of the urban loanbalance to the industrial output value andmeasures the ruralfinancial scale using the ratio of the rural loan balance to theagricultural output value In terms of the efficiency of fi-nancial development most scholars prefer the index of theratio of loans to deposits It can reflect not only the efficiencywhen financial institutions convert savings into loans butalso the status of the rural fund outflow to a certain extent[16] Based on this approach this paper measures the effi-ciency of urban financial development using the index of theratio of the urban loan balance to the urban saving balanceand measures the efficiency of rural financial developmentusing the index of the ratio of the rural loan balance to therural saving balance

23 Urban-Rural Information Flow Information circulationis one of the most basic functions of logistics activities As abasic component of logistics activities information flow isthe basis for the formulation organization and coordinationof logistics activities With the development of informationtechnology the scope of logistics service has been ex-panded the management of logistics organization has been

improved and logistics capability and logistics efficiencyhave been enhanced [17] +e wide application of moderninformation technology such as computer technologycommunication technology and internet technology notonly profoundly changes work and lifestyle in urban areasbut also has a great impact on rural economic and socialaspects In fact informatization has become an importantmeans to break the bondage of dualistic economic and socialsystems between urban and rural areas and promote theintegration of urban and rural areas Conversely the un-balanced development of informatization would result in theemergence and further expansion of the so-called ldquodigitalgaprdquo between urban and rural areas Computers commu-nication and the internet have become the symbol anddevelopment trend of economic and social informationconstruction so the two indexes urban fixed telephone usersand the computer ownership of urban residents couldrepresent the level of urban informatization and the ruralfixed telephone users and the computer ownership of ruralresidents could reflect the level of rural informatization

24 Urban-Rural Business Flow As the starting point of thetime value and the premise of the spatial effect of logisticsthe business flow in general exists in the form of trans-actions which are essentially the transfer of commodityownership +e urban-rural commercial and trade circula-tion system has the characteristics of two-way interactionand complementary and win-win development and it is abridge connecting urban and rural areas in the process ofeconomic and social development [18] In China the con-struction of an urban-rural two-way trade circulation systemis of great significance to improve circulation efficiencyreduce circulation costs expand domestic demand andpromote the development of the national economy +eobstruction of the urban-rural circulation system is closelyrelated to factors such as the serious unequal purchasingpower of urban and rural areas urban and rural productionmarkets urban and rural commodity market segmentationand development imbalance between urban and rural cir-culation markets In previous studies the indexes used tomeasure business flow mainly included the income level ofurban and rural residents the transaction scale of the cir-culation market and the number of circulation marketsBased on the processing method in [19] the purchasingpower trade size and market development degree of urbanareas in urban-rural circulation activities could be repre-sented by the income level of urban residents industrialproduct trading scale and number of comprehensive in-dustrial product markets Similarly the purchasing powertrade size and market development degree of rural areas inurban-rural circulation activities could be represented by theincome level of rural residents agricultural product tradingscale and number of comprehensive agricultural productmarkets In summary the index system of the coordinateddevelopment of urban-rural logistics could be established asin Table 1

Overall the index system in Table 1 embodies thefollowing basic principles +e first principle is scientific

Mathematical Problems in Engineering 3

Index systems based on the concept of supply chains canbetter reflect the scientific connotation of logistics de-velopment and conform to the development trend ofmodern logistics than can other systems +e secondprinciple is systematic +e indicators designed from thefour dimensions of the supply chain concept are in-terdependent and closely related and constitute a systemtogether which reduces randomness and effectively avoidsmajor omissions and deficiencies +e third principle isindependence Each of the above indicators has its ownspecific meaning and representativeness +ey are in-dependent of each other without overlapping and dupli-cation +e fourth principle is operability which involvesensuring that statistical data can be obtained and thatoperability can be increased

3 Research Methods

31EntropyWeightFunction +e entropy weight method isan objective weighting method that decides the indexweight through the information amount provided by theentropy value of each index +e use of the entropy weightmethod to weight each index can avoid the interference ofhuman factors in the weight of each evaluation index andmake the evaluation result more in line with realityGenerally entropy refers to disorder or uncertaintyShannon entropy was introduced by Claude E Shannon inhis 1948 paper ldquoA Mathematical +eory of Communica-tionrdquo In information theory entropy is a measure of thedisorder degree of a system +e higher the order degree of

a system is the smaller the entropy is and the greater theamount of information contained in the system isAccording to the theory Shannon entropy is defined asH minus s 1113936 pi lnpi

For a particular assessment problem there is a raw datamatrix X formed of m years and n indexes the element xij inthe matrix represents the raw data value of the year i (i

1 2 m) to the index j (j 1 2 n)

X

x11 x12 x1n

x21 x22 x2n

⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮

xm1 xm2 xmn

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(1)

+e raw data in matrix X must be standardized toeliminate the effects of different dimensions and magni-tude and then these data can be used in entropy calcu-lations Standardization operation should utilize anappropriate calculation method in accordance with theentropy calculation and the nature of the indexes Com-monly used standardization methods such as z-score andequalization could eliminate the effects of different di-mensions andmagnitudes+erefore the z-score method isnot suitable for use because the data normalized by thismethod are distributed between minus 1 and 1 and there is alogarithm in the entropy calculations +e equalizationmethod could not guarantee that the value of all processeddata is positive and thus it is also not suitable for useRange standardization is a suitable method here and itsformula is as follows

Table 1 Index system of urban-rural logistics

Subsystem Dimension Index Description Code

Urban logisticssubsystem

Material flowIndustrial product logistics demand Output value of industrial products UL1Industrial product logistics scale Total amount of industrial product logistics UL2

Urban logistics size City postal service delivery route UL3

Capital flowUrban finance scale Balance of urban loansindustrial output value UL4

Urban financial efficiency Balance of urban loansbalance of urbansavings deposits UL5

Informationflow

City fixed telephone users Original statistical indexes UL6Urban residentsrsquo computer ownership Original statistical indexes UL7

Business flow

Income level of urban residents Per capita disposable income of urbanresidents UL8

Industrial transaction size Turnover of industrial product market UL9

Industrial trading environment Number of industrial product comprehensivemarkets UL10

Rural logisticssubsystem

Material flowAgricultural product logistics demand Output value of agricultural products RL1Agricultural product logistics scale Total amount of agricultural product logistics RL2

Rural logistics business size Rural postal service delivery route RL3

Capital flowRural financial scale Rural loan balanceoutput value of agricultural

products RL4

Rural financial efficiency Rural loan balancerural savings depositsbalance RL5

Informationflow

Rural fixed telephone users Original statistical indexes RL6Rural residentsrsquo computer ownership Original statistical indexes RL7

Business flow

Income level of rural residents Per capita disposable income of rural residents RL8Scale of agricultural trade Turnover of agricultural product market RL9

Agricultural product tradingenvironment

Number of agricultural productcomprehensive markets RL10


rij xij minus min xij1113872 1113873

max xij1113872 1113873 minus min xij1113872 1113873 for positive indexes

rij max xij1113872 1113873 minus xij

max xij1113872 1113873 minus min xij1113872 1113873 for reverse indexes

⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(2)

For positive indexes (the larger the superior) the for-mula above is suitable For reverse indexes (the smaller thesuperior) the formula below is suitable +e processingresult forms the standardization matrix R (rij)mtimesn0le rij le 1

For an index the greater the difference in the evaluationindex values the larger the amount of information containedin this index and the greater the effect of this indexAccording to the concept of entropy the increase in in-formation means a reduction in entropy and entropy can beused to measure the size of this information +e featureproportion of year i under index j can be defined as follows

pij rij

1113936mi1rij

(3)

+e Shannon entropy of index j can be defined asfollows

Ej minus k 1113944m

i1pij lnpij j 1 2 3 n (4)

where k 1lnm when pij 0 and pij lnpij 0 +e en-tropy weight of index j can be defined as follows

ωj 1 minus Ej

n minus 1113936nj1Ej

(5)

where 0leωj le 1 1113936nj1ωj 1 and the characteristics of the

entropy weight are as followsWhen the index values of each evaluated object are

entirely equal the entropy value is the maximum and theentropy weight is zero +is means that the index does notprovide any useful information for decision-makers thisindex can be considered canceled

When the index values of each evaluated object are quitedifferent the entropy value is smaller and the entropy weightis large +is means that the index provides decision-makerswith useful information and this index should be focusedon

+e larger the entropy value of the index is the smallerthe value of entropy weight is and the less important theindex is

Entropy weight has special significance it is not theactual importance factor of the given indexes in the processof decision or assessment but rather the relative intensityfactor of each index in a competitive sense under thecondition that each evaluation index value has been de-termined after a given set of evaluated objects

From the information point of view entropy weightrepresents the extent of useful information provided by theindex in question

32 Order Degree Function Based on the basic principles ofsynergetics coordination refers to harmony between sys-tems or elements of system components in the process ofevolution To achieve the harmony of the system a numberof regulation and control activities imposed on the systemare needed which are called coordination roles All possibleregulation and control activities (coordination roles) and theappropriate procedures and rules are known as coordinationmechanisms [20]

Take urban-rural logistics as a composite system that iscomposed of two subsystems urban logistics and rural lo-gistics+e complex interactions within the systemmay havea synergistic effect and form a virtuous circle to promote theorderly development of the composite system +ese in-teractions may also have a negative impact and lead thesystem in a disordered direction [21] According to couplingtheory and synergy theory the interaction level betweenurban and rural logistics subsystems or elements is called thecoupling degree and the harmony level between urban andrural logistics subsystems or components in developmentprocesses is called the coordination degree In the compositesystem of urban-rural logistics the slow relaxation variable(order parameter) is the fundamental variable that de-termines the evolution of complex systems +e key to theevolution of urban-rural logistics complex systems is thesynergy between the internal order parameters+e couplingcoordination degree is simply the measure of this synergy[22]

Assume that the order parameter in the evolutionprocess of the urban-rural logistics composite system isui (i 1 2) so that uij(j 1 2 3 n) is any componentof the order parameter ui and that the value is Xij +e upperand lower limits of the order parameter are αij and βijrespectively and the contribution that this order parameterpromotes the orderly development of the composite systemcan be expressed as

U uij1113872 1113873

Xij minus βij

αij minus βij

uij has positive effect

αij minus Xij

αij minus βij

uij has negative effect

⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(6)

where U(uij) is the order degree of the order parameter uij

and U(uij) isin [0 1] +e larger the value is the greater thecontribution of the order parameter is to the system +etotal contribution of the order parameter to the systemcan be achieved by integration and the formula is asfollows

U ui( 1113857 1113944n

j1λijU uij1113872 1113873 (7)

where U(ui) is called the order degree of the subsystemU(ui) isin [0 1] λij is the weight of the order parameter and1113936

nj1λij 1 λij ge 0 +e greater the order degree of the

subsystem is the higher the orderly development level of thesystem is and vice versa [23]


33 Coupling Coordination Function Referring to the con-cept of capacitive coupling and themodel of capacity couplingcoefficient in physics the interaction coupling model ofmultiple systems (or elements) is generalized [24] +e for-mula Cn (u1 middot u2 middot middot um)1113858 1113937(ui + uj)11138591113966 1113967

1ncould rep-

resent the coupling degree under multisystem interactionconditions +erefore the coupling function of the urban-rural logistics composite system can be expressed as

C U u1( 1113857 middot U u2( 11138571113858 1113859

12

U u1( 1113857 + U u2( 1113857 (8)

where C is the coupling degree of the urban-rural logisticscomposite system U(u1) is the order degree of the urbanlogistics subsystem and U(u2) is the order degree of therural logistics subsystem

Obviously C isin [0 1] and the greater the value of thecoupling degree is the higher the coupling strength is +ecoupling degree can better reflect the coupling strengthbetween urban and rural logistics but cannot reflect thecoordination level +erefore it is necessary to establish thefollowing coupling coordination function to analyze thecoordination degree of interaction coupling between urbanand rural logistics

D (C middot T)12

T a middot U u1( 1113857 + b middot U u2( 1113857

⎧⎨

⎩ (9)

where D is the coupling coordination degree T is the co-ordination indicator of urban-rural logistics reflecting theeffect and contribution of the comprehensive evaluationindex of the two subsystems to their coordination degreeand a and b are the undetermined coefficients In the processof coupling coordination development urban logistics andrural logistics are supplementary and indispensable to eachother and of equal importance Referring to previous studiesand interviews in related fields [25 26] the coefficient valuesof this study are a 05 and b 05

4 Empirical Study

41 Data Statistics and IndexWeight Calculation +is papermainly studies the coupling coordinated degree betweenurban and rural logistics in China and analyzes their cou-pling coordination development trend from 2001 to 2015+e original data come from the China Statistical YearbookChina Logistics Yearbook China Finance Yearbook ChinaRural Statistical Yearbook the National Economic andSocial Development Statistical Bulletin released by NationalBureau of Statistics the China Logistics Development Re-port released by the Federation of Logistics and Purchasingand the professional statistical database of the Ministry ofIndustry and Information Technology

Referring to the relevant literatures [27] the upper andlower limits of order parameters are calculated by adding orreducing 1 of their maximum and minimum values re-spectively on the basis of historical actual values +e sta-tistical matrix (1) formed by the original data above could bestandardized using formula (2) According to formulas

(3)ndash(5) the entropy value and entropy weight of each orderparameter is calculated and given in Table 2

42 Order Development Analysis Using formulas (6) and (7)the paper calculates the order degree of urban and rural lo-gistics subsystems To further compare the differences betweenurban and rural logistics the order degree of any subsystem ofurban-rural logistics at the initial moment can be defined asU(u0

i ) and the order degree of a certain time can be defined asU(ut

i) then U(uti) minus U(u0

i ) reflects the evolution trend of theorderly development of any subsystem +us the differencedegree of orderly development between the two can be definedas K [U(ut

1) minus U(u01)] minus [U(ut

2) minus U(u02)] which reflects

the difference in orderly development and its trend betweenurban and rural logistics +e larger the absolute value of thedifference degree is the greater the differences between the twoare When the value of K is greater than zero urban logisticsare in a leading position rural logistics lag behind and viceversa +e calculated results are provided in Table 3

First it can be seen from Figure 1 that the order degreecurve of the urban and rural logistics systems continued torise alternately from 2001 to 2015 showing that the orderlydevelopment level of both urban and rural logistics has beencontinuously improved in the past fifteen years +e orderdegree of urban logistics greatly increased from 00784 in2001 to 08942 in 2015 In addition the order degree of rurallogistics slightly increased from 01483 in 2001 to 08098 in2015

Second from 2001 to 2015 the difference degree curve ofthe orderly development of urban and rural logistics showedan upward trend and the difference degree increased from00358 in 2002 to 01543 in 2015 indicating that the orderlydevelopment gap between urban and rural logistics waswidening +e orderly development level of urban logisticswas ahead of that of rural logistics and made a greatercontribution to the coordination development of urban-rural logistics Since the orderly development of rural lo-gistics lagged behind that of urban logistics it contributedless to the coordination development and became theconstraint factor (Figure 1)

43CouplingCoordinationAnalysis Using formulas (8) and(9) the paper calculates the coupling coordinated degree ofurban-rural logistics and the results are shown in Table 4

From the perspective of supply chain integration thecoupling coordinated level between urban and rural lo-gistics in China was rising slowly in fluctuation in theperiod 2001ndash2015 but there was hardly any change in thecoupling level between urban and rural areas (Figure 2)+is means that both urban and rural logistics in Chinahave developed to a certain extent and the level of co-ordination has improved after years of effort However theseparation situation between urban and rural logisticshas not been substantially changed the feature ofdual systems remains remarkable and the coordinateddevelopment between urban and rural logistics has roomfor improvement


On the one hand in the process of supply chain in-tegration urban logistics and rural logistics in China havemaintained a relatively stable and orderly developmenttrend At the same time the urban-rural financial servicesindustry information industry and commercial circulationindustry further integrated with the urban-rural logisticsindustry providing a guarantee and support for the co-ordinated development of urban-rural logistics

First the state has paid great attention to urban-ruralintegration and urban-rural logistics development in recentyears Regarding construction goals including the urban-rural logistics network of ldquourban distribution intercitydistribution and rural distributionrdquo and the modern urban-rural logistics system of ldquosmooth and efficient coordinatedand supportingrdquo the state has promulgated a series ofsupporting policies regulations and measures +e devel-opment environment of urban-rural logistics has beencontinuously improved and policy effects are graduallyemerging In 2015 the total amount of social logisticsreached 2192 trillion CNY an increase of 58 over theprevious year the total logistics volume of industrialproducts was 204 trillion CNY an increase of 61 over theprevious year and the total logistics volume of agriculturalproducts was 3 trillion CNY an increase of 39 over theprevious year

Second the urban-rural finance scale continues to ex-pand the efficiency of financial services has been furtherimproved and the support for urban-rural logistics has beenincreasing In 2014 the urban savings deposits balancereached 369 trillion CNY an increase of 66 over theprevious year and the rural savings deposits balance reached

116 trillion CNY an increase of 166 over the previousyear+e urban loan balance over the same period continuedto increase and the loans of financial institutions forwarehousing transportation and logistics industry reached83 trillion CNY +e loans related to agriculture reached236 trillion CNY accounting for 28 of loans and an in-crease of 13 over the previous year

+ird facing the needs of urban-rural integration de-velopment the information industry conscientiouslyimplemented the statersquos policy measures of ldquosteadyinggrowth promoting reform adjusting structure improvinglivelihood and preventing riskrdquo further promoted theldquobroadband Chinardquo strategy improved 4G network coverageand broadband infrastructure accelerated the pace of mobilecommunication facilities and constantly improved thebroadband infrastructure +e information level of bothurban and rural areas has been improved providing aguarantee for the coordinated development of urban-rurallogistics In 2014 the number of internet broadband accessports reached 470 million a net increase of 732 million andan increase of 183 over the previous year

Fourth the state has adopted many measures in thecirculation of commerce and trade to promote the in-tegration of urban-rural business +e project to encourageretailers to open stores in more townships and villages andengineering to support 100 large wholesale markets forfarm products and 100 large rural retail distributors bothprogressed smoothly Urban-rural commodity circulationhas entered into a new normal period of rational devel-opment in which the pursuit goal transformed from speedand scale to quality and efficiency +e market scale ofurban and rural areas continued to expand and the ruralconsumer goods market was becoming increasingly activeSince 2012 the growth rate of consumption in rural areashas been higher than that in urban areas For example theincrease in the total retail sales of social consumer goodswas 143 and 145 in 2012 129 and 146 in 2013 and118 and 130 in 2014 in urban and rural areasrespectively

On the other hand the coupling strength between urbanand rural logistics changed very little and the coupling levelwas stagnant which fully reflected the separation situation ofurban-rural logistics At the same time the ldquotwin effectrdquo ofthe dual economic structure in China has existed in financeinformation and circulation fields for a long time resultingin the division between urban and rural areas from eachother in finance information and trade circulation fieldsweakening the support of capital flow information flow andbusiness flow for urban-rural logistics and restricting thecoordinated development of urban-rural logistics

Table 2 Entropy value and entropy weight of order parameter

Index UL1 UL2 UL3 UL4 UL5 UL6 UL7 UL8 UL9 UL10Entropy value 08773 08570 09042 08958 09043 09485 09245 08724 08172 09294Entropy weight 01147 01337 00896 00974 00895 00481 00706 01193 01709 00660Index RL1 RL2 RL3 RL4 RL5 RL6 RL7 RL8 RL9 RL10Entropy value 08445 08472 09038 08741 08374 09419 08123 08427 08579 09512Entropy weight 01208 01187 00747 00978 01264 00452 01458 01223 01104 00379

Table 3 Order degree and differences between urban and rurallogistics

Year U(u1) U(u2) K

2001 00784 01483 mdash2002 01529 01870 003582003 01966 02319 003462004 02308 02426 005812005 01877 01969 006072006 02400 02347 007522007 03299 03013 009852008 03107 02690 011162009 04093 03299 014932010 05160 04002 018572011 05687 04981 014052012 06634 07131 002022013 07356 06551 015042014 08450 07565 015842015 08942 08098 01543


First although the process of urbanization promoted thedevelopment of the logistics industry in urban and ruralareas under the long-term existence of dual systems inurban and rural areas it is difficult to form synergistic effectsbetween urban and rural logistics [19] and the coordinateddevelopment level is not high +e rational flow of logisticsfactors such as technology capital and talent is limited inurban and rural areas and concentrated in urban areas Withthe continuous improvement of the urbanization level thelogistics infrastructure of the urban areas such as thetransportation network and information system has beenimproved day by day while the infrastructure of rural lo-gistics is still relatively backward At the same time theindustry concentration degree of rural logistics under therural farmers system is still low so it is difficult to form ascale effect Moreover these phenomena such as the high

cost of logistics self-employed logistics management modelow service level poor ability to resist risks developmentretardation of rural economic cooperation organization andlack of competitive business entities are more common thanothers Under the influence of a variety of factors urbanlogistics has the advantages of development the develop-ment of rural logistics lags behind and the gap betweenurban and rural logistics development is widening +ecoordinated development of urban-rural logistics is stillfacing severe challenges

Second since the reform and opening up the govern-ment has paid more attention to the innovation and de-velopment of urban finance for a long time but has ignoredthe importance of rural financial services +e state lacks aneffective compensation policy for rural financial servicesand the state-owned banks substantially reduce the financialservice outlets in rural areas Large amounts of rural fundsabsorbed through postal savings institutions are mainly usedfor urban construction Under the constraints of the fi-nancial system a farmerrsquos land (the largest asset) could notbe mortgaged leading to the rural mortgage loan businessbeing insufficient and a rural fund flowing to the city in largequantities [28] while the mechanism of returning urbancapital to rural areas is not perfect In the urban-rural dualfinancial structure the ldquofinancing difficultyrdquo problem ofurban-rural logistics especially rural logistics has notchanged significantly Financial support for the coordinateddevelopment of urban-rural logistics is limited

+ird the main problem of urban-rural informatizationis that construction in vast rural areas has lagged behind thatin urban areas for a long time Although the country hasadopted the ldquovillage to villagerdquo project strengthened theconstruction of the rural information infrastructure im-proved the coverage rate of the rural CATV network

ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year

Order degree of urban logisticsOrder degree of rural logisticsUrban-rural logistics difference

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Figure 1 Order degree and difference of urban-rural logistics

Table 4 Coupling coordinated degree of urban-rural logistics

Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523


telephone network and internet and effectively raised thelevel of informatization in rural areas the informatizationdevelopment level is uneven and there still exists a large gapbetween urban and rural areas Taking the broadband usersof urban and rural areas in 2015 as an example urbanbroadband users increased by 109 million which is 55times the net increase in rural broadband users In additionfactors such as a lack of information information timelinessand information pertinence further restrict the urban-ruralinformation integration process

Fourth from the perspective of commercial circulationthe dual economic structure has formed a dual circulationsystem in urban and rural areas which is not conducive tothe coordinated development of urban-rural logistics suchas commodity market segmentation large gap in thecommodity market transaction scale and the degree ofspecialization element market segmentation imbalance oflabor market and capital market development unequaltrading subject and the ability differences between urbanand rural market transactions Because of the segmentationof the circulation market between urban and rural areasfactor and commodity flows are blocked and the purchasingpower differences have become large [18] Taking urban-rural income levels as an example for a long time the percapita disposable income of urban residents was approxi-mately 3 times that of rural residents and the purchasingpower between urban and rural areas was significantlydifferent (Table 5) From the circulation process of urban-rural commodities especially agricultural products toomany circulation links caused by the separation of urban-rural commercial circulation systems may be an importantreason for the low efficiency and high cost of urban-rurallogistics In recent years under the impetus of the project toencourage retailers to open stores in more townships andvillages and engineering to support 100 large wholesalemarkets for farm products and 100 large rural retail

distributors in China commercial circulation markets inboth urban and rural areas have achieved varying degrees ofdevelopment but the dual segmentation features betweenurban and rural circulation markets have been difficult tofundamentally change in a short time

5 Results and Discussion

+e results show that in 2001ndash2015 Chinarsquos urban-rurallogistics development level was improved the coordinateddevelopment level showed a slow upward trend but theinteractive coupling level between urban and rural logisticswas stagnant and the orderly development difference wasgradually widening It is urgent to explore the coordinateddevelopment solutions of urban-rural logistics from the fouraspects of material flow capital flow information flow andbusiness flow

51 Building an Urban-Rural Two-Way Flowing ModernLogistics System Promoting the Coordinated Development ofUrban-Rural Material Circulation +e key to the co-ordinated development of urban-rural logistics is to es-tablish a modern logistics system of two-way flow betweenurban and rural areas +erefore on the one hand it isnecessary to cultivate more logistics enterprises in the citythat can serve the countryside and serve the ldquoindustrialgoods going to the countrysiderdquo relying on the project toencourage retailers to open stores in more townships andvillages and the engineering to support 100 large wholesalemarkets for farm products and 100 large rural retail dis-tributors support enterprises of agricultural productionindustrial production and daily consumer goods pro-duction in urban areas to carry out logistics services inrural areas through policy incentive and other means Atthe same time in the current trend of the supply chain

040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year

Coupling coordinated degreeCoupling degree

Figure 2 Coupling coordination and evolution trend of urban-rural logistics


business developing to rural areas urban logistics enter-prises should extend the logistics service network from thecity to the key villages and towns in rural areas estab-lishing a distribution network of urban-rural integration[29]

On the other hand taking the reform of a small peasant-based management system as an important task of ruralurbanization construction in China such as a householdcontract administration system the government shouldvigorously develop rural cooperative economic organiza-tions in rural areas and cultivate a new type of rural logisticssubject that could be useful for ldquoagricultural products en-tering the cityrdquo in the countryside Specifically the gov-ernment should be committed to reconstructing thetraditional trade circulation organization in rural areassupport a trade system and the postal system to set up specialrural logistics companies for rural development encouragetownship enterprises village enterprises farmersrsquo co-operative enterprises and rural individual enterprises toenter the logistics market carry out logistics businesssupport the wholesalers and middlemen and retailers ofagricultural and sideline products wholesale market totransit to logistics companies making it an effective businessentity to meet the needs of rural logistics development [6]Simultaneously we should focus on balancing urban andrural logistics resources and development plans tostrengthen the radiation effect of urban logistics on rurallogistics

52 Establishing an Efficient and Safe Urban-Rural FinancialSystem Providing Financial Support for the CoordinatedDevelopment of Urban-Rural Logistics On the one handrural logistics is a restrictive link of unbalanced urban-rural logistics taking Chinarsquos urbanization as an oppor-tunity and different places should reasonably extend theapplication fields of rural policy credit funds to a certainscope expanding the financial support effect of agricul-tural banks and agricultural development banks on rurallogistics for example increasing the large-amount andlong-term loans to support the development of rurallogistics in the loan business of rural commercial banks inChina setting up the payback mechanism of the postalsavings funds to rural areas encouraging insurance in-stitutions to set up corresponding insurance categories tounderwrite the storage transportation loading andunloading and other aspects of rural logistics increasinginvestment in rural logistics and taking it as a means ofurban areas nurturing rural areas in the process ofurbanization

On the other hand the practice in recent years hasshown that supply chain finance as a safe and efficient fi-nancial mode could not only improve the efficiency ofurban-rural logistics finance but also reduce the risk ofcapital flow+erefore in practice introducing supply chainmanagement into urban-rural logistics finance is helpful forpromoting the ldquofour-flowrdquo integration of material flowcapital flow information flow and business flow betweenurban and rural areas by the internet big data cloudcomputing and other means +e financial institutionslogistics enterprises EC enterprises and data companies ofurban and rural areas work together to provide diversifiedsupply chain financial support for the coordinated devel-opment of urban-rural logistics and conduct financialmanagement and integrated financial services for suppliersproducers and distributors in urban and rural industrialconsumer goods and agricultural products circulation

53 Promoting the Integration of Urban-Rural InformationCirculation Providing an Information Guarantee for theCoordinated Development of Urban-Rural Logistics On theone hand we should give priority to supporting the con-struction of rural informatization and further improve thecoverage level of the rural ldquothree networksrdquo strengthen theconstruction of the rural e-commerce information platformand promote the extension of the e-commerce informationnetwork to three or four cities and rural areas reduce theseparation of the urban-rural dual system by the use ofinformation technology establish a unified urban-ruralinformation network household registration system andpromote the reasonable flow of population resources be-tween urban and rural areas It is imperative to train in-formation professionals facing the needs for agriculture andrural informatization construction constantly improvefarmer enthusiasm in learning information technologystrengthen cultural information exchange between urbanand rural areas constantly improve farmersrsquo capabilities forinformation technology and keep information exchangeand information transmission smooth between urban andrural areas

On the other hand we should actively explore newmodels of supply chain information integration in urbanand rural areas For example Henan Zhongpin establishedan urban-rural agricultural product supply chain integratedservice system with some of the functions of an ldquoinformationplatform+ supply chain alliancerdquo through internet tech-nology built a distribution platform in more than 150 keyconsumer cities and provided an ldquoO2Ordquo one-stop service forthe trade of agricultural products through the integration of

Table 5 Per capita disposable income of urban-rural residents (CNY)

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008Urban residents 68596 77028 84722 94216 104930 117595 137858 157808Rural residents 23664 24756 26222 29364 32549 35870 41404 47606Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 mdashUrban residents 171747 191094 218098 245647 269551 293810 317903 mdashRural residents 51532 59190 69773 79166 88959 98920 107720 mdash


resources under the internet platform Based on the in-tegration of logistics capital flow information flow andbusiness flow the ZTE supply chain information platformcould share information with upstream and downstreamenterprises in the supply chain promote the cooperation ofsuppliers manufacturers and distributors between urbanand rural areas and achieve 360 degrees of transparentvisibility in the supply chain

54 Exploring Various Forms of the Urban-Rural Trade Cir-culation Mode Creating a Business Environment for theCoordinated Development of Urban-Rural Logistics On theone hand the integration of suppliers manufacturers dis-tributors retailers and end-users of urban and rural areasbased on supply chains is helpful for forming a network oftwo-way trade and circulation systems that combines urbanand rural areas and for realizing the unity of the logisticssupply chain service chain and value chain of urban andrural areas +e agricultural products business circulationmode of ldquofarmers + cooperative organizations + processingenterprises + electricity supplierretail terminal + consumerrdquowhich is formed through exploration for example couldintegrate the ldquoseed raise produce and sellrdquo links in theupstream and downstream of the agricultural product supplychain providing integrated services for the commercial cir-culation of agricultural products

On the other hand we should break the segmentation ofurban-rural dual markets establish a unified market systemin urban and rural areas and promote the rational flow ofproduction factors between urban and rural areas Con-tinuously optimizing the unnecessary links in the urban-rural circulation system effectively reduces the logistics costsof ldquoindustrial products to the countryside and agriculturalproducts into the cityrdquo and improves the efficiency of cir-culation A unified plan for the layout of urban-ruralcommercial networks and strengthening of the constructionof commercial networks in rural areas are needed For therural market system we should actively cultivate diversifiedbusiness circulation subjects such as agricultural com-modity circulation focusing on large agricultural enterprisesin rural areas rural commodity circulation focusing onsupermarket chains and agricultural products circulationfocusing on agricultural cooperatives

6 Conclusions

+is paper takes urban-rural logistics as the research objectestablishes a coordinated development index system basedon supply chain management determines the index weightusing the entropy method builds a coordinated develop-ment model using coupling theory and synergy theory andempirically researches coordinated development from 2001to 2015 in China Finally the paper discusses the results andproposes some suggestions

Our research contributes to the extant literature in threeways (1) +e designing of an urban-rural logistics indexsystem based on supply chain management can compre-hensively reflect the profound connotation and internal

logical relationship of urban-rural logistics development andensure the scientificity systematicness independence andoperability of the index system Using the entropy method todetermine the weight of the indicators can be helpful inreducing the interference of subjective factors and im-proving the objectivity of the study (2)+e establishment ofthe coupling coordinated development model using themethods of coupling theory and synergy theory can not onlybetter describe the degree of interaction coupling betweenurban and rural logistics but also effectively reflect the levelof coordinated development of urban and rural logistics (3)+e empirical research on the basis of Chinarsquos statistical datain the past 15 years illustrates the applicability of the modeland the feasibility of the research methods Analyses on thecoupling coordinated development level and evolution trendof subsystems and composite systems are helpful to furtheridentify the deep-seated problems in the coordinated de-velopment of urban and rural logistics in China and providea reference for relevant policy formulations

From the perspective of the supply chain the co-ordinated development of urban-rural logistics is a sys-tematic engineering strategy that includes material flowcapital flow information flow and business flow +e in-teraction mechanism among various elements in subsystemsand complex systems of urban-rural logistics presentsnonlinear characteristics +e urban-rural logistics system isa complex system that is far from the equilibrium stateUsing coupling theory and synergy theory to establish acoupling coordination model and study the coordinateddevelopment of urban-rural logistics can deeply reflect thesecharacteristics of the system which has high effectivenessand adaptability +erefore based on the research methodsof coupling theory and synergy theory further analysis of theopenness dynamics and hierarchy of urban-rural logisticssystems will be a valuable research direction in the future

Data Availability

+e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

+e author declares that there are no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

+is work was supported by the Humanities and SocialSciences Research Project of Ministry of Education (GrantNo 19YJA790015) System Innovation Project of ChongqingScience and Technology Bureau (Grant No cstc2019jsyj-zzysbA0017) Chongqing Social Science Planning Project(Grant No 2017YBJJ042) Humanities and Social SciencesProject of Chongqing Education Commission (Grant No18SKGH160) Chongqing Educational Science PlanningProject (Grant No 2018-GX-116) Chongqing EducationReform Key Project (Grant No 182033) Research Project ofChongqing Education Comprehensive Reform (Grant No19JGY42) and Key Scientific Research Project of Chongqing


University of Education (Grant No KY201707A) and theauthor would like to express heartfelt thanks for the support+e author would also like to thank Raghda Radwan andFrancesco Zammori for providing constructive commentson the manuscript of this paper

References

[1] M Hesse ldquo+e changing structure of merchandise man-agement and logistics and its effects on urban developmentrdquoGeographische Zeitschrif vol 87 no 3-4 pp 223ndash237 1999

[2] K Aljohani and R G +ompson ldquoImpacts of logistics sprawlon the urban environment and logistics taxonomy and reviewof literaturerdquo Journal of Transport Geography vol 57pp 255ndash263 2016

[3] Y Zhang Y Y Zhang Y F Li S Liu and J A Yang ldquoA studyof rural logistics center location based on intuitionistic fuzzyTOPSISrdquo Mathematical Problems in Engineering vol 2017Article ID 2323057 7 pages 2017

[4] X Guo J Shi D Ren J Ren and Q Liu ldquoCorrelationsbetween air pollutant emission logistic services GDP andurban population growth from vector autoregressive mod-eling a case study of Beijingrdquo Natural Hazards vol 87 no 2pp 885ndash897 2017

[5] I Kumar A Zhalnin A Kim and L J Beaulieu ldquoTrans-portation and logistics cluster competitive advantages in theUS regions a cross-sectional and spatio-temporal analysisrdquoResearch in Transportation Economics vol 61 pp 25ndash362017

[6] B Liu ldquo+e city-country duality conformation and itscountermeasure of Chinese logistics industry developmentrdquoInquiry into Economic Issues vol 4 pp 47ndash49 2008

[7] J S Zhang ldquoLogistics development and income differencebetween urban and rural areas an empirical analysis based onprovincial panel datardquo Economics and Management vol 24no 4 pp 31ndash35 2010

[8] J F Ding ldquoEconomic integration of urban and rural areas anddevelopment of logistics industryrdquo China Circulation Econ-omy vol 25 no 8 pp 8ndash10 2011

[9] Y Song ldquoProblems and countermeasures in the constructionof logistics system for two-way flow of urban and rural areasrdquoEconomic Review vol 3 pp 32ndash35 2011

[10] X H Qin G X Wei and J Zhou ldquoBidirectional logisticsystem of urban and rural balancing case study of chongq-ingrdquo Science and Technology Management Research vol 31no 13 pp 114ndash117 2011

[11] M L Lu ldquoStudy on the optimizing the distribution network inchain operation based on urban-rural logistics integrationrdquoMathematics in Practice andeory vol 42 no 22 pp 71ndash782012

[12] L Y Zhou W D Gu and J Zhou ldquoIntegrated developmentof urban and rural logistics from the perspective of publicservices equalizationrdquo Modern Management Science vol 11pp 9ndash11 2012

[13] W Liang and W Zhang ldquo+e impact of urban-rural in-tegration rural logistics and rural finance on the income offarmersrdquo Journal of Beijing Jiaotong University vol 1pp 98ndash105 2016

[14] L D Zhao and H Y Wang Supply Chain and LogisticsManagement pp 6ndash8 Science Press Beijing China 2011

[15] L M He ldquoLogistics and supply chain development trend andpolicy expectation of China under the new normalrdquo ChinaCirculation Economy vol 8 pp 4ndash8 2014

[16] L L Wei and J Ma ldquo+e impact of unbalanced developmentof finance in double hysteresis regions upon the urban-ruralincome gaprdquo Journal of Lanzhou University vol 1 pp 117ndash125 2014

[17] D M Xu C L Xiu and X Y Wang ldquo+e informationtechnology and urban-rural integration and correspondingcountermeasuresrdquo Economic Geography vol 24 no 2pp 221ndash225 2004

[18] B P Ren ldquo+e necessity and strategy of establishing urban-rural-two-way-flow commercial circulation systemrdquo Journalof Business Economics vol 10 pp 5ndash11 2011

[19] B P Ren and J Wei ldquoMeasurement and evaluation on degreeof the urban-rural commercial and trade integrationrdquo Sta-tistics ampInformation Forum vol 26 no 9 pp 28ndash34 2011

[20] T W Malone and K Crowston ldquo+e interdisciplinary studyof coordinationrdquo ACM Computing Surveys vol 26 no 1pp 87ndash119 1994

[21] H Bai and W X Han ldquoGeneral theories about complexsystems and their coordinationrdquo Operations Research andManagement Science vol 9 no 3 pp 1ndash7 2000

[22] Q S Meng and W X Han ldquoStudy of the coordinatingmeasurement model with respect to composite systemrdquoJournal of Tianjin University vol 33 no 4 pp 444ndash446 2000

[23] Y X Wang ldquoEmpirical study of the coupling coordinationrelationship of urbanization and ecological environment inNanchang and Jiujiang urban beltsrdquo Journal of In-terdisciplinary Mathematics vol 17 no 5-6 pp 511ndash5262014

[24] V Illingworth e Penguin Dictionary of Physics ForeignLanguage Press Beijing China 1996

[25] P D Zhang ldquoAnalysis of coupling coordination betweenregional manufacturing and producer services based onempirical study of 29 provincial regions in Chinardquo Devel-opment Research vol 2 pp 46ndash49 2010

[26] L Li and J Liu ldquoResearching coordinate development of high-tech industry and new-type industrialization in Xinjiangbased on coupling degree modelrdquo Science amp TechnologyProgress and Policy vol 4 pp 44ndash49 2013

[27] Y Zhang and Q Chen ldquoResearch on coordinating degree ofregional logistics industry and economic development inChina based on compound system model and panel data of30 provincesrdquo Soft Science vol 24 no 12 pp 70ndash74 2010

[28] H L Zhang and C Y Zheng ldquoInquiry into the income gap ofresidents and the integration of urban and rural financialservicesrdquo Financial eory and Practice vol 9 no 12pp 75ndash78 2011

[29] Rural Modern Logistics Research Center Research GroupD C He Y X Cha et al ldquoChina Rural Logistics DevelopmentReport (2013)rdquo vol 9 pp 8ndash30 China Cooperative EconomyChina 2013


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Dierential EquationsInternational Journal of

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researchers Academic circles have mainly focused on thecharacteristics functions difficulties and solutions of urbanand rural logistics For example Liu believed that urban-rural logistics in China presented a typical dualistic structurefeature and that a solution was to build an urban-ruralintegrated logistics system and realize its coordinated de-velopment [6] Zhang conducted an empirical study on therelationship between urban-rural logistics development andthe income gap between urban and rural areas using thepanel data of 31 provinces and regions in China for theperiod 1998ndash2007 +e study found that the development ofthe logistics industry can promote the narrowing of theincome gap between urban and rural areas [7] Ding furthernoted that the integrated development of urban-rural lo-gistics played an important role in eliminating the in-stitutional obstacles that restrict the coordinateddevelopment of urban and rural areas overall planning ofurban and rural development optimizing the rural marketsystem and improving the living standards of rural residents[8] Song studied the problems and countermeasures in theconstruction of urban and rural logistics systems It is be-lieved that the development of urban and rural logisticsshould be devoted to the transformation of governmentfunctions improvement of the modernization level of rurallogistics and establishment of a government managementsystem that is adapted to the two-way logistics developmentof urban and rural areas in order to realize the integration ofurban-rural trade economy [9] Taking Chongqing as anexample Qin et al analyzed the development of urban andrural logistics using the SWOT method and proposed thebuilding of a two-way urban-rural logistics system inChongqing [10] Lu established the network optimizationmodel of the distribution center and the purchase center ofagricultural products and demonstrated the optimizationproblem of the chain management distribution networkunder the integration of urban-rural logistics [11] From theperspective of public service equalization using the theory oflogistics system engineering Zhou et al studied the in-tegrated development of urban and rural logistics under anew situation [12] Based on the national statistical data ofthe period 2004ndash2013 Liang and Zhang empirically analyzedthe impact of urban-rural integration rural logistics andrural finance on farmersrsquo income using principal componentanalysis [13] In summary the existing achievements havelaid the foundation for further research

+is paper differs from the previous research in thefollowing two respects First unlike most articles thatconsider urban logistics and rural logistics separately as twoindependent issues and neglect the connection between thetwo this paper considers urban-rural logistics a unifiedsystem +is paper regards urban and rural logistics as asystem establishes a model of urban-rural logistics complexsystems using coupling theory and synergy theory designsan index system based on the concept of supply chainmanagement and analyzes the mutual coupling degree andcoordinated development level of various elements in theurban-rural logistics complex system Second most of thearticles in this area have mainly focused on theoreticalanalysis and qualitative research while studies using

empirical analysis and quantitative research are lackingBased on the statistical data from 2001 to 2015 this paperconducts empirical research on urban-rural logistics usingcoupling coordinated development models quantitativelycalculating the orderly development level of urban-rurallogistics subsystems and coupling the coordinated degree ofcomposite systems and proposing corresponding counter-measures and suggestions

+is paper is organized as follows In Section 2 wedesign an index system for urban-rural logistics A co-ordinated development model of urban-rural logistics isproposed in Section 3 Section 4 presents the empiricalresearch including the data processing index weight cal-culation and coupling coordination analysis of urban-rurallogistics Section 5 discusses the results and Section 6concludes the paper

2 Index System

Supply chain management as the inevitable outcome whenlogistics is developed in both breadth and depth the logicalextension of logistics and a more advanced stage of logisticsmanagement [14] has become a new management mode toimprove operating efficiency In the new normal develop-ment stage of the economic growth rate shift structuraladjustment and optimization and reform and opening up inChina one important development trend of the logisticsindustry is the movement toward supply chain management[15] According to the definition implemented by the na-tional standard in 2001 supply chain management refers tocomprehensive planning of business flow material flow(logistics) information flow and capital flow in the supplychain by the use of computer network technology as well asorganizing coordinating and controlling +e four flows ofthe supply chain are closely linked +e capital flow in-formation flow and business flow are a strong support basicguarantee and important premise in the development oflogistics Based on this thinking the paper could establishthe index system of coordinated development between ur-ban and rural logistics considering the above four aspects

21 Urban-Rural Material Flow Under the long-term eco-nomic and social dualistic structure system in China urbanlogistics has developed rapidly but rural logistics has laggedbehind In the process of urbanization the gap betweenurban and rural logistics has gradually increased leading tothe dualistic structure between urban and rural logistics +ekey to breaking the dualistic structure between urban andrural logistics and realizing the integration of urban andrural commodity circulation is the construction of an urban-rural two-way logistics system named ldquoindustrial productsgoing to the countryside and agricultural products enteringthe cityrdquo+erefore the urban-rural material flow focuses ontwo aspects +e first is the logistics activities in which in-dustrial products and consumer goods flow from the city tothe countryside through the wholesale market or logisticsdistribution center +e other is the logistics activitiesin which agricultural products flow from farmers or










3 Research Methods





X

x11 x12 x1n

x21 x22 x2n

⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮

xm1 xm2 xmn

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(1)









Informationflow


Business flow








products RL4


Informationflow


Business flow









⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(2)



pij rij

1113936mi1rij

(3)


Ej minus k 1113944m



ωj 1 minus Ej


(5)











U uij1113872 1113873

Xij minus βij

αij minus βij


αij minus Xij

αij minus βij


⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(6)



U ui( 1113857 1113944n

j1λijU uij1113872 1113873 (7)






1ncould rep-


C U u1( 1113857 middot U u2( 11138571113858 1113859

12

U u1( 1113857 + U u2( 1113857 (8)



D (C middot T)12


⎧⎨

⎩ (9)


4 Empirical Study


























Year U(u1) U(u2) K

2001 00784 01483 mdash2002 01529 01870 003582003 01966 02319 003462004 02308 02426 005812005 01877 01969 006072006 02400 02347 007522007 03299 03013 009852008 03107 02690 011162009 04093 03299 014932010 05160 04002 018572011 05687 04981 014052012 06634 07131 002022013 07356 06551 015042014 08450 07565 015842015 08942 08098 01543






ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year


2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523








040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018
















3 Research Methods





X

x11 x12 x1n

x21 x22 x2n

⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮

xm1 xm2 xmn

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(1)









Informationflow


Business flow








products RL4


Informationflow


Business flow









⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(2)



pij rij

1113936mi1rij

(3)


Ej minus k 1113944m



ωj 1 minus Ej


(5)











U uij1113872 1113873

Xij minus βij

αij minus βij


αij minus Xij

αij minus βij


⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(6)



U ui( 1113857 1113944n

j1λijU uij1113872 1113873 (7)






1ncould rep-


C U u1( 1113857 middot U u2( 11138571113858 1113859

12

U u1( 1113857 + U u2( 1113857 (8)



D (C middot T)12


⎧⎨

⎩ (9)


4 Empirical Study


























Year U(u1) U(u2) K

2001 00784 01483 mdash2002 01529 01870 003582003 01966 02319 003462004 02308 02426 005812005 01877 01969 006072006 02400 02347 007522007 03299 03013 009852008 03107 02690 011162009 04093 03299 014932010 05160 04002 018572011 05687 04981 014052012 06634 07131 002022013 07356 06551 015042014 08450 07565 015842015 08942 08098 01543






ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year


2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523








040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018












⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(2)



pij rij

1113936mi1rij

(3)


Ej minus k 1113944m



ωj 1 minus Ej


(5)











U uij1113872 1113873

Xij minus βij

αij minus βij


αij minus Xij

αij minus βij


⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨

⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩

(6)



U ui( 1113857 1113944n

j1λijU uij1113872 1113873 (7)






1ncould rep-


C U u1( 1113857 middot U u2( 11138571113858 1113859

12

U u1( 1113857 + U u2( 1113857 (8)



D (C middot T)12


⎧⎨

⎩ (9)


4 Empirical Study


























Year U(u1) U(u2) K

2001 00784 01483 mdash2002 01529 01870 003582003 01966 02319 003462004 02308 02426 005812005 01877 01969 006072006 02400 02347 007522007 03299 03013 009852008 03107 02690 011162009 04093 03299 014932010 05160 04002 018572011 05687 04981 014052012 06634 07131 002022013 07356 06551 015042014 08450 07565 015842015 08942 08098 01543






ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year


2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523








040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018









1ncould rep-


C U u1( 1113857 middot U u2( 11138571113858 1113859

12

U u1( 1113857 + U u2( 1113857 (8)



D (C middot T)12


⎧⎨

⎩ (9)


4 Empirical Study


























Year U(u1) U(u2) K

2001 00784 01483 mdash2002 01529 01870 003582003 01966 02319 003462004 02308 02426 005812005 01877 01969 006072006 02400 02347 007522007 03299 03013 009852008 03107 02690 011162009 04093 03299 014932010 05160 04002 018572011 05687 04981 014052012 06634 07131 002022013 07356 06551 015042014 08450 07565 015842015 08942 08098 01543






ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year


2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523








040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018


















Year U(u1) U(u2) K

2001 00784 01483 mdash2002 01529 01870 003582003 01966 02319 003462004 02308 02426 005812005 01877 01969 006072006 02400 02347 007522007 03299 03013 009852008 03107 02690 011162009 04093 03299 014932010 05160 04002 018572011 05687 04981 014052012 06634 07131 002022013 07356 06551 015042014 08450 07565 015842015 08942 08098 01543






ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year


2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523








040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018












ndash020

ndash015

ndash010

ndash005

000

005

010

015

020

025

030

035

040

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

Diff

eren

ce d

egre

e

Ord

er d

egre

e

Year


2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Year C D

2001 04756 023222002 04975 029082003 04983 032672004 04998 034402005 04999 031002006 05000 034452007 04995 039702008 04987 038022009 04971 042862010 04960 047672011 04989 051592012 04997 058642013 04992 058912014 04992 063232015 04994 06523








040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018














040

042

044

046

048

050

052

054

056

058

060

000

010

020

030

040

050

060

070

080

090

100

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Coup

ling

degr

ee

Coup

ling

coor

dina

ted

degr

ee

Year
















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018




















6 Conclusions





Data Availability




Acknowledgments




References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018









References






































Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018















Journal of












Journal of







Volume 2018






Volume 2018








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