A structural equation model to access the regional public brands of agricultural products: Case of Chinese Yingde black tea.

The regional public brand of agricultural products plays an important role in the development of agricultural economy. How to effectively build regional public brands for agricultural products is an urgent practical problem that needs to be solved in various regions. This study uses Chinese Yingde black tea as a case, aims to understand how government support, resource endowment, industrial clusters, and regional culture affect the regional public brand of agricultural products based on regional brand theory. We collected 416 valid sample data from practitioners related to Yingde black tea through an online survey questionnaire, and used structural equation modeling to obtain government support (β = 0.196, p<0.005), resource allowance (β = 0.144, p<0.05), industrial cluster (β = 0.231, p<0.005) and regional culture (β = 0.335, p<0.005) are positively related to reputation of regional public brands for agricultural products. Industrial clusters and regional culture play the mediating roles between government support, resource empowerment, and the reputation of regional public brands for agricultural products. The results breaks through the single influencing factor perspective of existing research and comprehensively analyzes the interrelationships of different influencing factors in the formation process of regional public brands for agricultural products. It has certain practical implications for the construction of regional public brands for agricultural products in China.