Cross-border e-commerce business environment evaluation for Chinese provinces using a combined Entropy-TOPSIS approach.

The good business environment of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) can promote economic development and corporate innovation. Improving the business environment of CBEC has a favorable influence on the digital economy development. To improve the business environment targeted at cross-border e-commerce, we propose a combined approach of Entropy-TOPSIS to evaluate the business environment of CBEC. We construct an evaluation index system containing four dimensions and 12 first-level and 33 s-level indicators. The panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2020 are collected to evaluate the business environment of CBEC. The results show that Guangdong has the highest comprehensive score for the CBEC business environment and the business environment of CBEC is uneven among provinces. The economic and market environment dimension, human resource dimension, and technology and innovation environment dimension of 31 provinces are highly coupled with the comprehensive performance. The three dimensions are the key factors constraining the construction of the business environment for CBEC. The relationship between the results of the business environment assessment and the actual situation are analyzed in further discussion, demonstrating the validity of the evaluation results. Finally, recommendations are proposed for improving the business environment of cross-border e-commerce.