Understanding the Impact of Rural Returnees’ Hometown Identity on Their Successful Entrepreneurship with the Operations Research Framework

In the past ten years, China’s rapid urbanization has hollowed out the rural population considerably. Although returnee entrepreneurship has become a catalyst for retaining people and revitalizing the countryside, most disenfranchised Chinese villages struggle to retain their returnees, owing to their lack of infrastructure and low quality of life. However, many e-commerce villages and live broadcast villages have emerged in the eastern coastal plains of China. Returnees, inspired with a strong hometown identity, have become the driving force in the development of these villages. This study investigates the relationship between the hometown identity of returnees and their entrepreneurial success with the operations research framework. We explored the mediating role of the agglomeration of knowledge to illustrate the mechanism between the hometown identity and entrepreneurial success, while testing the moderating effect and conditional indirect effects of the returnees’ creativity through moderated mediation analysis. Using the time lag research method, we collected field data from villages in the northern plains of Jiangsu Province. The research results showed a positive correlation between the hometown identity and entrepreneurial success, with agglomerated knowledge production as an important intermediary. Returnees with a stronger sense of a hometown identity and higher creativity are more likely to enjoy entrepreneurial success. This research has important reference significance for all levels of government concerned with rural development, and returnees who desire to start their own businesses.