Should I stay or should I go? Job demands’ push and entrepreneurial resources’ pull in Chinese migrant workers’ return-home entrepreneurial intention

ABSTRACT

This study explores how the push factor of job demands and the pull factor of entrepreneurial resources influence the intention of Chinese migrant workers to return to their hometown and engage in entrepreneurial activities. Data were collected from 302 Chinese migrant workers. The main findings are as follows: a) job demands can increase the return-home entrepreneurial intention of migrant workers through the mediation of job burnout; b) entrepreneurial resources can positively influence the return-home entrepreneurial intention of migrant workers through the mediation of entrepreneurial conviction; c) generation positively moderates the job demands – job burnout – entrepreneurial intention relationship and negatively moderates the entrepreneurial resources – entrepreneurial conviction – entrepreneurial intention relationship. This study reveals the importance of examining push and pull factors concurrently, and emphasizes the intergenerational differences in explaining the return-home entrepreneurial intention of Chinese migrant workers.

KEYWORDS:

• Return-home entrepreneurial intention
• job demand
• job burnout
• entrepreneurial resources
• entrepreneurial conviction
• Chinese migrant workers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See reports such as Foxconn’s suicides http://www.bbc.com/news/10182824 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-happened-after-the-foxconn-suicides/. More reports on the migration pattern as well as unique challenges and problems facing Chinese migrant workers can be found from sources such as Shi (2008).

2. These policy guidelines direct local governments to encourage migrant workers (as well as university graduates and discharged soldiers) to use the capital, skills, and experience they have acquired in urban areas to engage in entrepreneurship in underdeveloped rural areas. They are an important step toward reducing rural–urban disparity and rejuvenating rural areas in China. See links such as https://www.cfr.org/blog/guest-post-chinas-back-countryside-policy-step-toward-reducing-rural-urban-disparity.

Additional information

Funding

We fully acknowledge the funding support from the National Science Foundation of China (No.71672146, 71672196, 71772025), as well as the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.2019ECNU-HWFW020).