How does environmental perception affect the willingness of university students to return home to start a business?

Entrepreneurial intentions play a crucial role in predicting entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurship is not a solitary individual endeavor, but rather, it is interconnected with the interplay between the individual and society. Previous studies have not clearly distinguished the unique role of entrepreneurs as individuals engaging in the entrepreneurial process, and there remains a lack of research on the psychological processes of entrepreneurs’ interactions with other people and their surroundings, which leaves a gap to be filled in entrepreneurship research. Therefore, this study introduces the concept of entrepreneurial environment cognition and re-examines the “process of interaction between entrepreneurial environment and subjects.” When university students return to their hometown to start a business, the entrepreneurial mindset and perspective towards the entrepreneurial environment in their hometown can significantly impact their entrepreneurial intentions. This study, based on data from 302 respondents, integrates insights from entrepreneurship and cognitive psychology research to illustrate the influence of entrepreneurship and cognitive psychology in the process of university students returning to their hometown to start a business. To ensure construct validity and reliability, Cronbach’s alpha, Composite Reliability, and heterotrait-monotrait ratio tests are adopted. Additionally, this study further explains the mechanisms underlying this relationship by outlining the role of entrepreneurial passion and policy support. The findings suggest that environmental perceptions contribute to the willingness of university students to return to their home town for entrepreneurship, while entrepreneurial passion acts as a bridge and presents a partially mediating role in the relationship. In addition, it was found that the pathway environmental perceptions—willingness to return to their home town for entrepreneurship was more significantly moderated by policy support. These findings also provide reference and suggestions for the government and other decision-making departments.

创业意向对创业行为的预测具有关键作用。创业并非孤立的个体行为，而是与个体和社会之间的互动紧密关联。既往研究尚未明确区分创业者作为参与创业过程的个体所具备的独特角色，且针对创业者与他人及周遭环境互动的心理过程的研究仍存在空白，这为创业研究留下了有待填补的研究缺口。因此，本研究引入创业环境认知（entrepreneurial environment cognition）概念，重新审视"创业环境与主体的互动过程"。当大学生返乡创业时，其对家乡创业环境的创业思维与认知视角，会对其创业意向产生显著影响。本研究基于302份受访者数据，整合创业学与认知心理学的研究成果，阐释创业相关因素与认知心理学机制在大学生返乡创业过程中的影响。为确保结构效度与信度，本研究采用了克隆巴赫α系数（Cronbach’s alpha）、组合信度（Composite Reliability）以及异特质-同特质比（heterotrait-monotrait ratio）检验方法。此外，本研究通过剖析创业激情与政策支持的作用路径，进一步阐释了该关联背后的内在机制。研究结果表明，环境认知有助于提升大学生返乡创业意愿，而创业激情在该关联中发挥桥梁作用，呈现部分中介效应。此外，研究还发现，政策支持对"环境认知—大学生返乡创业意愿"这一路径具有显著的调节作用。本研究结论可为政府及其他决策部门提供参考与建议。