Serial Mediation Model Linking Returnee Entrepreneurship Education and Green Returnee Entrepreneurial Behavior: An Analysis of Environmental Improvement

Abstract

With the increasingly negative impact of environmental pollution on human production and life caused by the non-green operation of enterprises, a new generation of returnee entrepreneurs is called upon to take on regional environmental protection and global ecological improvement. This study examined the impact of returnee entrepreneurship education (REE). A conceptual model is constructed based on REE as the core factor of environmental sustainability and uses the occurrence of green entrepreneurial behavior among new university graduates returning to their hometowns as an evaluation basis. Convenience sampling was applied, and the relevant data were collected from 358 new university graduates in Jiangsu Province, China who received REE during their university years. Empirical analysis based on partial least squares structural equation modeling shows that REE evokes a commitment to the environment (CE) and has an indirect significant impact on green returnee entrepreneurial behavior (GREB) through institutional support and intention. However, a CE did not have a significant direct effect. The findings of this study have significant reference value for decision-makers in government departments in developing countries, universities, and many social groups that are actively responding to the United Nations Sustainable Development Initiative.