The impacts of the social capital on the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses: From the perspective of network embeddedness

Migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses can effectively cultivate the endogenous power of rural economic development, which is of great practical significance for promoting the rural revitalization strategy. In the context of the current information age, the social capital has been differentiated into the real social capital and the virtual social capital due to the embedding of the Internet, which may have different effects on the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses. Based on the microcosmic survey data of 406 migrant workers in Xi’an city, this paper analyzed the impacts of the real social capital and the virtual social capital on the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses from the perspective of Internet embedding by the structural equation model. Results show that migrant workers have a strong willingness to return to hometown to start their own businesses. The real social capital has a direct positive influence on the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses; While the virtual social capital has a direct negative influence and an indirect positive influence on the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses. In addition, the virtual social capital can be transformed into the real social capital, which is gradually replacing part of the real social capital to become an important force to increase the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses. For the Internet embedding, results show that it has a direct negative impact on the real social capital and a direct positive impact on the virtual social capital, but it has no any direct impact on the willingness of migrant workers returning to hometown to start their own businesses. In summary, this paper suggests to accelerate the development of rural economic organizations to increase the accumulation of social capital, to establish and improve the information service platform, and to strengthen the Internet information audit mechanism.