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Using a manually collected dataset on the overseas experiences of directors of Chinese listed firms, we examine the effects of returnee directors on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. Our results show that returnee directors significantly improve their firms' CSR engagement. The positive relationship between the percentage of returnee directors and CSR engagement is more significant when a firm is in a competitive industry, when a firm has no government ownership, when a firm's CEO is not politically connected, and when a firm's CEO is older. Furthermore, we find that only long-term foreign professional or academic experience matters, whereas shortterm visiting experience does not. Finally, our results are robust after controlling for endogeneity. Therefore, this paper offers clear policy implications by suggesting that hiring more returnees as corporate directors is an efficient way to enhance firms' CSR, which may be of particular interest to regulators in emerging markets.

This paper explored African diaspora entrepreneurship as a catalyst for resilient business ecosystems and economic development in Africa. It emphasised the role of transnational and returnee diaspora entrepreneurs in fostering inclusivity, investment and transnational collaboration. While diaspora entrepreneurship’s global impact is recognised, its theoretical grounding in the African context remains underdeveloped. Addressing this gap, the study employed an interpretivist, qualitative approach using desktop research, analysing documents, conference proceedings and media reports with NVivo 14. The findings revealed that diaspora engagement promotes transformative economic impact and bridges opportunity divides. The study aligns with initiatives such as African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Agenda 2063, contributing to international business and entrepreneurship and development economics literature, while offering policy insights for leveraging diaspora networks in Africa’s economic advancement.

While past studies have enriched our understanding of the impact of returnee executives on firm market strategy and outcomes, we know relatively little about the relationship between returnee executives and firm nonmarket strategies. Grounded in upper echelons theory, this study explores the relationship between returnee executives and corporate philanthropy, the latter of which is an important nonmarket strategy in emerging economies such as China. Using data on publicly listed Chinese companies from 2010 to 2017, we find that the proportion of returnee executives is negative related to corporate philanthropy. We also find that this negative relationship is strengthened by executive ownership, but weakened by corporate prominence and political connections. Our study makes important theoretical contributions to strategic leadership research, upper echelons theory, and the literature of corporate philanthropy. The managerial implications are also discussed.

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.

Purpose On the basis of the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), this study aims to introduce the moderating role of firm internationalization to explore whether and when financial performance shortfalls and innovation performance shortfalls influence firms’ decisions to hire returnee executives. Design/methodology/approach Using a comprehensive database of Chinese nonstate-owned listed manufacturing companies from 2011 to 2019, we conduct empirical tests to determine the credibility of our proposed theoretical hypothesis. Findings Firms eager to bolster their immediate financial standing and thus address financial performance shortfalls are typically less inclined to onboard returnee executives. In contrast, firms that focus on swiftly increasing their innovation capabilities in response to innovation performance shortfalls showcase a preference for returnee leadership. An ancillary observation is that a firm’s global footprint amplifies the positive influence of innovation performance shortfalls on its propensity to hire returnee executives. Originality/value By theorizing for the first time and providing empirical evidence that financial performance shortfalls and innovation performance shortfalls have different impacts on returnee executives, this study provides new insights into the BTOF and returnee executive literature.

The academic ecology of China’s elite universities has been deeply shaped by internationalization through the efforts of returnee faculty members. This study explores how to internationalize the Chinese academic ecology and create world-class universities by examining the experiences and perceptions of returnee faculty members in China’s elite universities. Using a qualitative method, 18 returnees from three top universities were interviewed to present their in-depth insights into the dynamics of the academic ecosystem in China. The study findings highlight that bringing international academic peer review and tenure track mechanisms into China’s current higher education system is necessary to meet the international academic standard pursued by world-class universities. Encouraging publications in English works to benefit the internationalization of China’s academic ecology. Returnee faculty members underwent a re-adaptation socialization process in Chinese local academic discourse and used self-mockery to describe themselves as “abandoned orphans” to express their marginalized status in their local academic networks and communities. The returnees found that their academic identities needed to match the academic context of Chinese universities, especially in social science. The discussions also highlighted the current tensions in the drive to internationalize China’s elite universities and the need to strengthen indigenous elements, international faculty practices, and local requirements, in addition to the career interests of returnees and local peers. These tensions contribute to the international awareness, engagement, and advances in the focus on Chinese characteristics to serve local and national agendas.

Our study finds that relative to firms managed by local CEOs, firms managed by CEOs who have returned from overseas (returnee CEOs) exhibit significantly higher audit fees. We also find this positive association to be stronger for returnee CEOs who manage firms with greater agency problems, have overseas experience in countries with better developed institutions, or have greater business knowledge. Further analyses indicate that firms managed by returnee CEOs tend to exhibit better financial reporting quality, lower propensities for financial fraud, and fewer earnings restatements in subsequent years. In addition, firms managed by returnee CEOs are associated with greater internationalization and higher propensities for seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) than firms managed by local CEOs. Overall, our findings are most consistent with the conjecture that returnees tend to bring ethics and practices that ensure higher financial reporting quality back to their home countries. Our findings offer a plausible explanation that returnee talents could increase firm value.

Innovation is an important driving force for social and economic development, and an important way for enterprises to obtain competitive advantages in the market and realize sustainable development. The article takes 960 enterprises listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares as research samples, and utilizes the threshold regression model to explore the impact of the remuneration gap of returnee executives on the innovation ability of enterprises. After analyzing the results of the threshold panel regression, it was found that there is a double threshold effect between the remuneration gap of returnee executives and the innovation ability of enterprises. When the returnee executives’ pay gap is ≤2.463 times, the returnee executives’ pay gap has a negative impact on the innovation ability of enterprises. When the remuneration gap of returnee executives is in the range of (2.463, 4.134], the remuneration gap of returnee executives positively and significantly promotes the enterprise’s innovation ability at the 1% level. When the remuneration gap between returnee executives is higher than 4.134 times, it has a negative impact on the performance of enterprise innovation ability at the 1% level. Therefore, enterprises need to set a reasonable salary gap range when introducing returnee executives, which can not only motivate the innovation enthusiasm of returnee executives but also eliminate the negative emotions of employees, thus effectively promoting the development of enterprise innovation ability.

Fostering agricultural green entrepreneurship (AGE) is essential for achieving inclusive rural development and environmental sustainability, particularly in regions facing severe resource constraints such as Pakistan. While resource bricolage theory has been widely applied in industrial and urban entrepreneurship research, its micro-level role in shaping agricultural green entrepreneurship among returnee migrants in developing countries remains largely unexplored. This study examines how resource bricolage the creative mobilization and recombination of available but limited resources affects AGE outcomes among returnee rural migrants in the Balochistan and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. Using survey data collected in 2023 from 480 returnee agricultural entrepreneurs, we apply multiple linear regression and mediation analysis to evaluate the effects of four types of bricolage: skill, customer, institutional, and network. The findings show that skill bricolage has the strongest impact on AGE, followed by customer, institutional, and network bricolage. Mechanism tests reveal that bricolage enhances AGE by expanding sales channels and broadening business scope. Subgroup analysis indicates stronger effects among market-oriented entrepreneurs, returning migrant workers, and younger or less-experienced returnees. These results highlight the importance of fostering adaptive capacity and resource integration strategies among returnees to promote inclusive and sustainable green entrepreneurship.

Research has found that entrepreneur foreign-study experience can have either positive significant effects on firm innovation, or nonsignificant effects. The question, then, is when such experience benefits firm innovation, and when it does not. Adopting a resource-substitution perspective, we posit that the difference occurs because certain local resources can play a significant moderating role. Specifically, a private entrepreneur’s foreign-study-enabled human capital becomes less influential in driving firm innovation when the foreign-educated entrepreneurs participate strongly in the political system, or when the firm has a high level of guanxi––each of which enables the firm to achieve a local resource advantage over other firms, without the need for enhanced innovation. In contrast, foreign-study-enabled human capital becomes significantly influential in the context of high local marketization. We used the data from a series of nationwide surveys of privately owned firms in China to test these ideas. Regression results based on negative binomial regression models showed that returnee entrepreneurs’ participation in the political system, and firms’ guanxi, each substituted for the role of the returnee entrepreneurs’ foreign study experience in fostering firm innovation, thus rendering such experience no longer significant for firm innovation in the presence of strong political participation or guanxi. In contrast, entrepreneur foreign-study experience led to advantageous firm innovation in the context of higher local marketization.