The locality-adaptation mechanism of return entrepreneurship driving rural resource transformation in Huangshan

In the context of China's rural revitalization strategy, return entrepreneurship has emerged as a novel force for the creative transformation and innovative development of rural resources, providing significant opportunities for achieving rural sustainable development. Constructing an analytical framework of "Local Resources-Return Entrepreneurship-Adaptive Advantages", this research takes traditional villages in Huangshan city as the research object and employs a mixed-methods approach, combining participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and social network analysis to explore the driving mechanism of return entrepreneurship in promoting resource conversion in traditional villages. The findings reveal a tripartite mechanism. First, local resources exert a staged influence on return entrepreneurship: environmental resources constitute the initial attraction, technical resources provide essential livelihood support, and cultural resources serve as the key driver for innovation. Second, return entrepreneurship catalyzes a significant reconstruction of rural social networks, where village committees and key enterprises act as critical "bridging nodes", and return entrepreneurs stratify into core and peripheral layers. Third, the position of entrepreneurs within this social network directly shapes the outcomes of resource conversion: entrepreneurs in the peripheral layer, who often operate independently, mainly influence the dimension of industrial revitalization; those in the core layer engage in in-depth collaboration with villagers, local governments, and external actors, thereby activating tacit local resources and generating profound adaptive advantages in the dimension of cultural revitalization.