Boomerang entrepreneurs (practicing and nascent entrepreneurs who return to their declining home cities after years away) may especially be an answer to the brain drain, suppressed innovation, and often tepid entrepreneurial ecosystem condition that plague declining cities such as U.S. Rust Belt cities. This conceptual article addresses how the declining home city’s place image might inform and promote a boomerang entrepreneur’s return migration and venturing decisions and with what implications for the place’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Even given homesickness, this kind of return migration is unlikely unless prospective boomerang entrepreneurs revise their place images of their old hometowns. We conceptually develop and support propositions on the relationships between place image and brain drain, between affect and both place image revision and entrepreneurial intentions, and between place image revision and both return migration intentions and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. We also discuss implications for microfoundations of entrepreneurial ecosystems in declining cities, place branding that can encourage boomerang entrepreneurs’ place image revision and return migration to the declining home city, and related research data collection.

中文翻译：

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回旋镖企业家与日渐衰落的家乡形象：人才外流中的远走与思乡中的回归

回旋镖企业家（多年后返回衰落家乡的实践企业家和新生企业家）可能尤其是解决困扰美国锈带城市等衰落城市的人才流失、创新受到抑制以及往往不温不火的创业生态系统状况的答案。这篇概念性文章探讨了不断下降的家乡城市的地方形象如何影响和促进回旋镖企业家的回国移民和冒险决策，以及对当地创业生态系统的影响。即使考虑到思乡之情，除非未来的回旋镖企业家改变他们对故乡的形象，否则这种回迁的可能性不大。我们从概念上提出并支持关于地方形象与人才流失之间的关系、影响与地方形象修正和创业意图之间的关系、以及地方形象修正与回国移民意图和创业机会识别之间的关系的命题。我们还讨论了衰落城市创业生态系统微观基础的影响、可以鼓励回旋镖企业家修正地方形象并返回衰落家乡城市的地方品牌建设，以及相关的研究数据收集。