Here I belong!: Understanding immigrant descendants’ place attachment and its impact on their community citizenship behaviors in China

Within the extensive literature, satisfaction and attachment, as separate yet related concepts, have been widely proved to affect citizenship behaviors at the community levels. However, little research has distinguished their different roles in predicting various types of community citizenship behaviors. This article clarifies the differential impact of place satisfaction and place attachment on a series of community citizenship behaviors, providing empirical evidence from a quantitative survey study. A sample of six immigrant descendant communities in Zhejiang, China, was included for partial least square-based structural equation modeling testing. The results suggest that: (1) compared with place satisfaction, place attachment is a more potent driver of community citizenship behaviors. Place attachment strongly predicts residents' courtesy, altruism, and social virtue behaviors, while place satisfaction only predicts residents’ courtesy behavior. (2) Place attachment plays an important mediating role between place satisfaction and community citizenship behaviors. The implication of the study for community researchers and managers are further discussed. •Distinguishing the impact of place satisfaction and place attachment on various community citizenship behaviors.•A sample of six immigrant descendant communities was included for PLS-SEM.•Place attachment predicts residents' courtesy, altruism, and social virtue behaviors.•Place satisfaction only predicts residents' courtesy behavior.•Place attachment plays a mediating role between place satisfaction and community citizenship behaviors.