Although research has established cross-scale emotions, limited attention has been given to the cross-scale emotional processes of migrant volunteers. This study employed survey research with migrant volunteers in Shenzhen, China, to collect data on their role identity, place attachment, job crafting, perceived institutional support, and social capital. Drawing on identity process theory and place embeddedness theory, the findings revealed a cross-scale relationship from role identity to place attachment. Specifically, the emotional transition of migrant volunteers from personal to place was mediated by job crafting. And the macro-sociocultural environment emerged as a boundary condition influencing individual behavior and emotions, with the perceived institutional support and social capital strengthening the relationship between job crafting and place attachment. By elucidating how urban migrant volunteers’ emotions transfer from personal social roles to geographic spaces across scales, this study enriches place attachment theory through the incorporation of micro-social foundations.
AkkermansJTimsM (2017) Crafting your career: How career competencies relate to career success via job crafting. Applied Psychology66(1): 168–195.
2.
BaertSVujićS (2016) Immigrant volunteering: A way out of labour market discrimination?Economics Letters146: 95–98.
3.
BagozziRPYiY (1988) On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science16: 74–94.
4.
BernardoFPalma-OliveiraJ (2013) Place identity, place attachment and the scale of place: The impact of place salience. Psyecology4(2): 167–193.
5.
BindlUKUnsworthKLGibsonCB, et al. (2019) Job crafting revisited: Implications of an extended framework for active changes at work. Journal of Applied Psychology104(5): 605.
6.
BusenitzLWGomezCSpencerJW (2000) Country institutional profiles: Unlocking entrepreneurial phenomena. Academy of Management journal43(5): 994–1003.
7.
CasakinHHernándezBRuizC (2015) Place attachment and place identity in Israeli cities: The influence of city size. Cities42: 224–230.
8.
ClaryEGSnyderMStukasAA (1996) Volunteers’ motivations: Findings from a national survey. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly25(4): 485–505.
9.
DallimoreDJDavisHEichstellerM, et al. (2018) Place, belonging and the determinants of volunteering. Voluntary Sector Review9(1): 21–38.
10.
De ClercqDBriegerSA (2021) When discrimination is worse, autonomy is key: How women entrepreneurs leverage job autonomy resources to find work–life balance. Journal of Business Ethics177(3): 665–682.
11.
EnglertBThalerJHelmigB (2020) Fit themes in volunteering: How do volunteers perceive person–environment fit?Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly49(2): 336–356.
12.
EtikanIMusaSAAlkassimRS (2016) Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics5(1): 1–4.
13.
FinkelsteinMABrannickMT (2007) Applying theories of institutional helping to informal volunteering: Motives, role identity, and prosocial personality. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal35(1): 101–114.
14.
FornoniMArribasIVilaJE (2011) Measurement of an individual entrepreneur’s social capital: A multidimensional model. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal7: 495–507.
15.
FosterA (2018) Volunteer environmental stewardship and affective labour in Philadelphia. Conservation and Society16(1): 52–63.
16.
GanKAngA (2024) How is the frequency of volunteering associated with the well-being of older adults? A mini review. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics Plus1(3): 100024.
17.
GielingJHaartsenTVermeijL, et al. (2019) Out of love for the village? How general and selective forms of attachment to the village explain volunteering in Dutch community life. Journal of Rural Studies71: 181–188.
18.
GreenspanIWalkMHandyF (2018) Immigrant integration through volunteering: The importance of contextual factors. Journal of Social Policy47(4): 803–825.
19.
GrimshawLMatesL (2022) ‘It’s part of our community, where we live’: Urban heritage and children’s sense of place. Urban Studies59(7): 1334–1352.
20.
GrubeJAPiliavinJA (2000) Role identity, organizational experiences, and volunteer performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin26(9): 1108–1119.
21.
HairJFJrAndersonRETathamRL (1986) Multivariate Data Analysis with Readings. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
22.
HallmannKZehrerAFairleyS, et al. (2020) Gender and volunteering at the special olympics: Interrelationships among motivations, commitment, and social capital. Journal of Sport Management34(1): 77–90.
23.
HandyFGreenspanI (2009) Immigrant volunteering: A stepping stone to integration?Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly38(6): 956–982.
24.
HeJCaiXMLiGQ, et al. (2024) Volunteering and pro-environmental behavior: The relationships of meaningfulness and emotions in protected areas. Journal of Sustainable Tourism32(2): 304–321.
25.
HessM (2004) ‘Spatial’ relationships? Towards a reconceptualization of embeddedness. Progress in Human Geography28(2): 165–186.
26.
JonesA (2008) Beyond embeddedness: Economic practices and the invisible dimensions of transnational business activity. Progress in Human Geography32(1): 71–88.
27.
KastenholzEMarquesCPCarneiroMJ (2020) Place attachment through sensory-rich, emotion-generating place experiences in rural tourism. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management17: 100455.
28.
KenyattaGNZaniAP (2014) An evaluation of the motives behind volunteering and existing motivational strategies among voluntary organizations in Kenya. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences4(23): 84–95.
29.
KuoN-TChengY-SChangK-C, et al. (2021) How social capital affects support intention: The mediating role of place identity. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management46: 40–49.
30.
KyleGGraefeAManningR (2005) Testing the dimensionality of place attachment in recreational settings. Environment and Behavior37(2): 153–177.
31.
LandonACWoosnamKMKyleGT, et al. (2021) Psychological needs satisfaction and attachment to natural landscapes. Environment and Behavior53(6): 661–683.
32.
LeeMYKWongMYChanAKW, et al. (2024) Do people feel they belong? Socio-political factors shaping the place attachment of Hong Kong citizens. Geographical Research62(1): 181–193.
33.
LewickaM (2011) Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years?Journal of Environmental Psychology31(3): 207–230.
34.
LiuFZhangX (2021) Who are volunteers in urban China?Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations32(6): 1359–1374.
35.
ManolovaTSEunniRVGyoshevBS (2008) Institutional environments for entrepreneurship: Evidence from emerging economies in Eastern Europe. Entrepreneurship theory and Practice32(1): 203–218.
36.
NgTWFeldmanDC (2007) The school-to-work transition: A role identity perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior71(1): 114–134.
37.
PerkinsDDLongDA (2002) Neighborhood sense of community and social capital: A multi-level analysis. In: FisherATSonnCCBishopBJ (eds) Psychological Sense of Community: Research, Applications, and Implications. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 291–318.
38.
QianJZhuH (2014) Chinese urban migrants’ sense of place: Emotional attachment, identity formation, and place dependence in the city and community of Guangzhou. Asia Pacific Viewpoint55(1): 81–101.
39.
RamkissoonH (2020) COVID-19 place confinement, pro-social, pro-environmental behaviors, and residents’ wellbeing: A new conceptual framework. Frontiers in Psychology11: 566333.
40.
RelphE (1976) Place and Placelessness, Vol. 67. Pion London.
41.
RuizASRavitchSM (2023) Influences of (non) engagement in volunteering: First-generation immigrant perceptions of integration into US society. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations34(2): 301–312.
42.
SalamonLMSokolowskiSW (2003) Institutional roots of volunteering: Toward a macro-structural theory of individual voluntary action. In: HalmanLDekkerP (eds) The values of volunteering: Cross-cultural perspectives. Springer, pp. 71–90.
43.
ScannellLGiffordR (2010) Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology30(1): 1–10.
44.
ScannellLGiffordR (2017) The experienced psychological benefits of place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology51: 256–269.
45.
SeibertSEKraimerMLLidenRC (2001) A social capital theory of career success. Academy of Management Journal44(2): 219–237.
46.
ShinIJungH (2021) Differential roles of self-determined motivations in describing job crafting behavior and organizational change commitment. Current Psychology40(7): 3376–3385.
47.
SlempGRVella-BrodrickDA (2013) The job crafting questionnaire: A new scale to measure the extent to which employees engage in job crafting. International Journal of Wellbeing3(2): 126–146.
48.
StrandbergCStyvénME (2024) The multidimensionality of place identity: A systematic concept analysis and framework of place-related identity elements. Journal of Environmental Psychology95: 102257.
49.
SveenSAnthunKSBatt-RawdenKB, et al. (2023) Immigrants’ experiences of volunteering: A meta-ethnography. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly52(3): 569–588.
50.
TimsMBakkerABDerksD (2012) Development and validation of the job crafting scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior80(1): 173–186.
51.
TimsMBakkerABDerksD (2013) The impact of job crafting on job demands, job resources, and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology18(2): 230.
52.
TimsMDerksDBakkerAB (2016) Job crafting and its relationships with person–job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study. Journal of Vocational Behavior92: 44–53.
53.
VerfuerthCJonesCRGregory-SmithD, et al. (2019) Understanding contextual spillover: Using identity process theory as a lens for analyzing behavioral responses to a workplace dietary choice intervention. Frontiers in Psychology10: 345.
54.
WangLHandyF (2014) Religious and secular voluntary participation by immigrants in Canada: How trust and social networks affect decision to participate. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations25: 1559–1582.
55.
WarburtonJMcdnaldC (2009) The challenges of the new institutional environment: An Australian case study of older volunteers in the contemporary non-profit sector. Ageing & Society29(5): 823–840.
56.
WeidingerTSpengerDKordelS (2024) Becoming active agents through practices of volunteering: Immigrants’ experiences in rural Germany. Social Inclusion12. Article 7677.
57.
WilliamsDRVaskeJJ (2003) The measurement of place attachment: Validity and generalizability of a psychometric approach. Forest Science49(6): 830–840.
58.
XieSHuangX (2022) Flowing sense of place: Perceptions of host city impacting on city attachment of rural-urban migrants in China. International Journal of Intercultural Relations88: 106–118.
59.
XiongYChenGZhangX-O (2026) Identity work in community volunteering: Understanding women volunteers’ experiences in a Chinese context. Women’s Studies International Forum115: 103268.
60.
XuYWuDChenNC (2022) Here I belong! Understanding immigrant descendants’ place attachment and its impact on their community citizenship behaviors in China. Journal of Environmental Psychology79: 101743.
61.
YangDLiuLDaiM, et al. (2026) Volunteer tourists and destinations: Place attachment formation among volunteer tourists. Current Issues in Tourism29(4): 696–711.
62.
ZahnowR (2024) Place type or place function: What matters for place attachment?American Journal of Community Psychology73(3–4): 446–460.
63.
ZhangFParkerSK (2019) Reorienting job crafting research: A hierarchical structure of job crafting concepts and integrative review. Journal of Organizational Behavior40(2): 126–146.
64.
ZouXDCaiXMHeJ, et al. (2025) Promoting volunteer tourist service performance in protected area: The impacts of self-efficacy. Tourism Recreation Research51(1): 36–50.
