Family-nation sentiment is the essence of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation and an important belief force for the construction of the emotional identity, cultural identity and national identity of the Chinese nation. As a unique expression in the context of oriental culture and a common phenomenon in the practice of Chinese entrepreneurs, it has received little attention and research in the field of management. Most of the relevant concepts are found in the media reports on the deeds of Chinese entrepreneurs, and generally fall into the category of entrepreneurship, lacking the in-depth understanding of its connotation and its impact on business management.

Based on the case study of JORU’s strategic transformation from real estate construction to elderly care services, the study finds that the generation of family-nation sentiment is closely related to the growth and entrepreneurial experience of Chinese entrepreneurs, which is prominently reflected in four characteristic dimensions. It reflects that entrepreneurs deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture have sprouted “commitment to family-nation responsibility” based on “feelings of family-nation imprinting”, and then seeks the continuous psychological activity process of fulfilling commitments through the “pursuit of righteousness before benefit” and “belief in the cycle of righteousness and benefit”. Family-nation sentiment is likely to urge Chinese entrepreneurs to pay more attention to the specific areas of social responsibility that are conducive to promoting family harmony and happiness, the long-term stability of the country and the prosperity of the nation, and to achieve the harmonious unity of corporate social value and business value by promoting corporate strategic change and even strategic transformation.

As far as this case study is concerned, family-nation sentiment contributes to the initiation of strategic transformation by cultivating entrepreneurs’ lofty sense of mission of public welfare transformation, promoting the organizational sense-making and emotional management to strategic transformation, and promoting the identification of transformation direction; family-nation sentiment can become the motivation for the transformation of enterprise business model and play a positive role in the conception of ideal business model and the direction of subsequent business model transformation; family-nation sentiment promote the reconstruction of enterprises’ human resources, cultural resources and relationship resources through “screening of values and empathy ability” “introduction and empowerment of traditional culture in which righteousness comes first” and “winning the trust of partners and the government”.

Theoretically, this paper deepens the academic understanding of Chinese entrepreneurship by clarifying the vague connotation of entrepreneurs’ family-nation sentiment, provides a new explanation in the context of oriental management for the study of the motivation and process of corporate strategic change and corporate social responsibility, and develops the existing organizational imprinting research from the aspects of imprinting traceability and imprinting interaction. From the practical level, it is also of great significance to cultivate entrepreneurs’ family-nation sentiment and encourage Chinese entrepreneurs to promote public welfare strategic change.