ABSTRACT China’s rural vitalization is a major task in promoting common prosperity, but rural brain drain is one of the main obstacles. However, arousing enthusiasm for agricultural entrepreneurship and promoting agricultural industry development remains under-analysed. Using data from 3987 rural residents in China, this article theoretically analyses how rural residents’ off-farm work experience (OWE) affects their agricultural entrepreneurial intentions (AEI). Dealing with endogeneity problems, the empirical results with IV-Probit model show that rural residents’ OWE positively influences their AEI. Mechanism analysis revealed that local social capital and formal financial cognition promote their OWE. The heterogeneity analysis indicated that the effects of OWE on AEI are more significant in counties with lower economic development or higher social welfare levels. Furthermore, OWE particularly affects opportunity-based and outside-village AEI. The results imply that: First, the government should strengthen the county-level entrepreneurial environment, especially in lower development regions. Second, encourage good village governance benefits for AEI. Third, government and financial apartments should broaden formal finance to help rural residents with OWE engage in agricultural entrepreneurial activities.