What contributes to the sustainability performance of urban collaboration for metropolitan governance? A qualitative comparative analysis of 45 cases in China

Urban collaboration serves as a potentially efficient policy tool in advancing metropolitan governance. However, few empirical evidences have been devoted to illustrate why some urban collaborations can persist over a longer term. In this article, we draw upon the institutional collective action framework and hypothesize that actor heterogeneity, political institutions , and community characteristic will jointly affect the sustainability performance of urban collaboration. The combined effect is examined by using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis with 45 intra-provincial Urban Agglomeration Arrangements from China. The results indicate that vertical government intervention plays as a vital political factor within the Chinese context, and four configuration paths can illustrate the persistence of collaboration: exchange effect by homogeneous actors, substitutive effect by geographical proximity and vertical government intervention, complement effect by vertical government intervention, and covariant effect by city hierarchy heterogeneity and group size. The findings contribute to bridging the knowledge gap between urban collaboration and its sustainability performance. • Vertical government intervention plays a vital role in promoting urban collaboration in China. • Actor heterogeneity, political institutions, and community characteristic jointly affect urban collaboration performance. • There are different causal mechanisms contribute to illustrate the durability of urban collaboration. • It provides policy implications to promote the sustainability performance of urban collaboration.