Determinants of Employee Victory in Telecommuting Labor Disputes: A Configurational Approach

ABSTRACT The rapid expansion of telecommuting during the COVID‐19 pandemic created novel disputes over remote‐work conditions that existing laws did not clearly regulate. This study investigates the configurational determinants of employee victory in these disputes. Drawing on resource‐based and institutional theories of litigation outcomes, we propose an analytical framework comprising three categories of determinants: employee resources (income, tenure, and legal representation), employer resources (enterprise size and maturity), and institutional factors (dispute type and government policy invocation). Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on 287 first‐instance telecommuting labor‐dispute judgments from China in 2020, we identify five equifinal pathways to employee success. These pathways reveal that no single factor guarantees victory; instead, success depends on specific synergies, such as high‐income employees leveraging policy support in individual disputes or long‐tenured employees utilizing collective action against strong enterprises. These findings offer a configurational perspective on how resources and institutional factors jointly shape remote‐work litigation outcomes.