Uncovering Multiple Paths to Urban Digital Business Excellence: A Socio-Technical Analysis of Equifinal and Asymmetrical Causal Pathways

Conventional research on digital business development offers a limited view, overwhelmingly concerned with the isolated effects of individual variables while overlooking their synergistic relationships. This study challenges this reductive perspective by applying fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to Chinese city-level data. We specifically investigate how elements from the socio-technical framework interact synergistically to shape the urban digital business ecosystem. The results demonstrate that no single factor is sufficient as a determinant. Instead, we observe equifinality, meaning multiple distinct configurations can lead to equally high performance. Furthermore, the causal configurations for failure are not mirror images of those for success but instead exhibit a distinctive pattern. The influence of government size exemplifies this asymmetry. For policymakers, the implication is that effective strategies for urban digital business must be holistic and context sensitive, moving beyond universal prescriptions.