How Platform Participants Drive Digital Innovation? A Configuration Analysis Based on the TOE Framework

As industrial internet platforms increasingly play a central role in the digital transformation of manufacturing, they have become crucial areas for manufacturing enterprises to pursue digital innovation. Current academic research has paid relatively little attention to the digital innovation of participating enterprises within industrial internet platforms, failing to fully reveal the driving mechanisms of such innovation in this context. Based on the TOE framework and adopting a platform participant perspective, this study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). By surveying 169 manufacturing enterprises participating in industrial internet platforms, it integrates seven key antecedents—technology availability, technology fit, digital leadership, organizational structural flexibility, resource orchestration, policy support, and competitive pressure—to systematically explore the complex influence pathways of multi-factor concurrent interactions on digital innovation. The research results show that the high digital innovation of manufacturing enterprises on the industrial internet platform includes precise implementation type, exploration-oriented type and co-evolution type, while the non-high digital innovation paths include technology blocking type, dual-core absence type and system disorder type. These conclusions expand the theoretical framework for digital innovation in manufacturing enterprises within industrial internet platforms and offer practical recommendations for their digital innovation practices.

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Publication Details

Journal
Systems
Published
2026-03-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14030296
Primary Topic
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

How Platform Participants Drive Digital Innovation? A Configuration Analysis Based on the TOE Framework

Jun O. Liu, Jing Lv, Kang Ren, Jing Yang
Systems
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
article

How Platform Participants Drive Digital Innovation? A Configuration Analysis Based on the TOE Framework

Jun O. Liu, Jing Lv, Kang Ren, Jing Yang
article en

Abstract

As industrial internet platforms increasingly play a central role in the digital transformation of manufacturing, they have become crucial areas for manufacturing enterprises to pursue digital innovation. Current academic research has paid relatively little attention to the digital innovation of participating enterprises within industrial internet platforms, failing to fully reveal the driving mechanisms of such innovation in this context. Based on the TOE framework and adopting a platform participant perspective, this study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). By surveying 169 manufacturing enterprises participating in industrial internet platforms, it integrates seven key antecedents—technology availability, technology fit, digital leadership, organizational structural flexibility, resource orchestration, policy support, and competitive pressure—to systematically explore the complex influence pathways of multi-factor concurrent interactions on digital innovation. The research results show that the high digital innovation of manufacturing enterprises on the industrial internet platform includes precise implementation type, exploration-oriented type and co-evolution type, while the non-high digital innovation paths include technology blocking type, dual-core absence type and system disorder type. These conclusions expand the theoretical framework for digital innovation in manufacturing enterprises within industrial internet platforms and offer practical recommendations for their digital innovation practices.

SystemsVol. 14(3)
Shandong Youth University of Political Science (CN), Shandong University of Finance and Economics (CN)
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 30%
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
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