Why do silver-age faculty continue teaching after retirement? A study integrating LPA, HMR, and fsQCA

Against the backdrop of building an education power and an aging population, the development of silver-age faculty in higher education institutions is of great significance for revitalizing the human capital of the elderly and promoting educational equity. However, existing research mostly employs single-factor linear analysis, with insufficient attention paid to group heterogeneity, hierarchical driving mechanisms, and multi-dimensional collaborative paths. This study, based on the theory of social-technical transformation, takes 1,736 silver-age faculty in higher education institutions as the research subjects and comprehensively uses latent profile analysis (LPA), hierarchical multiple regression (HMR), and fsQCA methods for empirical research. The results show that silver-age faculty can be classified into three groups: 56% as the comprehensive advantage type, 29% as the stable and balanced type, and 15% as the potential-to-be-unlocked type; organizational identification (β = 0.167***) and intergenerational learning (β = 0.170***) are significant positive driving factors, while age (β = −0.069**) has a significant negative impact, with the adjusted R2 of the model reaching 0.492; and five development models are identified: Integrated Performance Resource Type, Technical Social Collaboration Type, Social Network Symbiosis Type, Digital Intelligence Communication Type, and Sociotechnical Learning-oriented Type, with an overall consistency of 0.913 and a coverage rate of 0.901. This study effectively enriches the theoretical system of elderly education and human resource development and provides solid empirical support and practical references for higher education institutions to promote silver-age faculty construction.