What kind of innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem is conducive to the growth of unicorn enterprises? – A dynamic fsQCA analysis

The innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem provides indispensable growth momentum for unicorn enterprises through the coupling and synergistic evolution of talent, technology, capital, and markets. To deconstruct the driving paths of different ecosystems on unicorn growth, this paper employs data on Chinese unicorns from 2017 to 2025 and utilises the dynamic fsQCA method. Based on the TOE framework, it analyses the configurational pathways through which different innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems influence unicorn enterprise growth. The findings reveal that individual ecosystem elements have a relatively weak impact on unicorn growth and do not constitute necessary conditions. Instead, different combinations of conditional variables form two distinct ecosystem types: first, an innovation-protection-driven ecosystem, characterised by economic foundation, financial development, and public services as core conditions, with R&D environment, intellectual property protection, and market scale as auxiliary conditions; second, a digital-inclusion-enabled ecosystem, with the same core conditions supplemented by R&D environment, market scale, and digital inclusive finance. This study holds significant practical value for promoting unicorn growth and helping high-tech companies worldwide address challenges posed by unstable international economic conditions.