Configurational pathways to digital entrepreneurial performance in five Middle Eastern countries: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Purpose Digital entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is increasingly shaped by combinations of technological, organizational, and institutional conditions that operate conjecturally rather than independently. While prior variance-based research has examined the linear effects of digital infrastructure quality, entrepreneurial capabilities, innovation orientation, and regulatory support on digital entrepreneurial performance, the configurational conditions through which high performance is produced and prevented remain unexplored. This study identifies which combinations of conditions are sufficient for high and low digital entrepreneurial performance in MENA digital ventures, and whether success and failure pathways are causally asymmetric. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on survey data from 296 digital ventures across five Middle Eastern countries, the study applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify multiple sufficient causal pathways. The configurational model conceptualises digital entrepreneurial performance as an emergent outcome arising from different combinations of four conditions: digital infrastructure quality, digital entrepreneurial capabilities innovation orientation, and regulatory support. Findings Four equifinal configurations are sufficient for high digital entrepreneurial performance and three configurations are sufficient for its absence. No single condition is universally necessary in kind. Success and failure pathways are causally asymmetric no failure configuration is the logical inverse of any success configuration. Regulatory support presents the clearest asymmetric pattern, enabling performance through three distinct combinatorial mechanisms while its absence compounds failure through two distinct deficit pathways. Originality/value This study is among the first to apply fsQCA to digital entrepreneurship in MENA, providing empirical support for equifinality, causal asymmetry, and configurational complexity in a context dominated by symmetric variable-oriented analysis. The findings demonstrate that high and low digital entrepreneurial performance emerge through fundamentally distinct causal recipes, with important implications for complexity theory, dynamic capabilities theory, and institutional theory in emerging market contexts.