Department of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
College of Politics and Public Administration, Qinghai Minzu University, Xining, Qinghai Province, China.
PLoS One. 2023 Aug 15;18(8):e0289160. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289160. eCollection 2023.
Addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions have emerged as shared global objectives. Enhancing the development performance of low-carbon cities has become an urgent and widely acknowledged concern for both government policy-making departments and academics. Drawing upon the complex grouping perspective and resource allocation theory, this study investigates how varying conditions related to technology, organization, and environment in Chinese low-carbon pilot cities can effectively allocate resources to shape the governance performance of low-carbon cities.
This paper employs a comprehensive grouping analysis perspective, treating the research object as a combination of various ways between condition variables. It integrates the advantages of case studies and variable studies, and investigates the collective relationships between elemental groupings and outcomes using the fsQCA analysis method. This approach facilitates the understanding of multiple concurrent causal relationships within the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, accounting for different performance levels in Chinese low-carbon pilot cities, as well as addressing complex causal issues such as asymmetry and multiple scenario equivalence. Data from 30 representative low-carbon pilot cities in China were employed to validate the TOE theoretical framework.
No single element alone can be considered a necessary condition for low-carbon city governance performance. However, environmental enhancement plays a more prominent role in the governance performance of low-carbon cities. Additionally, the presence of "multiple concurrent" technical, organizational, and environmental conditions leads to a diverse range of governance performance in Chinese low-carbon pilot cities. In other words, the driving paths of low-carbon city performance exhibit distinct pathways.
The findings of this study can assist low-carbon pilot city managers in generating effective governance ideas, facilitating the successful implementation of low-carbon city pilot projects, and drawing valuable lessons from the experience of low-carbon city development in China.
应对气候变化和减少温室气体排放已成为全球共同目标。提高低碳城市的发展绩效已成为政府决策部门和学术界广泛关注的紧迫问题。本研究基于复杂分组视角和资源配置理论，探讨中国低碳试点城市在技术、组织和环境方面的不同条件如何有效地配置资源，从而塑造低碳城市的治理绩效。
本文采用综合分组分析视角，将研究对象视为条件变量之间各种方式的组合。它整合了案例研究和变量研究的优势，使用 fsQCA 分析方法研究基本分组与结果之间的集体关系。这种方法有助于理解技术-组织-环境（TOE）框架内的多种并发因果关系，解释中国低碳试点城市不同的绩效水平，并解决复杂的因果问题，如不对称和多种情景等价。本文使用了来自中国 30 个有代表性的低碳试点城市的数据来验证 TOE 理论框架。
没有任何单一因素可以被视为低碳城市治理绩效的必要条件。然而，环境改善在低碳城市的治理绩效中起着更为突出的作用。此外，存在“多种并发”的技术、组织和环境条件导致中国低碳试点城市的治理绩效呈现多样化。换句话说，低碳城市绩效的驱动路径具有明显的差异。
本研究的结果可以为低碳试点城市管理者提供有效的治理思路，促进低碳城市试点项目的成功实施，并从中国低碳城市发展的经验中汲取宝贵的教训。
