Unlocking fit-for-purpose institutional configurations for efficient collaboration: Evidence from China’s comprehensive land consolidation

A key challenge for the sustainable development of fit-for-purpose Comprehensive Land Consolidation (CLC) is the design of institutional configurations that enable effective multi-subject collaboration. To identify the collaborative elements and the configurational pathways that produce efficient collaboration in CLC, this study develops a theoretical framwork comprising four dimensions: policy environment, collaborative capacity, collaborative motivation, and collaborative dependence. An empirical analysis is subsequently conducted using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) on typical CLC projects in Hubei Province, China, which investigated the complex causal relationships between various factors of multi-subject collaboration and the collaboration effect from the configuration perspective, revealing the configurational pathways that produce efficient collaboration. The results indicate that (1) The fsQCA reveals four distinct institutional configuration pathways that produce efficient collaboration: collaborative capacity-driven, policy-motivation-driven, policy-structure dependency-driven, and multi-element-driven. (2) The NCA indicates that no single element constitutes a necessary condition for achieving efficient collaboration; rather, it requires the multiple elements to function jointly at high levels. These findings provide a scientific configurational playbook for policymakers, offering evidence-based strategies to design institutional frameworks that are "fit for purpose" in different local contexts, thereby promoting the sustainable development of CLC in China and beyond.