IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0346245.html

Research on instrument mix and regional suitability of digital publishing industrial policies: An empirical exploration based on qualitative comparative analysis of fuzzy set

Author

Listed:
  • Sirui Li
  • Johnny Fat Iam Lam

Abstract

Taking the digital publishing industry as its research object and employs the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to systematically examine the causal relationships among the Instrument Mix, regional conditions, and industrial performance, drawing on policy texts and development data from 16 major Chinese provinces. The findings indicate that neither a single Policy instrument nor an isolated regional condition is sufficient to sustain high-quality development; rather, industry success depends on specific configurations of multiple interacting conditions. Content application and scenario promotion, together with industry chain shaping and cluster development, form the core elements of multiple high-performance pathways. In contrast, fiscal and financial instruments play a relatively peripheral role, confirming both synergistic and substitutive relationships among Policy instruments. Further path analysis reveals three distinct realization logic in the digital publishing industry: (1) a regional environment–driven model relying on economic and cultural endowments; (2) a policy–economy dual-drive model characterized by joint government–market action; and (3) a systemic synergy model where multiple factors interact comprehensively. In contrast, non-high-performing configurations demonstrate causal asymmetry, indicating that industrial underperformance is not a simple inversion of success but rather the result of compensatory interactions among regional conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sirui Li & Johnny Fat Iam Lam, 2026. "Research on instrument mix and regional suitability of digital publishing industrial policies: An empirical exploration based on qualitative comparative analysis of fuzzy set," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0346245
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0346245
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0346245
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0346245&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0346245?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Todtling, Franz & Trippl, Michaela, 2005. "One size fits all?: Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1203-1219, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Doloreux & David Rangdrol & Émilie Dionne, 2010. "Francophone Minority Economic Development in Canada: Addressing Political or Economic Issues?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(2), pages 143-153, May.
    2. Cristina Chaminade & Monica Plechero, 2015. "Do Regions Make a Difference? Regional Innovation Systems and Global Innovation Networks in the ICT Industry," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 215-237, February.
    3. Alessandro STERLACCHINI, 2006. "Innovation, Knowledge and Regional Economic Performances: Regularities and Differences in the EU," Working Papers 260, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    4. Nils Grashof, 2020. "Sinking or swimming in the cluster labour pool? A firm-specific analysis of the effect of specialized labour," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-006, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    5. Serhat Burmaoglu & Ozcan Saritas, 2019. "An evolutionary analysis of the innovation policy domain: Is there a paradigm shift?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 823-847, March.
    6. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    7. Gesa Pflitsch & Verena Radinger-Peer, 2018. "Developing Boundary-Spanning Capacity for Regional Sustainability Transitions—A Comparative Case Study of the Universities of Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, March.
    8. Vu, Trung V., 2020. "Economic complexity and health outcomes: A global perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    9. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Suarsana, Laura & Schneider, Tina & Warsewa, Günter, 2023. "Do regional innovation strategies meet societal challenges? A comparative analysis across regions in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Finland," Schriftenreihe Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft 40/2023, Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft (IAW), Universität Bremen und Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen.
    11. Kurikka, Heli & Grillitsch, Markus, 2020. "Resilience in the periphery: What an agency perspective can bring to the table," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Gunther Maier & Michaela Trippl, 2011. "New Knowledge for Old Regions? The Case of the Software Park Hagenberg in the Traditional Industrial Region of Upper Austria," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1830, European Regional Science Association.
    13. Tom Broekel & Lars Mewes, 2017. "Analyzing the impact of R&D policy on regional diversification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1726, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2017.
    14. Francesco Molica & Francesco Cappellano & Teemu Makkonen, 2025. "Re-thinking Regional Innovation Systems in the age of de-globalization," Working Papers TIMES² 2025-080, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    15. Wixe, Sofia & Nilsson, Pia & Naldi, Lucia & Westlund, Hans, 2017. "Disentangling Innovation in Small Food Firms: The role of External Knowledge, Support, and Collaboration," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 446, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    16. Michaela Trippl & Markus Grillitsch & Arne Isaksen & Tanja Sinozic, 2015. "Perspectives on Cluster Evolution: Critical Review and Future Research Issues," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 2028-2044, October.
    17. Moodysson , Jerker & Trippl, Michaela & Zukauskaite, Elena, 2015. "Policy Learning and Smart Specialization Balancing Policy Change and Policy Stability for New Regional Industrial Path Development," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/39, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    18. Jakob Eder & Michaela Trippl, 2019. "Innovation in the periphery: compensation and exploitation strategies," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_07, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    19. Gruenhagen, Jan Henrik & Terrill, Janice & Cox, Stephen, 2025. "Igniting sparks for the transition of a coal mining region: The role of firm- and system-level agency to innovate, diversify and create new growth paths in a regional innovation system," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    20. Robert Huggins & Hiro Izushi, 2009. "Regional Benchmarking in a Global Context: Knowledge, Competitiveness, and Economic Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 23(4), pages 275-293, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0346245. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.