Destined for Balance? Centralized and Decentralized Approaches to AI Governance

Invented by the sociologist Charles Ragin in the 80 to identify the configurations explaining a phenomenon, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) method has been used in management sciences since mid of years 2000s. Research in management information systems seems to be an exception, with rare papers that appeared recently. However, this method offers several advantages to explore aspects, like equifinality, causal complexity, sensitivity to outliers and attention to the limited diversity of observed configurations. The aim of this paper is to present the features, benefits and limitations of this method for research in IS and an illustration of fuzzy-set QCA, one of the two main versions of QCA. This variant of the method is applied to the issue of the contribution of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to respect the planned development time in the co-development of new products. QCA method identifies necessary and sufficient conditions for a result. In the illustration, we identified five possible configurations for a good respect of development time. In particular, we have highlighted a configuration where the use of the three PLM sub-systems is sufficient for a good respect of development time. QCA method is used to address the causal complexity notably through equifinality and the management of asymmetric configurations for a positive and negative result.

With the increasing use of civil helicopters, the number and frequency of accidents and air crashes involving helicopters is also on the rise. To explore the factors influencing helicopter accidents and the pathways of low accident casualty generation, based on 27 helicopter accident/accident symptom investigation reports released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China from June 2018 to September 2020, the HFACS model (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System) was used as a theoretical framework and the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method was applied to explore the complex mechanism and causal asymmetry of multiple concurrent conditions and low accident casualties in the four dimensions of accident occurrence. The fsQCA method was used to investigate the mechanisms and pathways of accident occurrence. Based on the four pathways obtained, it is found that: helicopter safety accident occurrence is a typical multi-conditional complex relationship with multiple concurrent conditions; pilot error or violation is still an important factor in accident generation; in the case of pilot error or violation, the ways to reduce accident casualties are to ensure that the aircraft is fault-free and the terrain and weather are compatible with the flight conditions, and to ensure that unsafe supervision is in place or that organizational management is up to standard.KeywordsHelicopterHFACSFuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) Method

Although recent reforms of higher education (HE) across Europe have involved reconfigurations of internal governance structures, little research has been conducted on the characteristics and practices of governing bodies and their impact on performance. In particular, more empirical evidence is required on the composition of the board of directors, whose role and responsibilities in strategy making and monitoring of university activities have been significantly strengthened. This paper focuses on the issue of diversity in board composition, which has gained increasing attention in the corporate literature but has largely been ignored in HE. Since most studies of diversity in HE have been fragmented, a configurational approach is followed to examine the combinations of diversity of directors that lead to high board performance in universities. Drawing from the literature and considering the characteristics of university governance, four conditions are identified: age, gender, educational background and provenance. The method of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used to investigate the cases of 18 medium-sized state universities in Italy. The analysis revealed that no single condition is necessary or sufficient, while there are two paths that lead to board effectiveness: low educational background diversity and high provenance diversity combined with high age diversity, and low educational background diversity and high provenance diversity combined with low gender diversity.

PurposeThe alienation of megaproject environmental responsibility (MER) behavior is destructive, but its mechanism has not been clearly depicted. Based on fraud triangle theory and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method, this study explored the combined effect of antecedent factors on alienation of MER behavior.Design/methodology/approachBased on the fraud triangle theory and literature review, eight influencing factors associated with the alienation of MER behavior were first identified. Subsequently, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was used in this study to reveal configurations influencing alienation of MER behavior.FindingsThe study found nine configurations of MER behavioral alienation antecedent factors, integrated into three types of driving modes, i.e. “economic pressure + learning effect,” “institutional defect + moral rejection,” and “information asymmetry + economic pressure + expectation pressure.”Originality/valueBy analyzing the configuration effects of various induced conditions, this study puts forward a comprehensive analysis framework to solve the alienation of MER behavior in the megaprojects and a practical strategy to control alienation of MER behavior.

The fsQCA (fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis) method was used in this paper to examine consumer buying behavior through OTAs (Online travel Agencies). The main purpose of this study is to determine the necessary conditions and combinations of conditions that drive high levels of purchase intention and purchase behavior of travel via the OTAs. Using an empirical study of 374 consumers, we have identified the necessary conditions and configurations that influence consumer buying behavior through OTAs. The findings indicated the critical role of attitude, perceived relative benefits, communicability, and personal innovation in ensuring purchase intention and behavior among OTAs. Further, the results showed that purchase intention is a necessary condition for travel purchase behavior from OTAs.KeywordsPurchase Behavior (PB)Purchase Intention (PUI)Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)

Research on generation paths of production safety accidents in urban gas pipeline networks: A fuzzy set qualitative Comparative analysis (fsQCA) based on Chinese data

Affected by the normalization of the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s lives are subject to many restrictions, and they are under enormous psychological and physical pressure. In this situation, health information may be a burden and cause of anxiety for people; thus, the refusal of health information occurs frequently. Health-information-avoidance behavior has produced potential impacts and harms on people’s lives. Based on more than 120,000 words of textual data obtained from semi-structured interviews, summarizing a case collection of 55 events, this paper explores the factors and how they combine to lead to avoidance of health information. First, the influencing factors are constructed according to the existing research, and then the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method is used to discover the configuration relationship of health-information-avoidance behavior. The results show that the occurrence of health-information avoidance is not the result of a single factor but the result of a configuration of health-information literacy, negative emotions, perceived information, health-information presentation, cross-platform distribution, and the network information environment. These findings provide inspiration for reducing the adverse consequences of avoiding health information and improving the construction of health-information service systems.

What drives the development of digital rural life in China?

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc on all aspects of human societies. In addition to pharmaceutical interventions, non-pharmaceutical intervention policies have been proven to be crucial in slowing down the spread of the virus and reducing the impact of the outbreak on economic development, daily life, and social stability. However, no studies have focused on which non-pharmaceutical intervention policies are more effective; this is the focus of our study. We used data samples from 102 countries and regions around the world and selected seven categories of related policies, including work and school suspensions, assembly restrictions, movement restrictions, home isolation, international population movement restrictions, income subsidies, and testing and screening as the condition variables. A susceptible-exposed-infected-quarantined-recovered (SEIQR) model considering non-pharmaceutical intervention policies and latency with infectiousness was constructed to calculate the epidemic transmission rate as the outcome variable, and a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was applied to explore the multiple concurrent causal relationships and multiple governance paths of non-pharmaceutical intervention policies for epidemics from the configuration perspective. We found a total of four non-pharmaceutical intervention policy pathways. Among them, L1 was highly suppressive, L2 was moderately suppressive, and L3 was externally suppressive. The results also showed that individual non-pharmaceutical intervention policy could not effectively suppress the spread of the pandemic. Moreover, three specific non-pharmaceutical intervention policies, including work stoppage and school closure, testing and screening, and economic subsidies, had a universal effect in the policies grouping for effective control of the pandemic transmission.

BackgroundOwing to the complexity of and changes associated with modern public health emergencies, cross-departmental collaborative governance is an inevitable choice for ensuring effective emergency management. In the context of emergency management research, the way in which taking full advantage of synergy can be used to enhance the effectiveness of emergency prevention and control approaches is an important issue that must be addressed urgently.MethodsCombined with China's responses to the management of public health emergencies, in this study, we construct a theoretical analysis framework involving three dimensions: information, organization, and environment. Our proposed framework relies on the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to analyze the mechanisms behind the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases across 15 cities located in typical provinces throughout China and explore the roles of cross-departmental collaboration in the processing of various elements as well as the effects of their combination on the action mechanisms for ensuring the effectiveness of emergency management approaches.FindingsThe results show a significant conditional correlation between the effectiveness of emergency management and the factors affecting cross-departmental coordination. Based on the characteristics of multiple concurrent paths, the driving paths can be classified into four categories: organizational, environmental, environment-balanced, and organization environment-based dual-core categories.ConclusionsThe effectiveness of public health emergency management is the result of multiple factors. Local governments should strengthen the coordination and integration of information, organization, and environment, improve the coordinated system associated with emergency management, promote the “two-wheel drive” of high-quality development as well as accurate prevention and control, explore and perfect the adaptive combinatorial optimization path, and effectively transform the advantages of linking multi-dimensional factors with governance efficiency.

The adoption of digital technology is one of the key processes in the digital transformation of China's construction industry. As a representative digital technology in the digital transformation process of Construction 4.0, digital twin technology has attracted widespread attention in various fields, and its practical application is also growing rapidly. However, its implementation in the construction industry (CI) still faces major challenges. Although previous studies have made significant progress in understanding the drivers and barriers to the implementation of digital twins (DTs) in the CI, these studies have neglected to explore the comprehensive impact of various factors, and the configuration relationship between them remains unclear. This study uses a quantitative method to conduct a questionnaire survey to obtain 33 case sample data. Necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA) methods are used for antecedent configuration analysis. The results show that: (1) The successful deployment of DTs in the CI does not depend on any single determinant, but is the adaptive result of the synergistic effect of multiple antecedent variables; (2) Six critical factors affecting the implementation of DTs in China's CI are identified, which can be summarized into four different causal paths or configurations, which are conducive to the implementation of DTs in China's CI. This study further explores and clarifies the comprehensive impact of antecedent variables on the implementation of DTs in China's CI provides a reference for the practice of digital transformation in the CI.

This research study aims to explore the factors that influence continuance intention in Blended learning (BL) among business school students in China. By employing a grounded theory approach and utilizing the Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA) method, the research investigates the complex interplay of various variables that contribute to business school students’ intention to continue participating in BL programs. The study includes a comprehensive analysis of factors such as self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, task-technology fit, social influence, and satisfaction. The findings provide valuable insights into the factors that drive business school students’ continuance intention in BL, specifically within the business school context in China. Moreover, the study highlights the non-linear relationships and various configurations of these factors that result in high levels of continuance intention. The results contribute to the existing knowledge base and inform educational institutions in designing effective strategies to enhance business school students’ engagement and promote the long-term success of BL initiatives.

Building on the national innovation system perspective, this study proposes an improved framework including five dimensions: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication. Based on the Global Innovation Index report, we use a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis approach (fsQCA) to determine the configurational differences of high innovation performance between countries with different income levels (high income, upper-middle income and lower-middle income). The results show that a same core configuration of conditions exist between high income and upper-middle income countries. These conditions are a good institutional environment, a high level of human capital research, supporting infrastructure and a mature business environment, which can drive high and upper-middle income countries to achieve high innovation performance. However, in lower-middle income countries, there are three configurations of conditions that are completely different from that of the high income and upper-middle income groups. These results suggest that the policies for improving national innovation levels need to be different for each income group. The significance of the results for theory and practice is also discussed.

Firms expand vertical boundaries by obtaining ownership of relevant resources. There are three means by which firms can achieve this goal: internal development, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and equity joint ventures. From transaction cost theory and resource‐based view, this study analyzed how resource characteristics, environmental conditions, and firms' capabilities influence their governance choices by studying 30 cases involving architectural, engineering, and construction firms and employing a fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis method. The findings reveal that all the antecedents jointly influenced firms' governance choices; however, they did so in a way that led to the firms' rejection as opposed to the implementation of one strategy. Firms avoided choosing internal development to circumvent high internal transaction costs or expand into new business rapidly. Firms excluded M&As when the similarity between new and existing resources was high to avoid resource redundancy. When market uncertainty was high, they did so to avoid investment risks. Moreover, when high external transaction costs were evident due to interactions and interdependency between firms and their partners, firms tended to choose a more integrated strategy and excluded equity joint ventures. The research indicates that firms' relational capabilities help them reduce external transaction costs and identify strategies with the lowest efficiency.

Information technology has brought about significant changes in enterprises, and new work situations have led to new problems. Employee resistance to new technologies, their ability to learn, and their ability to utilize personal resources to improve work engagement in the face of technological pressure are important factors that companies need to consider when undergoing digital transformation. The influence mechanism of configuration effects on factors around employee work engagement has not been explored, and technostress creators have rarely been included in the configuration as influencing factors in previous studies. On the basis of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and trait activation theory, this study explored the factors that affect employees’ work engagement at the level of job demands and personal resources. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was used to investigate the influence of technical stressors, self-efficacy, and the Big Five personality traits on employees’ work engagement. Through a survey of 225 employees in the context of enterprise digital transformation, the results show three driving paths that promote employees’ work engagement: openness to experience conscientiousness, self-efficacy driven, and inhibition to technical stressors. The study also analyzed employees’ low work engagement state, which is driven by an inhibition of agreeableness and extraversion. This research enriches the study of factors influencing work engagement in the digital transformation of enterprises.