Network structure and low-carbon governance performance: a qualitative comparative analysis

Abstract

Network effectiveness is an important topic in network research. While many studies have been conducted in the Western contexts, few scholars have examined this topic in the area of environmental governance in the context of China. Taking the low-carbon governance networks of 16 cities in China as the research context, this article adopts the method of fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to examine the relationship between network structure, social capital and governance performance. The analyses reveal two causal paths leading to network effectiveness and two causal paths leading to network ineffectiveness. The results indicate that networks combining high bridging social capital with high bonding social capital or combining high bridging social capital with low network load are more likely to demonstrate effectiveness. Networks with the combination of low bonding social capital and high network load, or the combination of high bonding social capital, low bridging social capital and network load are more likely to be ineffective.