With the digital economy still in its infancy, there is still a lack of academic research focusing on the complex antecedent configurations of enterprise digital transformation and their temporal evolution. Drawing on the theoretical perspective of strategy tripod, this study uses the data from 2014–2019 of A-share listed companies and employs the dynamic fsQCA approach to identify the "causal recipes" for achieving a high-level digital transformation. From the perspective of the strategic tripod, the conceptual framework is composed of three sets of causal conditions: including institutional conditions (i. e. , level of marketization as a formal institution; regional Guanxi culture as an informal institution), industrial conditions (i.e., industry munificence, industry dynamism, and industry complexity), and dynamic capabilities (sensing capability, absorptive capability, and reconfiguration capability).
The analysis confirms that all conditions consisting of the strategic tripod are significant to enterprise digital transformation. Institutional conditions ensure legitimacy for digital transformation, industrial conditions influence enterprises' willingness to implement digital transformation, and conditions related to firm dynamic capabilities determine the effectiveness of digital transformation. Notably, enterprise digital transformation is not solely driven by any single factor. Instead, all these three kinds of conditions play significant roles in influencing the digital transformation of enterprises. Then the coexistence of multiple antecedent configurations for high-level digital transformation is identified, which is consistent with the strategic tripod. The qualitative comparative analysis reveals that there are four typical patterns of high-level digital transformation in the three phases of 2014-2015, 2016-2017, and 2018-2019, including "emphasis on institutions", being "institutional-industrial driven", "industrial utilization", and "the synergy among the three dimensions of the strategy tripod". Additionally, it is found that there are three typical patterns in each phase. The diversity of digital transformation configurations apparently reflects the strategic and managerial wisdom of enterprises which constantly explore the potential of digital transformation and gradually open up various transformation paths. Consistent with the development characteristics of the emerging economy, enterprise digital transformation has undergone a transition process that has been dominated by macro-, meso- and micro-level factors, respectively, across three time periods. Specifically, in the early stage of digital transformation development, it was led by institutions, followed by industrial policy stimulation, and finally deepened and developed through enterprise innovation. That is, institution-related conditions were the main drivers of digital transformation from 2014-2015. Then from 2016-2017, the incentive role of industry factors in digital transformation became more important; and from 2018-2019, digital transformation focused on leveraging the enterprises' own dynamic capabilities. Thus, the key drivers of enterprise digital transformation have been shifting from being institution-oriented (at the macro-level), to industry factor-driven (at the meso-level) and recently towards enterprise internal factor-driven (at the micro-level).
Moreover, the analysis results of regional heterogeneity show that the role of the industry-related conditions is more pronounced for enterprises undergoing a relatively high-level digital transformation in the eastern region, while the institutional background matters more for enterprises in the central region, and all three aspects of the strategy tripod (i. e. , institutional factors, industry conditions and enterprises' internal capabilities) are indispensable for enterprises in the western region to enhance their digital transformation.
This study makes threefold contributions as follows. First, it extends the extant research on the antecedents to enterprise digital transformation by simultaneously considering the institution- industry and enterprise-related causal conditions in an integrative framework with solid support from the strategy tripod perspective. Second, it applies the fsQCA approach to identify the equivalent configurations of high-level digital transformation, providing a finer-grained understanding of the causal conditions under which high-level digital transformation occurs and thus producing insights more closely aligned with the complex realities of how enterprises can improve the effectiveness of digital transformation than conventional research approaches. Third, the findings provide the recipe for managers to make good use of institutional factors, industrial conditions, and dynamic capabilities to succeed via digital transformation. They also provide both theoretical and practical insights for policymakers who are dedicated to driving enterprise digital transformation.