Research on the path of high-quality development of the smart health and aging care industry driven by digital economy— dynamic QCA analysis based on TOE framework

Introduction: The digital economy has become a important driver for the high-quality development of industry. Exploring its impact on and pathways for enhancing the smart health and aging care industry holds significant practical importance. Methods: Leveraging the theoretical underpinnings of TOE framework and configuration analysis, this research utilizes dynamic Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to examine provincial-level panel data from China between 2012-2022, investigating how the digital economy's configuration effects evolve over time. Results: The digital economy drives the high-quality development of the smart health and aging care industry through five pathways, which can be divided into three classes: digitally technology-driven, dual-core "digital technology-digital environment" driven, and digitally environment-led. Low-quality development patterns follow three pathways, which can be summarized into two types: "digital technology-digital environment" constrained and "digital technology-digital organization-digital environment" multi-dimensional constrained. Multi-period comparative analysis reveals multiple trajectory evolution phenomena in the digital economy's drive toward high-quality development of the smart health and aging industry. Among these, the digital technology-driven and dual-core "digital technology-digital environment" models represent dominant trajectories, while the digital environment-led model constitutes a turning-point trajectory. Discussion: The digital economy drives the high-quality development of the smart health and aging care industry through multiple pathways and evolutionary trajectories, with the three elements-digital technology, digital environment, and digital organization, functioning synergistically. This research provides theoretical references and practical insights for understanding how the digital economy era propels the high-quality development of the smart health and aging care industry.