Innovation ecosystems and national talent competitiveness: A country-based comparison using fsQCA

Talent is a key resource for national development, and talent competitiveness has become a crucial indicator to measure the development of countries and regions. This study explores the causal and complex mechanisms of innovation ecosystems driving talent competitiveness. It integrates the four elements (enterprises, governments, universities, and R&D institutions) of innovation ecosystems and adopts a group-based perspective combined with necessary condition analysis and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, using a sample of 33 countries. It was found that (1) e-government efficiency is a necessary condition for high talent competitiveness, and the information and communication infrastructure provided by e-government plays a general role in generating high talent competitiveness; (2) there are three types of innovation ecosystems that generate high talent competitiveness: business investment-driven, e-government-led, and R&D-driven; and (3) there are four types of innovation ecosystems that generate low talent competitiveness, and an asymmetric relationship exists with innovation ecosystems that generate high talent competitiveness.