The csQCA Analysis on Success or Failure of Adding Elevators to Old Buildings in China under the Multiple Coordination

1. Introduction

As an important livelihood project and an important carrier of urban renewal, “adding elevators to old buildings” has always received continuous attention from public opinion and policies in China [1], but its overall progress is quite difficult. Even in Guangzhou, which ranks first in China in terms of the total number of approved and built elevators, the ratio of the total approved amount to the total number of eligible buildings is only 17% [2]. There are various experience summaries in the practical field, such as “the theory of government subsidies leading to victory”, “the theory of court judgments being decisive”, “the theory of market development”, and “the theory of capable people leading to victory”. This reflects that the government, market, and society each have their own winning strategies. Exploring how these “magic weapons” complement each other can provide precise strategies and plan menus for the smooth promotion of adding elevators to old buildings. Therefore, based on the multiple coordination framework of “promising government-effective market-ordered society”, the article conducts Crisp-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) of 68 cases to explore the influencing factors and path combinations of the promotion of adding elevators to old buildings.

Most existing studies on the installation of elevators in old buildings have preliminarily observed that the smooth progress is the result of the cooperation of multiple entities such as the government, the market, and society, but it is difficult to see the path. Among them, the prescription for government logic includes: the government shifting from “leading” to “guiding” [3], improving the institutional environment [2], and alleviating financing difficulties through financial subsidies [4,6]. The remedies for market logic include fundraising (self financing and fund sharing by owners [5], enterprise participation [7], project integration [8], enterprise franchise [9]) and technology integration [10] (relaxing the principle of owner consent, improving technology [9,12], and compensation standards [11]). The prescription for social logic is to advocate public participation [10] and leverage the role of community capable people [2,13]. However, the current case studies and theoretical abstractions have not been able to answer the question of how to treat these prescriptions based on syndrome differentiation, flexibly organize prescriptions, resolve the contradiction between the universality of demand and the limited financial subsidies, and resolve the contradiction between community public nature [14] and the delayed development of grassroots autonomous organizations [3].

As a complex social engineering project, the success of installing elevators in old buildings is a result of multiple and concurrent factors. What is the importance of these multiple entities and factors, and how do they affect the installation of elevators through the “joint effect” ? This article investigates and answers by introducing the Crisp-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) method.

Based on the literature on the installation of elevators in old buildings, which is rich in the logic of various strengths of the government, market, and society, and in combination with the “Guiding Opinions of the State Council of China on Comprehensively Promoting the Renovation of Old Urban Residential Areas” [15], such as “reasonably implementing residents’ investment responsibilities”, “increasing government support”, “continuously improving financial service strength and quality efficiency”, and “promoting social participation”, based on the analysis of specific cases, the article constructs a diversified collaborative explanatory framework for the promotion of old buildings and elevators (as shown in Figure 1): “promising government-effective market-ordered society”.

Starting from these three dimensions, two variables are selected each to generate six conditional variables: approval optimization, financial subsidies, financing innovation, technological innovation, capable people leading, and neighborhood committee guidance. The Crisp-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) method is used to explore the impact of these conditions as a single factor on the success or failure of adding elevators to old buildings, and typical configurations of success and failure are summarized.

2. Methods

2.1. Research methods and ideas

The qualitative comparative analysis method uses a case-based analysis approach, treating cases as conditional configurations, to support causal complexity analysis in the method [16]. Compared to regression analysis, QCA has an advantage in handling small and medium-sized samples [17]. It can identify the interdependence, configuration equivalence, and causal asymmetry between conditions [18], which is conducive to discovering the similarity and possibility of the system through cross case comparative analysis [19]. This to some extent avoids the abstraction and randomness of single case studies and tracking observations, and can also free oneself from the dilemma of listing multiple cases in a “quick glance” manner, where it is difficult to see the whole picture from a narrow perspective. This article selects the Crisp-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis Method (CS-QCA) as the research method.

2.2. Sample selection and data sources

The article follows the principle of “information first”, based on the relevance and representativeness of events, and utilizes local government websites, various databases, and media platforms to search and collect practical cases of installing elevators in old buildings, striving for sample duration and diversity. A total of 68 detailed cases from 14 provinces and 23 cities in China from 2002 to 2022 were selected as samples1. Among them, 33 cases (48.5%) experienced various obstacles such as work stoppage, litigation, fines, demolition, etc., while 35 cases (51.5%) were relatively smooth.

2.3. Variable setting and assignment

The article is based on multiple coordination framework and selects variables from academic literature, policy texts, and case data. The assignment of variables, reference sources, and frequency distribution are shown in Table 1.

3. Discussion and Conclusions

First, from the perspective of necessity analysis of individual variables, approval optimization and neighborhood committee guidance are sufficient conditions for the successful installation of elevators in old buildings. Among the 6 successful typical combinations, approval optimization and neighborhood committee guidance have occurred 4 times. Therefore, the government introduces relevant policies to assist in approval, optimizes approval procedures, and neighborhood committees provide reasonable guidance and mobilization, which will help promote the advancement of adding elevators to old buildings. In terms of the importance of conditions, the approval optimization was a core condition 4 times. Neighborhood committee guidance appeared once as a core condition and as a marginal condition 3 times. Therefore, the importance ranking of approval optimization is higher, and the difference in the importance of conditional variables reflects the internal mechanism of the promotion of old building escalators, that is, reasonable and effective approval optimization plays a crucial role in the smooth operation of old building escalators.

Secondly, after comparing and attributing successful cases, it can be found that the smooth progress of installing elevators in old buildings is the result of a reasonable combination of various forces and factors, which can be divided into three types: “political and social dual drive type”, “market and social dual-drive type”, and “ternary co-drive type”. From a specific perspective, there are also sub models such as the “dual wheel drive” model, the “innovation drive” model, the “two-way financial support” model, and the “convenient” model. After comparing the conditional configurations, it can be found that in all six successful paths, there were participation led by neighborhood committees or capable individuals. Among them, the variable of neighborhood committee guidance appeared as an edge condition three times, and as a core condition once. The variable of capable individuals leading appeared as an edge condition three times, but did not appear in the core condition. From this, it can be seen that social force has appeared as a core variable a total of once. Compared to this, government power and market power have appeared as core variables four times and three times, respectively. Therefore, the smooth progress of the old building ladder cannot be achieved without the participation of social forces, but it is difficult for them to become the core force for successful promotion. Therefore, the smooth progress of adding elevators to old buildings requires various regions to comprehensively utilize local resource endowments, adapt to local conditions, and combine social forces with government and market forces in a reasonable and effective manner.

Thirdly, after comparing and attributing the failed cases, it can be found that the failure of adding elevators to old buildings can be divided into “government and market double failure type” and “market failure type”. Most of them are driven by the “independent” power of social forces, and there is a contradiction between the role of community elites and what they should be. The lack of approval optimization and financing innovation is the key to the failure. Firstly, from the necessity analysis of a single variable, the lack of approval optimization, lack of financing innovation, and the presence of capable individuals are necessary conditions for the failure of adding elevators to old buildings. At the same time, from the perspective of the configuration of failure conditions, all four paths have the participation of social forces, which is the “independent” driving force of social forces, and community capable individuals have played a role in these four failure paths. Therefore, in the promotion of adding elevators to old buildings, there is a contradiction between the role of community capable people, which should play an important role in coordination and integration in theory, and is even considered a key role [13]. In reality, capable people have played a role in all four failed paths. However, due to the lack of core variables such as approval optimization and financing innovation, community capable people are unable to play their due role alone. From the simple solution of failure, it can be seen that the path of approval optimization and financing innovation can explain 97% of failure cases, and 72.7% of failure cases can only be explained by this path; From the failed intermediate solution, it can be seen that approval optimization as the core condition appeared four times in the four paths, and financing innovation as the core condition appeared three times in the four paths. Therefore, the lack of approval optimization and financing innovation is the key cause of the failure of adding elevators to old buildings. Regions with frequent failure cases can reflect and explore relief measures from these two aspects.