The case data of the Chinese government's environmental governance effectiveness

We aimed to determine the effective environmental governance model and its constituent factors. This paper explored the combinations of multiple factors as condition variables and the effectiveness of the environmental governance cases as the outcome variables. We collected 48 multi-factor cases of environmental governance of the Chinese government. In order to ensure that the selected cases were compatible with the condition and outcome variables in the study design, the actual case selection and condition variable design were used as references. On the basis of a certain case, the main condition variables were selected, and the condition variables were used to find relevant cases. These two related efforts were continuously adjusted to ensure that case selection and research variables reached internal consistency. In order to facilitate a balance between the number of cases and the number of condition variables in csQCA research design and general research practice, we excluded the influence of some variable factors in case selection to ensure external consistency of our study. Specifically, the case selection in this study mostly followed the following criteria:

• Environmental governance cases were limited mainly to environmental governance in China and contained multiple influencing factors.

• The selected cases have high universality and representativeness for the environmental governance of the Chinese government.

• Most of the influencing factors of case selection are important topics studied by researchers and have accumulated research findings.

• The influencing factors in the cases are obvious and can be clearly defined and extracted.

• The selected cases are more obvious in the results of environmental governance and can help reach a general consensus in the judgment of effectiveness.