How Business Environments Affect Enterprise Vitality: A Complex Adaptive Systems Theory Perspective

As a complex ecosystem, a business environment plays a structural role in shaping enterprise vitality, yet its multidimensional mechanisms remain underexplored, particularly within transitioning economies. This study employs a time-series Global Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) model to measure the vitality levels of 1475 A-share listed enterprises and the quality of business environments across 284 cities between 2008 and 2022 in China. Based on Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory, we propose a three-dimensional “institution–resource–capability” theoretical framework to analyze the impact of a business environment on enterprise vitality and its underlying complex mechanisms. Our results reveal that, (1) a business environment and its constituent subsystems significantly enhance enterprise vitality, with the market environment and innovation ecosystem exhibiting the strongest effects; (2) the revitalizing impact of a business environment is more pronounced for enterprises in the tertiary industry, manufacturing, regulated sectors, and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), as well as those operating in Eastern China; (3) mechanistically, the positive association between a business environment and enterprise vitality is consistent with the following three core pathways: mitigating enterprise risks, restructuring resource provision, and cultivating enterprise capability. This research enriches theoretical frameworks for enterprise sustainable development within complex economic systems, while providing valuable policy implications for optimizing business environments in global transitioning economies.