From solo drivers to synergistic recipes: how smart manufacturing firms achieve high supply chain performance

Driven by the global digital economy and industrial restructuring, smart manufacturing guides manufacturing-sector transformation, with supply chain management evolving into an integrated and dynamic collaborative model. However, technological, organisational, and environmental factors exert non-linear and interactive effects on supply chain performance. Drawing on the TOE framework, this study selects 50 A-share listed pilot smart manufacturing enterprises (2022–2023) as the sample, and combines fsQCA with multiple linear regression and interaction term models to explore the multi-factor configurations leading to high supply chain performance. The results show that the linear effects of individual antecedent conditions are limited and unstable; each condition's performance contribution can only be effectively realised within appropriate configurational contexts. Furthermore, four distinct pathways are identified: governance and resource synergy, structure and resource synergy, structure driven and multi-support, and supply chain driven. These findings provide practical path references for enterprises and support targeted policy formulation for government agencies.