From Functional Combinations to Behavioral Persistence: A Configurational Analysis of the Impact of Environmental Public Service Platform Functions on Users’ Sustained Energy-Saving Behaviors

Environmental public service platforms are persuasive digital systems whose functions are critical for translating users’ short-term energy-saving actions into sustained energy-saving behaviors (SESBs), defined as consistent low-carbon practices across different contexts. Grounded in persuasive system design principles, this study employs the hierarchical regression, Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on 410 Chinese samples to examine how heterogeneous platform functions and their configurations relate to SESBs. Results show four platform functions (task-driven function, human–computer interaction (HCI) function, socialization-driven function, and system reliability feedback function) are positively associated with SESBs, yet none is a necessary condition. The HCI function serves as the core condition across all configurations. Three equifinal configurations for SESBs are identified: “interaction-enhanced task-trust driven mode,” “interaction-supported task-social synergy mode” and “interaction-empowered social-trust driven mode.” These findings offer platform operators insights into the relationship between functional configurations and users’ SESBs, providing empirical evidence for optimizing function design to promote energy conservation.