Management Review ›› 2026, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (8): 95-107.

• Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management • Previous Articles    

Nesting to Attract Phoenix: The Construction of Urban Amenities and Scientific and Technological Innovation Talents Aggregation—A Configurational Analysis Based on fsQCA

Jia Jianfeng1,2,3, Sun Baipeng1   

  1. 1. School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169;
    2. National Frontiers Science Center for Industrial Intelligence and Systems Optimization, Shenyang 110819;
    3. Key Laboratory of Data Analytics and Optimization for Smart Industry (Northeastern University), Ministry of Education, Shenyang 110819
  • Received:2024-06-17 Published:2026-09-11

Abstract: Scientific and technological innovation talents are the key human resources for a country to become more innovative and own more core technologies. Promoting the agglomeration of scientific and technological innovation talents is essential for advancing China’s ambition to build a globally important talent center and innovation hub. Taking 295 cities in China as cases of configuration research, this paper explores the role of working, natural, and living amenities on the scientific and technological innovation talents aggregation based on the amenities theory. The findings reveal that, firstly, the scientific and technological innovation talents aggregation is influenced by a combination of working, natural, and living amenities provided by cities, rather than being dominated by a single amenity. Secondly, different amenity elements synergistically contribute to three pathways for attracting scientific and technological innovation talents, namely “dominated by scientific and technological innovation” “co-driven by social economy and scientific and technological innovation” and “synergisticly driven by multi-factors” Thirdly, although a single amenity does not constitute a necessary condition for scientific and technological innovation talents aggregation, the working amenity centered around the scientific and technological innovation plays a more universally applicable role. The conclusion enriches the antecedents of the scientific and technological innovation talents aggregation and the related research of amenities theory, and provides policy enlightenment for cities to “build nest to attract phoenix” by building urban amenities for talents.

Key words: scientific and technological innovation talents, talents aggregation, amenities theory, configuration research