How the talent ecosystem of key state-owned forest areas in China empowers forestry scientific and technological talents aggregation

Our study focuses on key state-owned forest areas in China, utilizing the talent ecosystem theory and combining Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) with fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for the aggregation of forestry scientific and technological talents in 87 forestry enterprises. We analyze the complex causal relationships between forestry scientific and technological talents aggregation and five factors within the talent ecosystem: forestry enterprise economic conditions, forestry enterprise scientific and technological quality, forestry enterprise work opportunities, forestry enterprise living security, and forestry enterprise infrastructure. The NCA method quantitatively examines whether these five factors are necessary conditions for forestry scientific and technological talents aggregation, as well as their bottleneck levels. Meanwhile, the fsQCA method qualitatively explores multiple equivalent paths that lead to high aggregation of forestry scientific and technological talents through the interaction of these factors. The conclusions are as follows: First, both NCA and fsQCA results indicate that no single element of the talent ecosystem is a necessary condition for the aggregation of forestry scientific and technological talents. Second, the fsQCA results reveal five effective configurations that facilitate high aggregation of talents, while three configurations inhibit high aggregation. Lastly, typical case studies of forestry enterprises were selected to deeply analyze each path that enhances forestry scientific and technological talents aggregation. These findings provide insights from key state-owned forest areas for optimizing the talent ecosystem and promoting the aggregation of forestry scientific and technological talents in both China and globally.