Beyond the single thread: how organisational, technological, and environmental factors jointly shape green patent persistence in textile firms

As one of the most resource-intensive and polluting manufacturing industries, the textile sector’s sustained green patenting activities are garnering increasing attention. This study investigates 48 Chinese A-share listed textile enterprises, employing a combined Necessity Condition Analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) approach. We systematically explore how five antecedent conditions, firm size, executive educational background, digital transformation, media attention, and government subsidies, collectively influence the sustained green patent application performance of textile enterprises through various configurations. The results show that no single factor qualifies as a necessary condition; rather, sustained green patenting emerges from asymmetric combinations of factors. Media attention and government subsidies appear as common core elements across configurations associated with high levels of sustained green patenting. We identify two high-performance pathways: an “environment-dominated–organisational collaboration” pathway and a “technology–environment-driven” pathway. Conversely, we uncover four pathways associated with low sustained green patenting: “environmental deficiency”, “technological inadequacy”, “organisational weakness”, and “single-factor presence”. Overall, the study elucidates the complex causal configurations shaping sustained green patenting in textile firms and offers implications for the industry’s sustainable development.