Table 1_Characterization of collaborative management paths for public health at the county-level government in China: 3 cases based on fsQCA.docx

BackgroundCounty-level governments (CLG) are the basic organizational units of China's administrative power. The collaborative management paths (CMP) for public health at the CLG carry a variety of pressures and are responsible for coordinating the allocation of resources, and need to be well developed in terms of their capacity structure.
MethodThis study defines the CMP of CLG in public health as six variables of policy resource: configuration capability, perception capability, insight capability, integration capability, learning capability, and innovation capability. This study incorporates the fsQCA algorithm to explore the non-linear relationship between the collaborative management capabilities of the CMP of CLG in public health and policy resources.
ResultsA configuration of the CMP of CLG for public health was identified (solution coverage 36.67%, solution consistency 98.24%). The CLG's CMP has full-time-phase characteristics, i.e., the diversion management time-phase is characterized by conventional and non-conventional management time-phase groupings, but the non-conventional management time-phase does not have a bottleneck level. CLG's CMP has 3 core elements (Integration, Learning, and Perception Capabilities) and 2 supporting elements (Innovation and Insight Capabilities). The bottleneck level analysis of CLG's CMP resulted in a 10% level of perceived capacity being required to achieve a 60% level of configured capacity. The sensitivity test of the CMP for CLG suggests that the pathway is robust.
ConclusionThis study presents a framework for observing/interpreting the results of CLG as a managerial behavior (policy resource management) at the grassroots level of government from the perspective of CMP.