Institutional environment and college students' entrepreneurial willingness : a comparative study of Chinese provinces based on fsQCA

College students are the new force of mass entrepreneurship and innovation. This study classifies 170,759 college students in China by province, based on the institutional theory, and employs necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze six conditional factors at three levels: the regulatory, normative, and cognitive environment. Thereafter, this study empirically explores the influencing path and optimization mechanism of college students' entrepreneurial willingness. The results indicate that: (1) A regulatory environment is necessary for high entrepreneurial willingness. (2) There are two types of innovation models that produce high entrepreneurial willingness. (3) The antecedent condition of the cognition system has a low impact on college students' entrepreneurial willingness. The research conclusion expands the innovation perspective of the association between institutional theory and entrepreneurial willingness, helps to fully understand the influencing factors of college students' entrepreneurial willingness, and provides theoretical reference and practical enlightenment for effectively stimulating college students' entrepreneurial willingness.