Work

Configurational Pathways in Digital Textbook Development: A TOE-Based Analysis of Business English Materials for Vocational Education

Year: 2026

Type: book-chapter

Abstract: Digital textbooks (DTs) constitute core resources for competency-based vocational education. This study applies the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework configurationally to examine the development of digital Business English materials, shifting the analytical lens from variable-centered approaches to configurational logic that treats technological, organizational, and environmental factors as interdependent conditions. Drawing on a written adaptation of autobiographical narrative inquiry with 11 stakeholders from a Chinese higher vocational institution, and using social network analysis as a structuring heuristic, the study identifies 27 configurational factors across nine TOE elements and analytically derives three equifinal pathways, technology-concentrated, organization-centered, and environment-linked, labeled by domain concentration rather than causal direction. Cross-domain coupling indices reveal robust technology-organization co-occurrence (density=0.34) and sparse organization-environment linkages (density=0.15); narrative evidence interprets this asymmetry as a governance bottleneck rooted in incentive asymmetry and institutional hollowness. The study further proposes a four-stage optimization framework and a testable proposition regarding stakeholder-perceived student engagement as a mediating feedback signal. Theoretically, it offers a project-level configurational application of TOE and introduces a narrative-SNA heuristic for small-N, context-rich configurational inquiry. Practically, it reframes the policy challenge from resource insufficiency to governance mechanisms, providing ecosystem-aware guidance for digital materials development in vocational Business English contexts.

Source: Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications

Parent work: Digitalization and Management Innovation V: Proceedings of DMI 2026, Xi’an, China, 24-27 August 2026

DOI: 10.3233/faia261121

Author: Jun Liu

Institution: Shanghai Publishing and Printing College

Language: English

Topic: English Language Learning and Teaching

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid