Abstract:    In the context of rising international trade protectionism, increasing risks of global supply chain disruptions, and the accelerated digital technology revolution, promoting industrial diversification to enhance regional economic resilience and promote sustainable economic development has become a common concern among both academics and policymakers.Building upon the integration of evolutionary economic geography theory, new institutional sociology, economic geography, and urban economics, this paper constructed an AIS theoretical framework that determines regional industrial diversification. Using 273 Chinese cities as a sample, it employed the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the configurational paths leading to high levels of industrial diversification. The research results showed that: (1) Regional high-level industrial diversification is the result of the synergistic effects of multiple drivers, with city innovation capabilities play a more universal role; (2) There are multiple equivalent driving paths for achieving high-level industrial diversification. Specifically, high unrelated diversification paths include changing agency-driven paths and liberalized market institution-driven paths. For high related diversification, paths include dual institutional intervention-driven paths, coordinated institution-driven endogenous innovation paths, and large city digital economy-driven paths.This study has revealed the configurational logic of regional industrial diversification development, deepened the understanding of regional industrial diversification, and it will provide a theoretical foundation for regions to choose appropriate paths for achieving industrial diversification based on their local conditions.

Key words: industrial diversification, AIS framework, fsQCA