Exploring drivers of green innovation in major transportation infrastructure projects by collaborative governance

In major transportation infrastructure projects (MTIs), technological innovation now extends beyond economic gains to embrace green innovation (GI) principles. However, integrating GI into MTIs faces complex governance challenges that may impede innovation sustainability, necessitating balanced development between technology advancement and environmental standards. Although GI has been explored across multiple disciplines, the increasing scale and complexity of MTIs have exposed critical gaps in the coordination capacity of existing governance approaches. Without structured mechanisms to align diverse institutional logics and stakeholder incentives, GI efforts risk remaining fragmented or unsustainable, which underscores the urgent need to systematically examine collaborative governance models as a focal point for achieving innovation outcomes in MTIs. Responding to this need, this research investigates MTI-GI collaborative governance variables using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Through necessity tests and sufficiency analysis, core governance strategies and collaborative innovation framework were proposed. Results reveal that tripartite collaboration among three key agents significantly enhances MTI-GI capabilities. Based on this finding, we establish a “multi-agent collaborative innovation governance framework” and summarize five combinatory strategies reflecting agent interactions under specific contexts, which facilitate GI expansion in MTIs and provide scientific guidance for practitioners, emphasizing the critical role of coordinated multi-agent governance in achieving sustainability.