Configurations of Sustained Volunteerism: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Volunteerism plays a crucial role in shaping public affairs, yet retaining volunteers remains challenging due to its non-compulsory nature. Utilizing the job demands-resources model and conducting in-depth interviews, this study identifies five key factors that influence sustained volunteerism: organizational climate, task significance, work–life conflict, feedback, and government support. We further analyzed 202 case samples and identified configurations that lead to high sustained volunteerism intention by employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our findings reveal four distinct pathways to sustained volunteerism, demonstrating that long-term commitment can emerge through various routes, even in the absence of certain expected conditions. These pathways include task-feedback oriented, organization-task oriented, policy-task oriented, and multilevel oriented. This study offers new perspectives on managing volunteer retention and emphasizes the importance of understanding asymmetric causal relationships in volunteer engagement, providing insights to transition volunteers to long-term roles.