The marketization of data elements is a systematic project in China’s economic structural reform. Improving the marketization level of data elements is the key measure to release the value of data elements. The existing literature lacks in-depth research on the conditions and mechanisms for improving the marketization of data elements. Based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, this paper applies the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method (fsQCA) on 29 provincial administrative regions of China to investigate the mechanism of technology, organization and environment conditions on the marketization of data elements from the configuration perspective of complex economic system management. The study finds that: (1) The combination of technology, organization and environmental factors can form five conditional configurations that generate the high marketization level of high data elements, including technology-balance path, environment-balance path, technology-and- environment-balance path, market-environment-organization path and competition-environment-organization path. Among them, the technology-and-environment-balance path can explain the most typical cases of high marketization level of data elements. (2) A comparative study of different regions in China shows that there are differences in the configuration paths of improving the marketization level of data elements in the eastern, central and western regions. Based on the analysis of configuration effect from the perspective of complex economic system management, this paper not only expands the application scope of TOE framework from micro-organization to macroeconomic system, but also enriches the methods and perspectives of data element marketization research, laying a theoretical foundation for further research on the mechanism design for the data element market. In terms of practical enlightenment, it is suggested that when deploying the national unified data element market construction, it can take the regional data element market construction as the basis, make overall planning, fully consider the resource endowment of each region, and choose the appropriate data element market construction path according to local conditions.