Prior studies on the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem (DEE) have primarily concentrated on delineating its inherent characteristics and overlooked its driving contexts. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring when firms build a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Based on neo-institutional theory, we develop a typology of institutional contexts associated with digital entrepreneurial ecosystem building. We posit that favorable institutional conditions facilitate firms to develop a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem by forming a configuration. Thus, we hypothesize a primary institutional configuration where regulative institutional context, normative institutional context, and cognitive institutional context. Further, according to neo-institutional theory, we introduce TMT gender diversity and resource slack and propose two alternative types conducive to the building of a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method, we conducted a comprehensive examination of 104 cases within the Chinese context to substantiate our research hypotheses. Our analysis unearthed compelling evidence suggesting that the combination of institutional conditions promotes the building of a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition, the two alternative types provide functional substitutes for the primary type: (1) low resource slack substitutes for the digital cognitive depth, and (2) TMT gender diversity substitutes for institutional quality. Through our study, we build an institutional configurational model to advance a holistic understanding of the theoretical drivers of digital entrepreneurial ecosystem, contributing to the research of the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem, institutional theory, TMT gender diversity, and resource slack.