The arrival of the digital economy era has challenged the sustainable development of coal enterprises, and only by realizing intelligent transformation can coal enterprises catch up with the tide of the times and realize the sustainable development of enterprises. In order to explore the efficient construction path of intelligent transformation of coal enterprises under the background of digital economy, this paper adopts the case study method and clear set of qualitative comparative analysis method, constructs a four-dimensional analysis framework of technical level, organizational level, environmental level, and financial level, and selects five explanatory elements under the above four levels, namely, technical talents, technological development, degree of development of the city, financial investment, and leadership support, to explore the multiple concurrent causal factors of the intelligent and efficient transformation of coal enterprises. The study finds that (1) in the intelligent and efficient transformation of coal enterprises, there are five explanatory factors. It is found that: (1) in the levels of “technical talents”, “technology development”, “urban development”, “investment in scientific research” and “leadership support”, there are five explanatory factors, namely, “technical talents”, “technology development”, “urban development”, “investment in scientific research” and “leadership support”. and “leadership support”, a single development factor can hardly constitute the necessary conditions to influence the effectiveness of intelligent transformation of coal enterprises; (2) further group analysis generates three equivalent paths, which are specifically summarized as the “technology-fund-environment” driving mode. capital-environment” driving mode, ‘technology-management-environment’ driving mode, and ‘technology-fund-management’ driving mode, which are in line with all coal enterprises realizing intelligent transformation.The results of this paper can provide applicable construction ideas for the intelligent transformation of coal enterprises with different characteristics, and also reveal that the government should increase the attention and support for the transformation of coal enterprises, and the enterprises should improve the initiative of the transformation of the enterprises, accelerate the training of talents, cultivate multi-level and compound talents, and accelerate the development and application of new technologies in the enterprises.