Based on Schumpeter's innovation theory, this paper demonstrates the impact mechanism of smart city construction on the resource environmental carrying capacity (RECC), and uses the panel data of 10 cities in Shaanxi Province from 2015 to 2019, combined with structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method. This paper explores the impact of various dimensions of smart city construction on RECC, and the joint effect and interactive relationship among multiple dimensions. The results show that: ① Smart environment, smart human capital and smart economy have a significant positive effect on RECC. ② Smart economy plays a key role in promoting RECC. ③ There are four paths of smart city construction to enhance RECC, including economic pull, environmental governance, green development and innovation-driven, which can be summarized as industrial upgrading push and environmental regulation pull. ④ Under certain circumstances, there is a substitution relationship between smart economy, smart governance and smart environment. This study deepens the existing theoretical research on the effect of smart city construction, and provides a differentiated scheme for smart city construction oriented to enhance RECC.