Underlying success in open‐ended investigations in science: using qualitative comparative analysis to identify necessary and sufficient conditions

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Glaesser ◽  
Richard Gott ◽  
Ros Roberts ◽  
Barry Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

Aggregation Bias and the Analysis of Necessary and Sufficient Conditions in fsQCA

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bear F. Braumoeller
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Aggregation Bias ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Social ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Causal Complexity

Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) has become one of the most prominent methods in the social sciences for capturing causal complexity, especially for scholars with small- and medium- N data sets. This research note explores two key assumptions in fsQCA’s methodology for testing for necessary and sufficient conditions—the cumulation assumption and the triangular data assumption—and argues that, in combination, they produce a form of aggregation bias that has not been recognized in the fsQCA literature. It also offers a straightforward test to help researchers answer the question of whether their findings are plausibly the result of aggregation bias.

scholarly journals Regime and Sociology: A Comparative History of Sociology in Postwar Europe with Qualitative Comparative Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Matthias Duller
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Postwar Europe ◽  
Regime Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Continuous Presence ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

Abstract Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this article presents a systematic comparison of differences in the institutional success of sociology in 25 European countries during the academic expansion from 1945 until the late 1960s. Combining context-sensitive national histories of sociology, concept formation, and formal analyses of necessary and sufficient conditions, the article searches for historical explanations for both successful and inhibited processes of the institutionalization of sociology. Concretely, it assesses the interplay of political regime types, the continuous presence of sociological prewar traditions, political Catholicism, and the effects of sociological communities in neighboring countries and how their various combinations are related to more or less well-established sociologies. The results can help explain adversary effects under democratic conditions as well as supportive factors under nondemocratic conditions.

scholarly journals The Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Overview of a Causal Complexity Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 08020
Author(s):  
Monika Smela
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Global Affairs ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Causal Complexity

Research background: Alongside with the development of configurative comparative analysis aiming at identification of necessary and sufficient conditions, various formal methods used for this purpose have been formulated during the last decades. One of them is qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), one of approaches used for causal explanation of phenomena of cases performed in the field of international economics and global affairs. Purpose of the article: The main purpose of the article is to provide a detailed overview of the QCA method in global context, to define its methodologic foundations and consequently introduce the key concepts of the method. The article also provides a comparison of QCA to typical tools of qualitative and quantitative approaches. On the basis of this part, both pros and cons of QCA are derived. Methods: Basically, the methods of analysis, deduction and comparison are used to fulfil the purpose of the article. The existing and available papers and books coping with the topic of QCA and its position among other research methods are reviewed to provide an overview on the selected method. Findings & Value added: The QCA is a method based on analysing stated relations. It bridges the quantitative and qualitative research and reveals certain patterns based on causal complexity principles, however, it is done regarding heterogeneity and diversity of individual researched cases. It is a method applicable to the middle number of cases, it means too few cases for statistical methods on the other hand too many cases for typical qualitative approaches.

Complexity, Causality, and Control in Statistical Modeling

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Urlacher
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Models ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Causal Framework ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
And Control

Social scientists using statistical models and more qualitative techniques frequently employ divergent approaches to thinking about causality. Statistical methodologies tend to draw on probabilistic understandings of causality. Qualitative research traditions, however, have advanced a sophisticated framework around necessary and sufficient conditions. In particular, the qualitative comparative analysis approach has embraced theory development that emphasizes equifinality and complex causal relationships. This article reviews the two traditions and explores how a causal framework grounded in necessary and sufficient conditions can be adapted to statistical models. A logistic regression analysis of major contributions to peacekeeping missions is used to illustrate both the viability of blending the two traditions as well as the potential for more sophisticated theory development and testing.

The extinction time of a general birth and death process with catastrophes

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (04) ◽  
pp. 851-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Brockwell
Keyword(s):  
Laplace Transform ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Death Process ◽  
Extinction Time ◽  
Birth And Death Process ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Laplace Transform ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

The Laplace transform of the extinction time is determined for a general birth and death process with arbitrary catastrophe rate and catastrophe size distribution. It is assumed only that the birth rates satisfyλ0= 0,λj> 0 for eachj> 0, and. Necessary and sufficient conditions for certain extinction of the population are derived. The results are applied to the linear birth and death process (λj=jλ, µj=jμ) with catastrophes of several different types.

Nonlinear boundary-value problems for degenerate differential-algebraic systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-324
Author(s):  
Sergii Chuiko ◽  
Ol'ga Nesmelova
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Value Problem ◽  
Boundary Value Problems ◽  
Algebraic System ◽  
Boundary Value ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Weakly Nonlinear ◽  
Differential Algebraic System ◽  
Linear Differential ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

The study of the differential-algebraic boundary value problems, traditional for the Kiev school of nonlinear oscillations, founded by academicians M.M. Krylov, M.M. Bogolyubov, Yu.A. Mitropolsky and A.M. Samoilenko. It was founded in the 19th century in the works of G. Kirchhoff and K. Weierstrass and developed in the 20th century by M.M. Luzin, F.R. Gantmacher, A.M. Tikhonov, A. Rutkas, Yu.D. Shlapac, S.L. Campbell, L.R. Petzold, Yu.E. Boyarintsev, V.F. Chistyakov, A.M. Samoilenko, O.A. Boichuk, V.P. Yacovets, C.W. Gear and others. In the works of S.L. Campbell, L.R. Petzold, Yu.E. Boyarintsev, V.F. Chistyakov, A.M. Samoilenko and V.P. Yakovets were obtained sufficient conditions for the reducibility of the linear differential-algebraic system to the central canonical form and the structure of the general solution of the degenerate linear system was obtained. Assuming that the conditions for the reducibility of the linear differential-algebraic system to the central canonical form were satisfied, O.A.~Boichuk obtained the necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the linear Noetherian differential-algebraic boundary value problem and constructed a generalized Green operator of this problem. Based on this, later O.A. Boichuk and O.O. Pokutnyi obtained the necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the weakly nonlinear differential algebraic boundary value problem, the linear part of which is a Noetherian differential algebraic boundary value problem. Thus, out of the scope of the research, the cases of dependence of the desired solution on an arbitrary continuous function were left, which are typical for the linear differential-algebraic system. Our article is devoted to the study of just such a case. The article uses the original necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the linear Noetherian differential-algebraic boundary value problem and the construction of the generalized Green operator of this problem, constructed by S.M. Chuiko. Based on this, necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the weakly nonlinear differential-algebraic boundary value problem were obtained. A typical feature of the obtained necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the linear and weakly nonlinear differential-algebraic boundary-value problem is its dependence on the means of fixing of the arbitrary continuous function. An improved classification and a convergent iterative scheme for finding approximations to the solutions of weakly nonlinear differential algebraic boundary value problems was constructed in the article.

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