scholarly journals Detecting Causal Chains in Small-n Data

Field Methods ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Baumgartner
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Text Data ◽  
Sufficient And Necessary Conditions ◽  
Causal Chains ◽  
Small N ◽  
Analyze Data

The first part of this article shows that qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)—also in its most recent form as in Ragin (2008) —does not correctly analyze data generated by causal chains. The incorrect modeling of data originating from chains essentially stems from QCA’s reliance on Quine-McCluskey optimization to eliminate redundancies from sufficient and necessary conditions. Baumgartner (2009a , 2009b ) has introduced a Boolean methodology, termed coincidence analysis (CNA), which is related to QCA, yet, contrary to the latter, does not eliminate redundancies by means of Quine-McCluskey optimization. The second part of the article applies CNA to chain-generated data. It turns out that CNA successfully detects causal chains in small-[Formula: see text] data.

Business for Climate: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Policy Support from Transnational Companies

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-191
Author(s):  
Daniel Witte
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
Small N ◽  
Tackle Climate Change

Transnational companies (TNCs) are becoming increasingly influential in the global governance of climate change. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to understand the factors that explain why some TNCs broadly support policies to tackle climate change, while others oppose them. This study subjects previous findings from small- N case studies to a more systematic fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). It investigates previous findings that link exposure to fossil fuels to policy opposition, and transnational operations, exposure to consumers, certain factors in the institutional environment, and pressure from investors to policy support. The study concludes that findings from small- N case literature can explain the necessary conditions for climate policy support in a larger set of TNCs from a wider variety of sectors and geographies beyond GHG-intensive sectors, such as retail, technology, and telecommunication. It concludes by suggesting areas and cases for further research.

scholarly journals Realists and Idealists in QCA

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Q. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Standard Analysis ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
Data Mining Approach ◽  
Theoretical Issues

The sole purpose of the enhanced standard analysis (ESA) is to prevent so-called untenable assumptions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). One source of such assumptions can be statements of necessity. QCA realists, the majority of QCA researchers, have elaborated a set of criteria for meaningful claims of necessity: empirical consistency, empirical relevance, and conceptual meaningfulness. I show that once Thiem’s (2017) data mining approach to detecting supersets is constrained by adhering to those standards, no CONSOL effect of Schneider and Wagemann’s ESA exists. QCA idealists, challenging most of QCA realists’ conventions, argue that separate searches for necessary conditions are futile because the most parsimonious solution formula reveals the minimally necessary disjunction of minimally sufficient conjunctions. Engaging with this perspective, I address several unresolved empirical and theoretical issues that seem to prevent the QCA idealist position from becoming mainstream.

COMPASSS: een brug tussen kwalitatieve en kwantitatieve analyse?

KWALON ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrie Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Case Analysis ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
University Of Arizona ◽  
Small N ◽  
Cross Case Analysis

Op 16 en 17 september 2003 werd respectievelijk in Louvain-la-Neuve en Leuven de oprichtingsconferentie gehouden van het samenwerkingsverband COMPASSS, het genootschap voor Comparative methods for the advancement of systematic cross-case analysis and small-n studies (www.compasss.org). Hierin participeren voornamelijk Belgische universitaire afdelingen met enkele buitenlandse connecties: Daishiro Nomiya uit Tokyo, Paul Pennings van de VU (politicologie) en bovenal de founding father van de Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) Charles Ragin (University of Arizona). Inhoudelijk zijn voornamelijk politicologen vertegenwoordigd, hetgeen begrijpelijk is omdat voor vergelijkende politicologische studies het aantal te bestuderen eenheden meestal op de vingers van een of twee handen te tellen is en correlatieanalyses dan niet zo zinvol zijn. De relevantie is veel breder.

scholarly journals Recipes for a Successful Exit for Clean- and Hard-tech Startups

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
AISDL
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Success Rate ◽  
Fuzzy Set ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Development Path ◽  
The Given ◽  
Experienced Team

This study demonstrates the combinations of multiple causal factors that formulate a startup’s strategy to successfully “exit”, namely “recipes for a successful exit,” in the clean- and hard-tech sector. We identify seven key causal factors (i.e., causal conditions) that impact startup success, including commercial readiness, investor interactions, favorable industry, non-financial support, straightforward development path, experienced team, and visibility to investors. We also investigate the combinations of selective causal conditions that can provide further synergetic impact. We conduct the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on seven US clean and hard-tech startups that exited between 2005 and 2016. The successful companies all demonstrate distinctive characteristics based on three general categories (1) robust ecosystem; (2) heavy-lifting team; or (3) external opportunity. Across these three categories, commercial readiness and strong investor interactions are necessary conditions for all exit cases. But there are important differences that drive success in each category, such as the interaction with non-financial support (in the robust ecosystem case), experienced team (in the heavy-lifting team case), and favorable industry (in the external opportunity case). Our findings are meant to support entrepreneurs in reaching an exit by optimizing the given internal and external circumstances, and policymakers to build a robust ecosystem that can increase the success rate of the clean- and hardtech development.

Sustaining Civil Peace: A Configurational Comparative Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-478
Author(s):  
Thomas Gries ◽  
Irene Palnau
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Ethnic Tensions ◽  
Autocratic Regime ◽  
Youth Bulge

AbstractWhile much work has been devoted to the causes and consequences of civil war, little has been done to explore the prerequisites for civil peace. We shift the focus from the determinants of war to the preconditions to sustain peace, and address the following question: Are there necessary or sufficient conditions for stable civil peace? We use Qualitative Comparative Analysis to approach this question. We do not find necessary conditions for civil peace, but distinct potentially sufficient paths. These are (i) the presence of a fully democratic regime and (ii) the presence of a strongly autocratic regime, with the latter further requiring either a) the absence of a youth bulge and non-miserable living conditions or b) the absence of ethnic tensions. The first type of civil peace is referred to as inherent civil peace whereas the second type is largely a result of strong repression and thus denoted coerced civil peace.

Standards of Good Practice and the Methodology of Necessary Conditions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alrik Thiem
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Boolean Minimization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Truth Tables

The analysis of necessary conditions for some outcome of interest has long been one of the main preoccupations of scholars in all disciplines of the social sciences. In this connection, the introduction of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in the late 1980s has revolutionized the way research on necessary conditions has been carried out. Standards of good practice for QCA have long demanded that the results of preceding tests for necessity constrain QCA's core process of Boolean minimization so as to enhance the quality of parsimonious and intermediate solutions. Schneider and Wagemann's Theory-Guided/Enhanced Standard Analysis (T/ESA) is currently being adopted by applied researchers as the new state-of-the-art procedure in this respect. In drawing on Schneider and Wagemann's own illustrative data example and a meta-analysis of thirty-six truth tables across twenty-one published studies that have adhered to current standards of good practice in QCA, I demonstrate that, once bias against compound conditions in necessity tests is accounted for, T/ESA will produce conservative solutions, and not enhanced parsimonious or intermediate ones.

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