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Configurational Comparative Methods
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Configurational Comparative Methods
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Related Techniques



August 2008 | 240 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Configurational Comparative Methods paves the way for an innovative approach to empirical scientific work through a strategy that integrates key strengths of both qualitative (case-oriented) and quantitative (variable-oriented) approaches. This first-of-its-kind text is ideally suited for "small-N" or "intermediate-N" research situations, which both mainstream qualitative and quantitative methods find difficult to address. Benoît Rihoux and Charles C. Ragin, along with their contributing authors, offer both a basic, comparative research design overview and a technical and hands-on review of Crisp-Set QCA (csQCA), Multi-Value QCA (mvQCA), and Fuzzy-Set QCA (fsQCA).

Key Features

  • Discusses existing applications in many different fields and disciplines along with state-of-the-art coverage of the strengths and limitations of these techniques
  • Demonstrates further inventive ways of using QCA techniques
  • Provides advice on how to develop a comparative research design (case and variable selection) as well as a specific technique called MSDO/MDSO (most similar, different outcome/most different, same outcome).
  • Shows how to perform the technical operations linked to three specific QCA techniques: csQCA, mvQCA, and fsQCA
  • Includes a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a detailed list of good practices at every stage of the research process

Intended Audience

A must for any student or researcher who wants to engage in systematic cross-case comparison in the social and behavioral sciences, the book is ideal for use in upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level social science research methods courses.


Benoît Rihoux and Charles Ragin
INTRODUCTION
Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Gisèle De Meur, Benoît Rihoux & Charles Ragin
1. Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as an Approach
Dirk Berg-Schlosser & Gisèle De Meur
2. Comparative Research Design: Case and Variable Selection
Benoît Rihoux & Gisèle De Meur
3. Crisp-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (CSQCA)
Lasse Cronqvist & Dirk Berg-Schlosser
4. Multi-Value QCA (MVQCA)
Charles C. Ragin
5. Qualitative Comparative Analysis Using Fuzzy Sets (FSQCA)
Sakura Yamasaki & Benoît Rihoux
6. A Commented Review of Applications
Gisèle De Meur, Benoît Rihoux & Sakura Yamasaki
7. Addressing the Critiques of QCA
Benoît Rihoux, Charles Ragin and Sakura Yamasaki
8. Conclusions - The Way(s) Ahead
Damien Bol and Sakura Yamasaki
FURTHER RESOURCES FOR CONFIGURATIONAL COMPARATIVE METHODS
Sakura Yamasaki, Benoît Rihoux, Gisèle De Meur and Charles C. Ragin
GLOSSARY
 
THEMATIC AND AUTHOR INDEX
 
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sakura Yamasaki, Benoît Rihoux
A Commented Review of Applications
Gisele De Meur, Benoît Rihoux, Sakura Yamasaki
Addressing the Critiques of QCA
Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Gisele De Meur
Comparative Research Design: Case and Variable Selection
Benoît Rihoux, Charles Ragin, Sakura Yamasaki, Damien Bol
Conclusions - The Way(s) Ahead
Benoît Rihoux, Gisele De Meur
Crisp-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Lasse Cronqvist, Dirk Berg-Schlosser
Multi-Value QCA (mvQCA)
Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Gisele De Meur, Benoît Rihoux, Charles Ragin
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as an Approach

This book is useful for UG students and I will recommend it for those students that want to conduct research between Qual and Quant. However, I believe it would be more useful to MSc or MBA students. This is something I hadn't thought about before and I will consider it now.

Dr Konstantinos Pitsakis
Management, London Metropolitan University
May 3, 2022

This is a very important book on configurational comparative methods.

Mr Marcos Ferasso
Business Administration , Universidade Tecnologia Federal do Paraná
October 21, 2015

The book comprises of different essays about QCA, fsQCA, mvQCA, ... and is a useful resource to get started with configurational methods as it covers different aspects within one book.

Mr Christian Kummer
Chair of Information Management, Dresden University of Technology
November 11, 2013

I have not got the support that I want for this book--so I will use it as a recommended text-not a primary textbook.

Dr Karen Larwin
Educ Admin Research Found Dept, Youngstown State University
April 7, 2011
Key features
Comparative Methods continues to pave the way for a new approach to empirical social scientific work - i.e. a new, distinctive way to envisage the dialogue between ideas and evidence. The ambition of this approach is to develop a "synthetic strategy" that integrates some key strengths of both the "qualitative" (case-oriented) and "quantitative" (variable-oriented) approaches. The approach is also specifically suited for "small N" or "intermediate N" research situations, which both mainstream qualitative and quantitative methods find difficult to address. The text itself is broadly appealing at a two-tier level: the first offers a basic, comparative research design overview; the second provides a more technical review of QCA, MVQCA, and fuzzy sets.

For instructors

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