A different causal perspective with Necessary Condition Analysis

Jan Dul

Journal of Business Research, 2024, vol. 177, issue C

Abstract: This article delves deeper into the causal perspective of Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA). In contrast to traditional probabilistic sufficiency approaches in quantitative social science research about what will happen on average in a group of cases, NCA is interested in what will not occur in almost every case if a necessary condition is absent. Rooted in David Hume's theory of causation NCA explores factors that act as ‘must-haves’ or bottlenecks for the outcome. Operating from this necessity perspective, NCA functions deterministically (without exceptions) or non-deterministically (allowing exceptions). NCA can enrich theories and models in social science research by identifying essential factors. The article contributes to the literature by precisely describing the necessity causal perspective that is used in NCA, and by explaining how this is different from causal perspectives that are commonly used in social science research.

Keywords: Necessity; Hume; Necessary Condition Analysis; NCA; Typicality; Causality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829632400122X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:177:y:2024:i:c:s014829632400122x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114618

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().