Analyzing inconsistent cases in Management fsQCA studies: A methodological manifesto

Lakshmi Balachandran Nair and Michael Gibbert

Journal of Business Research, 2016, vol. 69, issue 4, 1464-1470

Abstract: Cases inconsistent with theoretical expectations are by default indicators for a lack of theory-data fit, and as such are prime candidates for theory building. However, the conventional tendency is to ignore inconsistent cases in Management research. The current article focuses on the theory-building prowess of inconsistent or deviant cases which turn up during an fsQCA study. The study looks at some of the key tenets of QCA: A cross-tabulation of cause and effect can demonstrate superior explanatory completeness only if one can account for all cases (be they deviant or not). To improve the neat theory-data fit characteristic of QCA, the paper proposes two new strategies for analyzing inconsistent cases of necessity and sufficiency in fuzzy set QCA studies and discusses their contributions to methodological sophistication.

Keywords: QCA; Inconsistent cases; Theory building; Multi method research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315005494
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:69:y:2016:i:4:p:1464-1470

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.126

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 ().