QCA and Set Analytics
Announcing AQCA 2024
The Third Annual QCA Conference of the Americas
March 20-22, 2024
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Set Analytics and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
Set analytics and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) are methods designed for analyzing situations where causality is complex and configurational. They explicitly conceptualize cases as combinations of attributes, that is, as configurations, and use Boolean algebra—the algebra of sets and logics—to examine which combinations of attributes lead to an outcome of interest. This allows for a sophisticated analysis of causally complex relations, particularly for situations where causality is difficult to examine using standard statistical methods.
As an example of how set-analytics can provide different and novel insights, consider this blog post by John Boudreau and Peer Fiss on how Solving Gender Disparity Requires Analytics that Discover the Intersections
“To accelerate women’s career progress, leaders need to use analytics and look for sets, intersections, and configurations instead of common (and simple) linear solutions.”
Southern California QCA Workshop
Since 2016, Charles Ragin and Peer Fiss have been teaching this annual QCA workshop that provides a ground-up introduction to Qualitative
Comparative Analysis (QCA) and fuzzy sets. Participants get intensive
instruction and hands-on experience with the fsQCA software package and on completion will be prepared to design and execute research projects using the
set-analytic approach.
Due to COVID, the 2020 Workshop had to be cancelled—we hope to resume our in-person workshop soon and complement it with an online version
“This was a wonderful workshop. I really appreciated the detail, numerous examples, and reading materials ahead of time.”
“Charles and Peer are exceptional teachers ... They were meticulous in explaining every step of the process”
In addition to running the Southern California QCA Workshop with Charles Ragin, Peer has also given workshops on QCA at a variety of organizations and universities, including CARMA, the Center for Disease Control, the Free University Berlin, Indiana University, the University of Siegen, the University of South Carolina, the University of Zurich, and the Global School in Empirical Research Methods (GSERM) at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
QCA Resources
COMPASSS is a worldwide network bringing together scholars and practitioners who share a common interest in theoretical, methodological and practical advancements around configurational analysis including set analytics and QCA. Its website is an international resource site providing information on publications, working papers, seminars and conferences, training and tutorials, and software development. COMPASSS also provides access to a bibliographical and data archive
fsqca.com is Charles Ragin’s website on all things QCA, including a brief overview of QCA and access to the fsQCA software package & manual. It also links to Charles Ragin’s homepage at the University of California, Irvine
Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Fuzzy Sets is an active Facebook community with more than 3,000 members and ongoing conversations around configurational analysis as well as updates on upcoming
QCA-Net is the Academy of Management’s listserv for conversation and questions around QCA
Necessary Condition Analysis is a complementary approach and data analysis technique for identifying necessary (but not sufficient) conditions in data sets. It was originally developed by Jan Dul at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Configuration Chart Template and Font
It is increasingly common that publications using set-analytics and QCA report their findings not only as Boolean equations but in the form of configuration charts. The Excel template below can be used to create configuration charts such as those shown in Fiss (AMJ 2011) or Ragin & Fiss (2008). It requires fonts from the SPSS marker font also posted below. NOTE: if the font is not installed, the charts will not display correctly
Conference Presentations
Below you will find a set of presentations from a Professional Development Workshop (PDW) on set-analytics and QCA. The PDW took place at the 2019 Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts
Introduction to the PDW by Johannes Meuer, ETH Zurich
QCA Background and Current Developments by Peer Fiss, University of Southern California
Conceptual Logic of QCA by Rodney Lacey, Arizona State University
QCA and Case Study Design by Vilmos Misangyi, Penn State University
Longitudinal QCA by Santi Furnari (City University of London)
Large-N Analysis and QCA/Set-Coincidence Analysis by Charles Ragin (UCI) and Peer Fiss (USC)
Peer's Set Analytics and QCA-Related Publications
In chronological order:
Santi Furnari, Donal Crilly, Vilmos F. Misangyi, Thomas Greckhamer, Peer C. Fiss, and Ruth V. Aguilera. 2020. Capturing Causal Complexity: Heuristics for Configurational Theorizing. Academy of Management Review, forthcoming.
YoungKi Park, Peer C. Fiss, and Omar A. El Sawy. 2020. Theorizing the Multiplicity of Digital Phenomena: The Ecology of Configurations, Causal Recipes, and Guidelines for Applying QCA. Management of Information Systems Quarterly, forthcoming.
Johannes Meuer and Peer C. Fiss. 2020. Qualitative Comparative Analysis in Business and Management Research. Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Business and Management. Oxford University Press.
Thomas Greckhamer, Santi Furnari, Peer Fiss, and Ruth V. Aguilera. 2018. Studying Configurations with Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Best Practices in Strategy and Organization Research. Strategic Organization, 16: 482-495.
Vilmos F. Misangyi, Thomas Greckhamer, Santi Furnari, Peer Fiss, Donal Crilly, and Ruth V. Aguilera. 2017. Embracing Causal Complexity: The Emergence of a Neo-Configurational Perspective. Journal of Management, 43: 255-282.
YoungKi Park, Omar A. El Sawy, and Peer C. Fiss. 2017. The Role of Business Intelligence and Communication Technologies in Organizational Agility: A Configurational Approach. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 18: 648-686.
Charles C. Ragin and Peer C. Fiss. 2017. Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ruud T. Frambach, Peer C. Fiss, and Paul T. M. Ingenbleek. 2016. How Important Is Customer Orientation for Firm Performance? A Fuzzy Set Analysis of Orientations, Strategies, and Environments. Journal of Business Research, 69: 1428-1436.
Peer C. Fiss, Axel Marx, and Benoît Rihoux. 2014. Comment: Getting QCA Right. Sociological Methodology, 44: 95-100.Peer C. Fiss, Bart Cambré, and Axel Marx (eds.). 2013. Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 38. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Peer C. Fiss, Axel Marx, and Bart Cambré. 2013. Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research: Introduction. Pages 1-22 in Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research, edited by Peer C. Fiss, Axel Marx, and Bart Cambré. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Thomas Greckhamer, Vilmos Misangyi, and Peer C. Fiss. 2013. The Two QCAs: Small- and Large-N Comparative Approaches in Organization Studies. Pages 49-75 in Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research, edited by Peer C. Fiss, Axel Marx, and Bart Cambré. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Bart Cambré, Peer C. Fiss, and Axel Marx. 2013. Conclusion: The Path Forward. Pages 311-319 in Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research, edited by Peer C. Fiss, Axel Marx, and Bart Cambré. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Fiss, Peer C, and Dmitry Sharapov, Lasse Cronqvist. 2013. Opposites Attract? Opportunities and Challenges for Integrating Large-N QCA and Econometric Analysis. Political Research Quarterly, 66: 191-198.
Fiss, Peer C. 2011. Building Better Causal Theories: A Fuzzy Set Approach to Typologies in Organization Research. Academy of Management Journal, 54: 393-420.
Peer C. Fiss. 2009. Case Studies and the Configurational Analysis of Organizational Phenomena. Pp. 424-440 in the Handbook of Case Study Methods, edited by Charles C. Ragin and David Byrne. London: Sage.
Rodney Lacey and Peer C. Fiss. 2009. Comparative Organizational Analysis across Multiple Levels: A Set-theoretic Approach. Pp. 91-116 Research in the Sociology of Organizations: Comparative Approaches to Organizational Research, edited by Brayden King, Teppo Felin, & David Whetten. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Charles C Ragin and Peer C. Fiss. 2008. Net Effects Analysis versus Configurational Analysis: An Empirical Demonstration. Chapter 11, Pp. 190-212 in Ragin, Charles C., Redesigning Social Inquiry: Set Relations in Social Research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
Fiss, Peer C. 2007. A Set-theoretic Approach to Organizational Configurations. Academy of Management Review, 32: 1180-1198.