The earlier posts explained why QCA suits decision-making and why the placement of the threshold matters. Here is a short list of the standard readings that people in any field tend to start with when they learn QCA, grouped by purpose.
The summaries below stay within what the publishers’ abstracts and descriptions say. They are not evaluations based on a full reading.
1. Getting the idea and the measures (papers)
- Mahoney, J., & Goertz, G. (2006). A tale of two cultures: Contrasting quantitative and qualitative research. Political Analysis, 14(3), 227-249. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpj017 Contrasts quantitative and qualitative research as two cultures with different values, beliefs, and norms, and compares them across ten dimensions, including explanation, causation, case selection, and measurement. A starting point for seeing which research tradition QCA belongs to. Paper guide available
- Ragin, C. C. (2006). Set relations in social research: Evaluating their consistency and coverage. Political Analysis, 14(3), 291-310. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpj019 Introduces two measures for evaluating set relations, consistency and coverage. It shows that fuzzy sets overcome earlier limits on binary variables and on tolerance for error. Paper guide available
- Schneider, C. Q., & Wagemann, C. (2010). Standards of good practice in qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and fuzzy-sets. Comparative Sociology, 9(3), 397-418. https://doi.org/10.1163/156913210X12493538729793 Sets out standards of good practice for QCA and fuzzy sets. Useful for checking the procedures to follow before you start an analysis.
2. Learning the method systematically (books)
- Ragin, C. C. (2008). Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond. University of Chicago Press. Contrasts set-theoretic analysis with conventional quantitative research and explains calibration, combinations of conditions, and causal complexity. A book for learning the way of thinking behind QCA, not only its procedure.
- Schneider, C. Q., & Wagemann, C. (2012). Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139004244 A textbook that runs from the basics of set theory to the practice of QCA. It also covers cautions and common problems, which helps you understand the procedure together with the reasons behind each judgment.
- Oana, I.-E., Schneider, C. Q., & Thomann, E. (2021). Qualitative Comparative Analysis Using R: A Beginner’s Guide. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009006781 A beginner’s guide to running QCA in R. A good fit for readers who want to carry out the analysis in R and check the basic operations.
The next post introduces papers that use QCA in marketing and management, together with the theoretical background from management and organization research (applications).