Analyzing Relationships of Necessity Not Just in Kind But Also in Degree: Complementing fsQCA With NCA. (November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vis, Barbara; Dul, Jan
• Other Names: Davidov Eldad guest-editor.; Muthén Bengt guest-editor.; Schmidt Peter guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Sociological methods & research. Volume 47:Number 4(2018)
• Page Start: 872
• Page End: 899
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Subjects: fsQCA -- NCA -- necessary relationships -- set theory -- calculus; Sociology -- Research -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 301.072
• DOI: 10.1177/0049124115626179
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0049-1241

Abstract

Analyzing relationships of necessity is important for both scholarly and applied research questions in the social sciences. An often-used technique for identifying such relationships— fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)—has limited ability to make the most out of the data used. The set-theoretical technique fsQCA makes statements in kind (e.g., "a condition or configuration is necessary or not for an outcome"), thereby ignoring the variation in degree . We propose to apply a recently developed technique for identifying relationships of necessity that can make both statements in kind and in degree, thus making full use of variation in the data: Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA). With its ability to also make statements in degree ("a specific level of a condition is necessary or not for a specific level of the outcome"), NCA can complement the in kind analysis of necessity with fsQCA.