Open research questions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research

What the literature leaves open

• As this paper demonstrates, theories that posit hierarchical configurations can and should be explored using the two‐step variant of QCA.

  Modelling Hierarchical Configurations in Innovation Research With Two‐Step QCA: Methodological Recommendations and an Application to Workarounds · 2026 · DOI

• It highlights the need to examine how local officials behave after carbon governance institutions and regulations are formally implemented.

  Configurational driving mechanisms of local environmental governance under the institutional pressure-organizational capacity framework: evidence from China · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need for a reliable and transparent tool for educational decision-making. Prior studies have not fully addressed the complexity of parental preferences in school choice.

  PARENTAL CHOICE OF PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOLS: A FUZZY MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING EVALUATION · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the literature on government digital governance, which has focused on single digital governance or single environmental performance. The study identifies a need to integrate environmental indicators into the outcome variable and introduce online public services to optimize the framework.

  Digital governance for regional environmental sustainability: configurational paths and mechanisms of local governments in china based on the TOE framework · 2026 · DOI

• Although previous research has emphasized the importance of prior knowledge on digital technologies and the related underlying institutional motives, little is known about how these factors are configured to facilitate I4.

  Motives Behind An Effective Industry 4.0 Adoption: An Institutional Perspective With Organizational Prior Knowledge · 2026

• The lack of a comprehensive approach to managing socio-economic systems. The need for a systematic approach to analyzing and optimizing communication processes.

  System Analysis of the Communication Process when Implementing the ISO 9001 Standard in Socio-Economic Systems · 2026 · DOI

• The study notes that conventional self-built storage is constrained by high capital cost, low utilization, operational complexity, and uncertain returns.

  Research on the Formation Mechanism of Power Generation Enterprises’ Intention to Participate in Shared Energy Storage · 2026 · DOI

• The existing qualitative VfM framework in China lacks a preliminary applicability screening stage. The framework lacks assessment indicators for output clarity, implementation flexibility, project interface complexity, and private sector capability.

  Toward a Refined Framework for Qualitative VfM Assessment in Chinese PPPs: A Comparative Approach · 2026 · DOI

• The need for a comprehensive framework for analyzing the obstacles and drivers of implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The lack of a conceptual model for implementing Industry 4.0 in Iran's copper industry.

  Explaining a framework for analyzing the drivers and barriers of implementing the fourth Industrial revolution (case study: Sarcheshmeh Copper Company) · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could extend this framework to other sectors such as fintech, manufacturing, and healthcare. A comparative analysis across markets may be useful for reflecting differences in the digital transformation process. Longitudinal studies could provide valuable insights into the dynamic and iterative nature of digital transformation processes.

  Determinants of Digital Transformation in the Organization: Empirical Evidence from the Vietnam Banking Sector · 2026 · DOI

• The study highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of the effects of these relationships on governance, strategic autonomy, and social value creation.

  Mapping and Typology of Stakeholders of Social Enterprises in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba: A Territorialized Analysis of Influence, Power and Dependency Relationships · 2026 · DOI

• Research conclusions Before explaining the configuration findings of the study, it is necessary to clarify the evidentiary boundaries of fsQCA. The fsQCA method identifies which combinations of conditions are sufficient for the presence or absence of an outcome (Schneider and Wagemann, 2012).

  How AI anxiety and contextual factors shape employee deviant innovation · 2026 · DOI

• It must address the issue of equifinality, where multiple distinct configurations can result in the same level of internationalisation. The study also needs to consider the challenge of causal asymmetry, where the presence and absence of a condition may lead to different outcomes depending on its combination with other conditions.

  Investigating the relationship between digital entrepreneurial ecosystems and internationalisation of new ventures: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis · 2026 · DOI

• The gap in the literature is the lack of attention to common events. The gap in methodology is the limitation of conventional consistency indices in QCA for analyzing common events.

  Common outcomes: conceptual and analytic issues · 2026 · DOI

• There is a visible deficit in innovation leading to slow growth in the European Union. The existing evaluations of EU innovation policy measures employ a variety of methodologies. The study aims to address the gap by investigating EU R&I investment efficiency using qualitative comparative analysis.

  EU R&I investment efficiency: qualitative comparative analysis of the member states · 2026 · DOI

• The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) presents transformative potential for environmental governance, yet the drivers of AI adoption within bureaucracy remain underexplored.

  Toward Human‐ AI Collaboration for Sustainable Development: Unveiling the Drives of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Environmental Governance · 2026 · DOI

• Prior studies have predominantly examined factors in isolation or treated the enterprise network relationship as a static determinant of outcomes.

  Exploring the Entrepreneurial Behavior of Commercial Aerospace Enterprises Within the Chinese Aerospace System: A Combination of PLS-SEM and FsQCA Methods · 2026 · DOI

• The study seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of the structural, cultural, and managerial dynamics that affect coordination among organizations.

  Identifying causal relationships and factors affecting interorganizational coordination in the implementation of national development programs using a fuzzy WINGS-ANP hybrid method · 2026 · DOI

• Future studies could explore elaborating this framework to test the influence of other variables, such as disciplinary norms, scope of journals, or institutional contexts for further characterizing authorial stance to provide a more nuanced…

  EXPLORING RESEARCH CONFIGURATIONS INFLUENCING AUTHORIAL STANCES IN ECOLOGICAL MIGRATION STUDIES IN CHINA: AN FSQCA-BASED SYSTEMATIC REVIEW · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the comparison of public economics fields - Traditional cost studies reflect the average performance of current or recent…

  Comparative Analysis of Public Economic Domains: A Weighted Product Method Approach · 2026 · DOI

• Further research on common events and their theoretical framework - Application of new goodness-of-fit indicators to other datasets - Investigation of the implications of skewed outcome data for substantive…

  Common outcomes: conceptual and analytic issues · 2026 · DOI

• Investigating the 'something else' that negative cases are positive cases of, which is beyond the scope of a QCA…

  A heuristic for asymmetrical causality in QCA · 2026 · DOI

• The employed method (fsQCA) has several shortcomings, including limited ability to establish causal links and less generalizable findings - The method remains sensitive to researchers' choices in set calibration - The case selection strategy (MSSD) and the limited number of selected cases within a single national context (Poland) constrain the external validity of the findings - Data availability limited measurement…

  Universal targeting in local public health: a comparative study of Polish cities · 2026 · DOI

• Future in-depth comparisons could explain differences existing in the Tri-City, as well as in Upper Silesia, e.g., by employing case study methods like process tracing - Follow-up qualitative studies, especially of outlier cities, would further strengthen the validity of the findings and could employ methods such as process tracing or traditional case…

  Universal targeting in local public health: a comparative study of Polish cities · 2026 · DOI

• Theoretically, many studies extend transformation logics derived from urban industrial firms, often underappreciating the resource endowments and production characteristics of leading agricultural enterprises, - Methodologically, much of the literature relies on regression-based linear modeling, which can be ill-suited to capture the complex, non-linear, and conjunctural nature of digital…

  Digital Transformation and High-Quality Development in China’s Leading Agribusiness Firms: A TOE-Based Configurational Analysis · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research

• Building Better Causal Theories: A Fuzzy Set Approach to Typologies in Organization Research · Academy of Management Journal · 2011 · 5,198 citations
• Characteristics of Organizational Environments and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty · Administrative Science Quarterly · 1972 · 2,399 citations
• Methodological fit in management field research · Academy of Management Review · 2007 · 2,328 citations
• Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing · International Journal of Information Management · 2021 · 1,839 citations
• Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets · Comparative Sociology · 2010 · 1,154 citations
• An Overview of the Logic and Rationale of Hierarchical Linear Models · Journal of Management · 1997 · 1,089 citations
• Strategy-Making in Three Modes · California Management Review · 1973 · 949 citations
• Embracing Causal Complexity · Journal of Management · 2016 · 923 citations
• Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research · American Political Science Review · 2005 · 659 citations
• Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure · Administrative Science Quarterly · 1986 · 602 citations

Most recent work

• Toward Human‐ AI Collaboration for Sustainable Development: Unveiling the Drives of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Environmental Governance · Sustainable Development · 2026
• Eliminationist politics: an analytical framework · Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · 2026
• AI-driven financial operational Efficiency: A dynamic capabilities perspective on knowledge-oriented leadership and financial flexibility · Technology in Society · 2026
• Tackling the Complexity Challenge: When and How to Engage in Configurational and Hybrid Theorizing · Academy of Management Review · 2026
• Cross‐Organizational Collaborative Governance in Extreme Disaster Risk: Adaptive Mechanisms and Configuration Pathways of Emerging Technologies · Risk Analysis · 2026
• Cognitive and contextual configurations in entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation: insights from fsQCA · BMC Psychology · 2026
• How does digitalization affect the urban-rural income gap? A study using panel fsQCA and NCA in developing economies · Socio-Economic Planning Sciences · 2026
• Digital Transformation and High-Quality Development in China’s Leading Agribusiness Firms: A TOE-Based Configurational Analysis · Agriculture · 2026
• Study on the Influencing Factors and Configurations of College Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions Based on fsQCA Method · SAGE Open · 2026
• Unlocking the Green Potential of AI: The Dual Mediating Role of Green Supply Chain Integration and the Moderating Effect of Organizational Green Learning · Business Strategy and the Environment · 2026

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