QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS (QCA) IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH: STATUS QUO, GUIDELINES, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
In a forthcoming paper in the Communications of the AIS, our team provides a set of guidelines and applied tutorials for how to use Qualitative Comparative Analysis.
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) allows researchers to study how configurations of conditions lead to outcomes and thereby create rich explanations of the dynamics of complex digital phenomena. To advance a discussion on QCA in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, this paper introduces the fundamental concepts of QCA and offers guidelines for authors on how to apply QCA to advance IS research. We also provide checklists for reviewers of QCA papers. We illustrate the application of our guidelines through two exemplar studies. In exemplar study 1, we focus on IT-business strategic alignment to study the influence of different forms of alignment on firm performance. Exemplar study 2 uses the perspective of the integrated technology acceptance model to explain an individual’s intention to use a digital assistant. The contrasting results of both studies highlight how to use QCA to derive robust and reproducible results. By doing so, we advance the goal of encouraging IS scholars to use QCA for developing sophisticated models that provide accurate depictions of real-world IS phenomena.
The paper is co-authored with Jens Mattke (University of Bamberg), Christian Maier (University of Bamberg), Jennifer Gerow (Virginia Military Institute), and Tim Weitzel (University of Bamberg).
Recommended citation: Mattke, J., Meier, C., Weitzel, T., Gerow, J., and Thatcher, J.B. (Forthcoming). Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) In Information Systems Research: Status Quo, Guidelines, and Future Directions. Communications of the AIS.