QCA Approach Research Articles

Multilayered full adder layout with wire crossings: A QCA approach to nano computations

Multilayered full adder layout with wire crossings: A QCA approach to nano computations

The role of resilience in explaining hotel growth: A fuzzy-set QCA approach

PURPOSE: Due to the detrimental effects of the recent pandemic on the hotel sector, hotel resilience research and its impact on hotel recovery have received lots of academic attention. However, a sustainable perspective on hotel resilience, as an approach for investigating its impact on long-term hotel growth, has been largely overlooked in the hospitality resilience literature. Therefore, this paper aims to address the research gap by identifying the configuration of factors that constitute sustainable hotel resilience, leading to the growth of selected hotels operating in Poland. METHODOLOGY: Data for analysis were obtained from surveys conducted with 120 managers of one- and two-star hotels. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was chosen to achieve the goal, which belongs to the group of configurational analysis methods. FINDINGS: Due to the asymmetric nature of the method, the analysis reveals configurations of factors leading to high hotel growth and those leading to low growth. In both cases, two such factor configurations were obtained. For high levels of hotel growth, it was found that maintaining a high level of three factors simultaneously, namely employee resilience, CSR activities and leadership resilience or CSR activities, team resilience and leadership resilience, provided sufficient conditions. For low levels of growth, fsQCA indicated sufficient conditions in the form of a low level of CSR activities and leadership resilience or a low level of employee resilience and team resilience. These findings emphasize the role of combining different factors to improve hotel growth. IMPLICATIONS: The research contributes to the literature on resilience in the hospitality industry by developing a new theoretical perspective on the complex nature of combinations of factors that contribute to sustainable hotel resilience, leading to both high and low growth. The research results also provide significant implications for entrepreneurs and managers, indicating the role of different combinations of factors in determining hotel growth. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The knowledge regarding sustainable hotel resilience is still insufficient. The study identified the best combinations of factors (both internal and external) that constitute sustainable hotel resilience, which may be vital for hotel growth.

Manpower, financial, material resources, and participation level in national fitness: a fuzzy-set QCA approach.

In the era of economic globalization, major public health events-such as the Ebola epidemic, the avian influenza epidemic, the "SARS" epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic-occur more frequently, severely endangering human life safety and health and making global public health governance a major survival issue of universal concern. Therefore, governments have included the improvement of national health in their sustainable development goals, and its important position in global and national health policies has become increasingly prominent. However, the most common non-medical intervention taken by the government is to encourage people to actively participate in physical fitness activities to prevent disease and improve health. Therefore, how to improve the level of participation in national fitness is not only a hot topic in the academic community, but also a work content that governments around the world attach great importance to. To reveal the complex interaction of the factors affecting the participation level in national fitness and obtain the linkage and adaptation mode of multiple conditions. Starting from the three elements of manpower, financial, material resources, combined with the characteristics of the organizational behavior of local governments in China, this study puts forward an integrated analysis framework to understand the difference of the participation level in national fitness in various provinces and regions. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is used to carry out configuration analysis on the participation level in national fitness in 31 provinces and regions in China. First, no single necessary condition can explain the results, whether for high-or low-level national fitness participation. Second, the construction of social sports instructors, public financial support for mass sports, and the supply of sports venues are the core conditions for improving the participation level in national fitness. Third, high-level participation of national fitness is carried out in five ways in China's provinces. These findings enrich the literature on improving the participation level in national fitness, and provide useful practical enlightenment for the local governments to increase the participation level in national fitness.

The determinants of entrepreneurship in urban and non-urban regions: A fuzzy-set QCA approach

The determinants of entrepreneurship in urban and non-urban regions: A fuzzy-set QCA approach

The populist ambivalence. Presidents and democracy in Latin America

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore the conditions under which populist presidents undermine, preserve or improve democracy, with evidence from Latin America. We address five varieties of democracy in the region (electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian) from 1994 to 2019 in 18 countries and focus on the backsliding or its absence during each presidential term. To do so, we rely on a QCA approach, through which we interpret the changes on each variety, acknowledging the presence/absence of populist presidents, presidents’ popularity, political and economic critical junctures, support for democracy, an institutionalised party system and political stability. Results show an ambivalent relationship between populism and democracy as highlighted by part of the literature. Although populism emerges as an almost necessary condition for democratic backsliding in any variety, there are several cases where the presence of populist presidents led to an improvement of democracy in the different aspects analysed.

Is it all about the government's early response? A configurational analysis of 27 cases in governing COVID‐19 in China

AbstractGovernance and policy authors are concerned with the effectiveness of crisis management. In this study, the effectiveness of 27 Chinese provinces in addressing COVID‐19 is examined using the QCA approach. The contribution identifies four pathways for explaining effective crisis management and two for explaining ineffective crisis management. Strong analytical capacity is a relatively critical condition for achieving effective crisis management. This study contributes to the existing governance and policy literature through uncovering the mechanisms underlying effective crisis management.

The role of International Civil Society Organizations in democratization: A crisp-set QCA approach to anti-corruption in Ghana.

An anti-corruption strategy is essential in the process of continuous democratisation for effective governance. The objective of our study is to examine the mechanisms that contribute to an effective anticorruption strategy in a case study of civil society organisations in Ghana. These CSO cases illustrate the efforts of non-state actors to promote democracy in their interactions with Ghana's government. A model of anticorruption strategy and the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (cs-QCA) method were employed to examine 264 cases of local civil societies in Ghana that responded to questions on the conditions for an effective anticorruption strategy. Our results indicate that no single condition is sufficient as an anti-corruption strategy. However, the role of international civil society organisations (RISCO) is necessary for any anticorruption strategy. RISCO has to be combined with freedom of expression, good leadership, fear of punishment, and training to provide an effective strategy. On the other hand, despite the fear of punishment, social trust and leadership, rules and regulations, and training, the absence of RISCO explains all ineffective anticorruption strategies. Therefore, Ghana's anti-corruption strategy must always consider the role of organisations such as Amnesty International (AI), Transparency International (TI), and the Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption (GOPAC) in mitigating corruption. Policymakers should therefore promote the presence of international civil society in Ghana because they ultimately contribute to democratization in addition to all government effort.

How to promote green innovation of high-pollution firms? A fuzzy-set QCA approach based on the TOE framework

How to promote green innovation of high-pollution firms? A fuzzy-set QCA approach based on the TOE framework

New Chinese Economic Policy to Latin America? A QCA Approach to the Belt and Road Initiative

New Chinese Economic Policy to Latin America? A QCA Approach to the Belt and Road Initiative

Winning post strategies that generate engagement: A QCA approach

Purpose: Fashion companies are using an increasing amount of resources to generate social media content to provoke an impact and engage customers. A wrong message or image – but also an inaccurate combination of the different elements that characterise a post – can jeopardise brand reputation. The way brands communicate with potential customers is of utmost importance as it creates its online identity and presence, and this is ultimately linked to customer loyalty. Given that a post contains different elements (e.g., image, people, background) this study seeks to explore which combination(s) of elements should brands take into account to generate superior user engagement with their posts.Design/methodology/approach: After conducting a comprehensive literature review on social media marketing a set of critical factors that relate to content engagement are envisioned. Next, drawing on complexity and configuration theories, we perform fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify different strategies (i.e., combinations of critical factors) companies might follow to engage with customers successfully. The empirical application focuses on the Instagram activity of a retail clothing company.Findings: The findings reveal that posts conducive to superior engagement should: (i) be simple, product-related or experience-related, (ii) use few but meaningful hashtags that are representative of the brand, (iii) show people’s faces, and (iv) send an inclusive message.Practical implications: This study sheds new light on how brands should communicate on social media networks to generate improved impact for their posts.Originality/value: This study goes beyond traditional approaches that overlook the joint effect of the different strategic design choices (i.e., combination of critical factors) for posts on the outcomes of interest (in our case, number of likes, comments and views).

Recipes for Better Customer Satisfaction in Internet-famous Drinks Shops: A Fuzzy-Set QCA Approach

This study develops a five-dimension customer satisfaction scale for the Internet-famous drink industry and investigates the asymmetric impact of different dimension combinations on customer satisfaction. Through a content analysis of 24,581 online reviews, we identify 22 items across five dimensions describing the unique features of this industry. Then a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method was performed to analyze the responses from an offline survey of 1,012 consumers. Findings show that, as a dissatisfier, environmental quality is mainly responsible for customer dissatisfaction. Combined with environmental quality or service quality, as a satisfier, customer engagement in social media played a prominent role in improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, service quality is not essential when brand and culture, drink attributes, environmental quality, and customer engagement in social media are performed well. Our findings advance current theorizations on customer satisfaction in the food and beverage sector and offer managerial implications for managers of Internet-famous tea shops.

Strategic Orientation, Dynamic Capabilities, and Digital Transformation of Commercial Banks: A Fuzzy-Set QCA Approach

Digital transformation is a critical challenge for commercial banks to achieve sustainable competitive advantages in the digital economy. However, conventional research focuses too much on constructing linear models to explain the non-linear relationships between and among the factors relevant to digital transformation. By adopting the configurational framework, we propose that the interactions between strategy and dynamic capabilities determine the paths of how digital transformation may succeed or fail. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of digital transformation practices by Chinese commercial banks shows that: (1) a single condition of strategic orientation or dynamic capabilities does not constitute the necessary condition for high digital transformation, yet market orientation plays a more general role in generating high digital transformation. (2) There are three configurational paths that can contribute to high digital transformation of commercial banks, such as sensing capability-driven paths dominated by strategic orientation, integrating capability-driven paths dominated by strategic orientation, and the market orientation-driven paths dominated by dynamic capabilities. (3) There are two configurational paths that lead to non-high digital transformation, which verifies the existence of the asymmetrical relationship compared to the configurational paths of high digital transformation; (4) In the pathways dominated by strategic orientation, there is a substitutive relationship between sensing capability and integrating capability. The findings make contributions to the literature on digital transformation and provide implications for the digital transformation of commercial banks.

Analysis of the Paths Affecting Corporate Green Innovation in Resource-Based Cities: A Fuzzy-Set QCA Approach

Green innovation is essential for companies to achieve their dual carbon goals. However, academics have been researching how to encourage enterprises in resource-based cities to take the initiative to implement green innovations. In contrast, we construct a configurational framework based on organizational ecology theory and propose that corporate green innovation does not depend on a single condition, but on the interaction of spatial agglomeration, digital economy, and institutional environment. We identify and explore six conditions that influence corporate green innovation in this study based on a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of firms in resource-based cities. We show that high-level corporate green innovation can be achieved through different combinations of antecedent conditions. There is also a clear influence of synergy between spatial agglomeration, digital economy, and institutional environment, which can jointly promote corporate green innovation. This study provides a more systematic explanation of how companies can raise their levels of green innovation, as well as valuable insights for companies seeking to improve their green innovation awareness proactively.

Basic psychological need satisfaction and well-being for gig workers: a fuzzy set QCA approach in DiDi of China.

With the rapid development of the gig economy, the psychological needs of gig workers have gradually attracted attention. The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between basic psychological need and well-being. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to analyze questionnaire data from a sample of 422 DiDi drivers in China. The results show that there are altogether 10 basic psychological need satisfaction combination configurations to improve the well-being of gig workers. In general, Chinese gig workers pay more attention to whether respect and recognition, and occupational planning are met. This study contributes to the literature of basic psychological need and gig workers' well-being in the Chinese context. In the analysis of asymmetric relationship, it has some noticeable advantages, because it allows to explore how basic psychological needs are combined with the necessary and sufficient conditions, so as to form the basis for the well-being of gig workers. It represents a promising new direction for gig workers' well-being.

When are Customers Paying for Sustainability? A Configurational Analysis of 131 SC Business Models

A growing number of smart-city initiatives (SCIs) around the world seek to develop innovative solutions to transform cities to more sustainable places. The economic attractiveness of these initiatives – and ultimately the amount of environmental and social value they create – depends on their business model (BM). However, in reality we observe only some of the smart city services are paid by customers while others are free of charge. While this observation is a blind spot in extant research we ask: What configurations of smart city BM exist that customers are paying for vs. that are free of charge for customers? To address these research questions, we build on literature covering the smart city (SC) concept as well as existing research on SC business models. The paper applies a crisp-set QCA approach to examine 193 SCIs in Switzerland. Our results reveal two configurational models comprising five BM configurations. We contribute to explain and analyze the diversity of SCIs as well as the causal complexity of SC BMs.

A Study on Formation Factors of E-commerce Cluster in Rural China: By QCA Approach

A Study on Formation Factors of E-commerce Cluster in Rural China: By QCA Approach

Environmental uncertainty, resource orchestration and digital transformation: A fuzzy-set QCA approach

Digital transformation is essential if enterprises are to obtain a competitive advantage in the digital economy. However, successful transformation is a problem for both academia and industry. The literature mainly focuses on the net effects of single factors. Instead, we develop a configurational framework and propose that digital transformation does not depend on a single condition, but on interactions between environmental uncertainty and resource orchestration. Based on a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of Chinese enterprises undergoing digital transformation, we identify and explore five conditions that influence digital transformation. We show that both high and not-high levels of digital maturity can be achieved through different configurations of antecedents. There also exists a significant effect of technical uncertainty as well as synergy between environmental uncertainty and resource orchestration, which can jointly promote digital transformation. These findings enrich the literature on digital transformation and provide implications for the transformation of enterprises.

Unfolding the Strategic Choices Behind Technology Transfer Activities: A QCA Approach

The growing importance that knowledge and innovation are acquiring as the basis for economic development and growth has led universities to expand their traditional functions, spreading their commitment in the contribution to economic and social welfare through their so-called third mission. Certainly, universities have turned into one of the most important engines for regional development. However, these demands are not accompanied by a greater availability of resources. Universities are struggling to carry out their teaching and research activities simultaneously, alongside technology transfer efforts. In this study we argue that due to the scarcity of resources and because of different strategies with regard the three core missions (teaching, research and technology transfer), the assessment of universities’ performance should acknowledge this reality. Accordingly, we propose the use of qualitative comparative analysis to do so. More specifically we investigate the portfolio of technology transfer activities (including patents, spin-offs and R&D contracts) relaxing the traditional constraint that universities should conduct all types of technology transfer activities. Instead, our model allows universities to concentrate in the activity in which each university performs best. Data from the Spanish public higher education system is used. Two points of time are compared: 2008 and 2015.

Gendered institutions and female entrepreneurship: a fuzzy-set QCA approach

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the contextual embeddedness of female entrepreneurship through a focus on gendered institutions. Specifically, it draws upon Scott’s (1995) institutional categories and explores how the three dimensions of gendered institutions combine to explain both a high level of female Total Early-stage Entrepreneurship Activity (TEA) rates and female/male TEA ratios.Design/methodology/approachCollecting data from the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association, the World Economic Forum and the World Bank for 63 countries, this study uses the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to explore causal complexity between the regulative, normative and cognitive dimensions of gendered institutions (conditions) and the female TEA rates and the female/male TEA ratios (outcomes).FindingsFirst, this study confirms the complex interactions occurring among institutional components. Second, the results highlight the key role that gender equality in entrepreneurial cognitions plays in achieving high female entrepreneurship. Third, configurations for the high female TEA rates and the female/male TEA ratios share a high similarity.Practical implicationsThe study provides policymakers with a holistic viewpoint and alternate solutions with the aim of promoting female entrepreneurship in their respective countries.Originality/valueThe study highlights gendered institutions beyond general institutions, enriching the literature on the gender and institutional determinants of female entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the application of the fsQCA method in the study helps to enhance the understanding of how institutional components complexly interact to shape female entrepreneurship.

Exploring the Pathways to Participation in Household Waste Sorting in Different National Contexts: A Fuzzy-Set QCA Approach

With the increasing pace of industrialization and economic growth, the continuous increase in household waste has become a great concern all over the world. Residents’ participation in household waste sorting is an effective way to promote the recycling of household waste. How to effectively promote more residents to participate in waste sorting has become an important issue of the government. Previous research mainly used two methods in exploring residents’ intention to sort waste: qualitative case studies to explore potential causal descriptions and statistic studies with the structural equation modeling. These researches, however, consider one special case or the net effect of a single factor, which fails to present the comparisons across international contexts and hardly clarifies the complex pathways to residents’ participation. In this research, a novel method fsQCA (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) is applied to explore the pathways both from a macro-level perspective and in different national contexts. Results suggest four different pathways influence residents’ participation in waste sorting. In the four pathways, GDP level and source separation system are key causal conditions to influence residents to sort waste, but different configurations of these conditions influence whether residents participate in waste sorting at a high rate. Only when the external conditions and the socio-demographic conditions are combined in a specific form, residents participate in waste sorting at a high rate. At last, the findings provide some exercisable suggestions for decision makers in developing countries to design promotion programs and waste sorting policies.