The use of QCA in science, technology and innovation studies: a review of the literature and an empirical application to knowledge transfer

Abstract

This article analyses the use of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in social studies on science, technology and innovation. The goals are to address how and why the method is used, and to explore the advantages and shortcomings for this research area. A review of the literature and practical application are combined. Firstly, the article finds that the acceptance of QCA is unevenly distributed in the major research fields related to knowledge production. It is used mainly to study innovation in firms but is largely absent in science and technology studies. Second, an original study on university–industry links provides a strategic site that displays how research unfolds. Its findings demonstrate the combinations of factors that shape knowledge transfer and the configurational nature of the process. The article offers an account of challenges and directions for future research and discusses the possibilities of the method as a third way between qualitative and quantitative traditions in science, technology and innovation.

Resistance to Change

“…Developed by Charles Ragin (1987), QCA is particularly useful when phenomena are difficult to study, especially when context shapes the results of causal mechanisms, and samples are small [9]. QCA has been widely used in the social science, organizational, and medical literatures for decades [10,11]. Its use has exploded since 2007 [12].…”

“…Its use has exploded since 2007 [12]. There have been numerous analyses of innovation more generally in different societies and contexts that have used such an approach [10,[12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

A cross-country configurational approach to international academic mobility: exploring mobility effects on academics’ career progression in EU countries

“…By means of Boolean algebra and fuzzy-set theory, it enables to identify sufficient and/ or necessary conditions that explain the outcome of interest, but also those conditions that are insufficient on their own but are necessary parts of solutions leading to the outcome of interest (Fernández-Esquinas et al, 2021;Pappas & Woodside, 2021).…”

“…The most relevant reasons for applying this method are that it allows capturing complex phenomena, identifying the existence of different combinations of conditions producing an outcome, and its applicability for small samples (Fernández-Esquinas et al, 2021). Hence, the characteristics of fsQCA are particularly suitable for our exploratory cross-country analysis because it considers that cases are constituted by configurations of theoretically relevant attributes or conditions (i.e.…”

An Integrated Paradigm for Managing Efficient Knowledge Transfer: Towards a More Comprehensive Philosophy of Transferring Knowledge in the Construction Industry

“…They also provide infrastructure money and other resources, outlining the most valuable knowledge to business (Fernández-Esquinas, et al, 2021). According to these findings, management is critical to attaining successful knowledge management because it provides employees with clear direction and the necessary resources to move in that direction while also incorporating the value of knowledge management into the organisation's culture (Anand et al, 2021).…”