Exploring the topology of the plausible: Fs/QCA counterfactual analysis and the plausible fit of unobserved organizational configurations
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The main aim of this contribution is to expand the dominant rationale of organizational design research by including solutions and possibilities not observed in reality. We believe that the counterfactual approach to configurations responds to an open call in organization theory and strategy to move the modelling of fit towards a more robust and theory-based specification. With this new approach we propose to rediscover the roots of organization design as a distinct normative discipline that ‘should stand approximately in relation to the basic social sciences as engineering stands with respect to physical sciences or medicine to the biological’. At a more general level, our view implies an expansion of the dominant meaning of the concept of ‘relevance’ in management research. While we agree with Gulati (2007: 780) that we as scholars should probe ‘more deeply into the problems and other issues that managers care about’, we also believe that relevance does not necessarily mean that researchers have to use an ex-post rationality by studying only empirically frequent phenomena. In contrast, we think that any management esearcher should bring with her or himself a fragment of the spirit of the great Greek philosopher Anaximander (c. 610–c. 546 BC), who foresaw the concept of the infinite universe without the support of any empirical observation and against the predominant wisdom of the time. Not by chance, Karl Popper (1998) onsidered Anaximander’s intuitions among the most vivid demonstrations of the power of human thought and logic.
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The truth table allows researchers to systematically explore counterfactual configurations and evaluate the plausibility of their outcomes, and requires them to make explicit simplifying assumptions that need to be clarified and brought forward for examination.
“The truth table allows researchers to 'systematically explore counterfactual configurations and evaluate the plausibility of their outcomes' (Soda & Furnari, 2012: 288), and requires them to make explicit simplifying assumptions that need to be 'clarified and brought forward for examination' (Ragin, 1987: 112).”
From Embracing Causal Complexity: The Emergence of a Neo-Configurational Perspective (2017) · cites this paper as Soda & Furnari, 2012
QCA's set-theoretic approach enables researchers to examine the configurations that do not exist in the data through counterfactual analysis.
“QCA's set-theoretic approach enables researchers to examine the configurations that do not exist in the data through 'counterfactual analysis' -i.e., a reasoned evaluation of the outcome that an unobserved configuration would exhibit if it did exist (Ragin & Sonnett, 2004; Soda & Furnari, 2012).”
From Embracing Causal Complexity: The Emergence of a Neo-Configurational Perspective (2017) · cites this paper as Soda & Furnari, 2012
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A set-theoretic approach to organizational configurations
Fiss, P. C. (2007) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.2007.26586092 · Cited by 2,225 · see citing works
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Embracing Causal Complexity: The Emergence of a Neo-Configurational Perspective
Misangyi, V. F., Greckhamer, T., Furnari, S., Fiss, P. C., Crilly, D., & Aguilera, R. (2017) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206316679252 · Cited by 1,099 · see citing works
Self-citationPark, Y., Fiss, P. C., & El Sawy, O. A. (2020) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.25300/misq/2020/13879 · Cited by 300 · see citing works
- Authors
- Soda, G., & Furnari, S.
- Affiliations
- Bocconi University (IT)
- City, University of London (GB)
- Venue
- Strategic Organization
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-08
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 285-296
- ISSN
- 1476-1270 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-315X
- OpenAlex
- W2152778810
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 5.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Strategic Organization (publishedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (submittedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Business and Management Studies
- Keywords
- counterfactual analysis, organizational configuration, strategy-structure fit, contingency theory, organizational performance, organizational misalignment
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