The adoption journey of QCA as research method: A meta-analysis of a decade in marketing academic literature

ABSTRACT

This study conceptualizes the adoption process for new technology-based research methodologies. Using the case of “qualitative comparative analysis” (QCA) we apply several theoretical frameworks and identify champions of the adoption of the new methodology. The paper draws upon 216 articles across 36 A*- and A-ranked journals listed in the Scopus database. The study conceptualizes the adoption process as follows: inception (inventor)→ domain-specific multi-level elaboration (innovators) → diffusion (champions; domain-specific advocates) → production (developers) → mass acceptance (majority) and adds the impact of various role-players to existing models. Additionally, this study shows how seven scholars acted as early innovators to champion the acceptance of QCA. The study recommends a model for full idea adoption with four tipping points. The paper extends both methodology and QCA research and helps inform improvements in research and practice by identifying gaps in the idea adoption journey not yet covered by the extant literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Diffusion
• idea adoption
• innovation influencers
• innovation
• QCA

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and the issue editors for their careful reading and useful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. 1998 was excluded since no publications meeting our criteria were found for this year of publications in A* and A journals.

2. In QCA terminology the ~Y means (not) or fully “out of the set Y”, also 1-Y.