Fm-QCA: A novel approach to multi-value qualitative comparative analysis

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a technique originally developed by Charles Ragin in the field of political science. It accepts data sets from the problem of interest, and applies the rules of logical inference to determine the relations between combinations of variables and outcomes, which helps researchers validate hypotheses or discover new implications. However, existing QCA approaches or tools have limited capacities in handling multivalued explanatory and outcome variables, as well as in outputting compact results for human analysis. In this paper, we propose a novel QCA approach, which can deal with multivalued variables and support more complicated analysis. Our approach enables 1) multi-value reduction of candidate rules; and 2) effective counterfactual analysis associated with expert knowledge.We also implemented a new tool called fully functional multi-value QCA (fm-QCA). Through the evaluation, our tool outperforms existing state-of-the-art QCA tools in producing more compact analysis results as well as discovering more inferences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationKnowledge Science, Engineering and Management - 8th International Conference, KSEM 2015, Proceedings
EditorsZili Zhang, Songmao Zhang, Zili Zhang, Martin Wirsing, Martin Wirsing, Martin Wirsing, Zili Zhang, Songmao Zhang, Songmao Zhang
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages115-127
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9783319251585, 9783319251585, 9783319251585
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
Event8th International Conference on Knowledge Science, Engineering and Management, KSEM 2015 - Chongqing, China
Duration: 28 Oct 201530 Oct 2015

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume9403
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference8th International Conference on Knowledge Science, Engineering and Management, KSEM 2015
Country/TerritoryChina
CityChongqing
Period28/10/1530/10/15

Keywords

  • Case-based reasoning
  • Multi-value logic
  • QCA

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