Varieties of Process Tracing and Ways to Answer Why-Questions

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 12 - Trang 31-39 - 2012
Ingo Rohlfing1
1Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences (CGS), Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne, Germany

Tóm tắt

A fit between theory and method is essential in theory – guided empirical research. Achieving such a fit in process tracing is less straightforward than it may seem at first glance. There are two different types of processes that one can theorise and, consequently, two varieties of process tracing. The two varieties are introduced by empirical examples and distinguished with respect to four characteristics. Failure to determine the form of process tracing at hand may lead to invalid causal inferences.

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