Cette activité est réservée aux membres ISPOLE
Comparative Research Design: Integrating Cross-Case and Within-Case Approaches
Dr. Priscilla Alamos Concha, assistant professor, Radboud University’s Nijmegen School of Management
This seminar introduces early-stage PhD students to the logic of comparative research design for studying complex social phenomena. The course is designed for participants with limited prior exposure to advanced qualitative methods and provides a structured introduction to different comparative approaches before discussing how they can be meaningfully combined.
The seminar begins by outlining key principles of comparative inquiry, including causal complexity, case selection, and the trade-off between breadth and depth in social science research. Against this background, participants are introduced to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Process Tracing (PT) as two complementary strategies for causal explanation: QCA as a cross-case, configurational approach, and PT as a within-case, process-oriented approach.
Rather than assuming prior methodological expertise, the course focuses on helping participants understand what these methods are designed to do, when they are most appropriate, and how they address common research challenges. Building on this foundation, the seminar illustrates how QCA and PT can be combined in comparative research designs to strengthen causal inference while remaining sensitive to contextual complexity.
Drawing on examples from public policy, evaluation, governance, and organizational research, the seminar equips participants with conceptual tools to critically assess multimethod designs and to make informed methodological choices in their own doctoral projects.
Priscilla Alamos-Concha is an Assistant Professor of Qualitative Empirical Methodology at Radboud University’s Nijmegen School of Management. Her work advances a configurational approach that brings together institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and social movement theory to understand how social innovations emerge and how multinational corporations engage with Grand Challenges. Using complexity-based methods, such as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Process-Tracing (PT), and Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA), she investigates the conditions under which organizations contribute to meaningful social change.
Before joining NSM as faculty, she served as Principal Investigator for ESF-WSE evaluations at Antwerp Management School (Belgium). She previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NSM on a major Trans-Atlantic Platform project examining social innovation processes in and around multinationals. Her academic trajectory includes a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from the Université catholique de Louvain, alongside visiting scholar appointments at Exeter University, the European University Institute, and other international research centers.
Her publications appear in Evaluation Review, Journal of International Management, International Business Review, Political Research Quarterly, Quality & Quantity, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Revue internationale de politique comparée, and AIB Insights. As a founding member of the Methods Excellence Network, she actively promotes innovative methodological standards and global collaboration in social science research.