Spring School 2018

Configurational Analyses,ComparativeApproaches,andNaturalExperiments

9th– 13thApril2018– Verona(Italy)

The Spring School 2018 welcomes about 30 PhD Students and

Scholars to enhance their research capabilities in Management fields,

and in particular in Organization studies topic.

The program outline includes a wide range of conceptual and

operational aspects related to Configurational Analyses, Comparative

Approaches, and Natural Experiments.

More information will be available on the ASSIOA website

www.assioa.it.

Applications will be accepted until February 12th, 2018 and they must

be emailed to the organizing committee, at springschool@assioa.itwith the subject “Spring School Application - Name and Surname”.

ASSIOA will close the enrolment process and select the participants.

If you need any other information, please do not hesitate to contact

us at: springschool@assioa.it

ASSIOASpringSchoolSecretariat

Dott.AlessandroZardini

Dott.LudovicoBullini Orlandi

springschool@assioa.it

ScientificCommittee

Prof.StefanoConsiglio

Prof.MariaFerrara

Prof.MauroGatti

Prof.PaoloGubitta

ProfMarcelloMartinez

Prof.AndreaPrencipe

Prof.PietroPrevitali

Prof. DomingoRibeiro

Prof.MaddalenaSorrentino

Coordinating Committee

Prof.CeciliaRossignoli

Organizing Committee

Prof.CeciliaRossignoli

Prof.AliciaMasTur

Prof.Norat Roig

Dott.AlessandroZardini

Dott.FrancescaRicciardi

Faculty

Prof.DomingoRibeiro

Prof.AliciaMasTur

Prof.Norat Roig-Tierno

Dott.AlessandroZardini

Dott.FrancescaRicciardi

Dott.YolandaGomez

ASSIOASPRINGSCHOOL

SpringSchool2018inBusiness,ManagementandOrganizationResearch

Verona,Italy

ConfigurationalAnalyses,ComparativeApproachesandNaturalExperiments

FirstEdition:9-13April2018ObjectiveThe central goal of this seminar is to enable participants to create and implement sound andeffectiveresearchdesignsbasedonconfigurationalanalyses.Inparticular,theseminarwillfocusontwoapproachesthat,althoughdifferent inmanyrespects,canbothbebasedonconfigurationalanalyses,andnamely:equifinalitycomparativestudiesandnaturalexperiments.Theconfigurationalapproachprovidespowerfulconceptualtoolstomodelrelevantentities(suchasorganizations, customers, strategies, information systems, etc.) in termsof differentpossiblecombinationsofrelationshipsamongtheirconstituentvariables.Configurationalframeworksanddatasetscanresultfrombothqualitativeandquantitativedatacollection,frombothdeductiveandinductive reasoning, from both interpretive and algorithmic analyses. Therefore, developing a“configurationalmind-set”provides the researcherwith awide rangeofpossibilities to addresscomplexcausallinks.Inthisseminar,participantswillfocusespeciallyonhowtodesignandconductresearch(1)whendifferentconfigurationsareexpectedtoresultinsimilaroutcomes(equifinalitycomparativestudies)and(2)whensimilarconfigurationsareexpectedtoresultindifferentoutcomesafterbeingexposedtodifferent treatments (experimental studies).Therefore, this seminarwill allowparticipants toexplore the typicalusesof these two researchdesigns in scientificwork. Thisprogramprovidesparticipantswiththecapabilitytoleveragemethodologicaltoolsthatarehighlyappreciatedinhighratingjournals.Theexamplesusedtoillustratecomparativeandexperimentaldesignswillbedrawnfrom top journals in the Business/Organization/Management area such as the Academy ofManagementJournal,OrganizationStudies,OrganizationScience,OrganizationResearchMethods,Journal of Business Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal ofManagement,andmanyothers.

MethodologicalTeachingApproachTheseminarwillbestronglyorientedtolearning-by-doing:morethanhalfclasseswillbededicatedtogroupworkandpracticalexercises(alsousingspecificsoftwaretools)withcontinuoussupportof lecturersand/ortutors.Duringhands-onclasses,participantswillbeencouragedtoreflectonhow their own research pipelines may be strengthened by configurational, comparative andexperimental approaches. Based on these stimuli, participants will draft and review researchprojectsandprotocols;inaddition,theywillgainpracticalexperienceondataanalysistechniquesthatareparticularlysuitedforcomparativeand/orexperimentaldesigns,suchasconfigurationalcoding, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), and statistical analyses with categoricalindependentvariables(ANOVA,MANOVA,chisquare).Participantswillhavetheopportunitytousetheirowndata(forexample,datacollectedfortheirPhDthesis)inclassexercises.Venue:DipartimentodiEconomiaAziendaledell’UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona,SedeSantaMarta,ViaCantarane24,37129-Verona(Italy).Participants:PhDStudentsandPost-doc,andScholarsinBusinessAdministration,ManagementandOrganizationStudiesField.Maximum30participants.Dates:8half-daylecturesfromMondayafternoontoFridayMorning:- April92018(14:00–17:30)- April102018(9:00–17:30)- April112018(9:00–17:30)- April122018(9:00–17:30)- April132018(9:00-12:30)

Applicationandselectionprocess:ThedeadlineforapplicationsisFebruary12th,2018.Pleasesendanemailto:springschool@assioa.it,attachingashortbio(maximum1page),andamotivationletter(maximum500words) includinga syntheticdescriptionof yourongoing researchproject(s) andgoals.ApplicantswillreceivefeedbackbyMarch10th,2018.Language:EnglishScientificCommittee:- Prof.StefanoConsiglio(UniversitàdiNapoliFedericoII)- Prof.MariaFerrara(UniversitàdegliStudidiNapoli–Parthenope)- Prof.MauroGatti(UniversitàLaSapienza–Roma)- Prof.PaoloGubitta(UniversitàdiPadova)- ProfMarcelloMartinez(UniversitàdellaCampaniaLuigiVanvitelli)- Prof.AndreaPrencipe(UniversitàLuissRoma)- Prof.PietroPrevitali(UniversitàdegliStudidiPavia)- Prof.DomingoRibeiro(UniversityofValencia)- Prof.MaddalenaSorrentino(UniversitàStatalediMilano)

OrganizingCommittee:- Prof.CeciliaRossignoli(UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona)- Prof.AliciaMasTur(UniversityofValencia)- Prof.NoratRoig(ValenciaInternationalUniversityandESIC)- Dott.AlessandroZardini(UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona)- Dott.FrancescaRicciardi(UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona)

CoordinatingCommittee:- Prof.CeciliaRossignoli(UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona)

Faculty:- Prof.DomingoRibeiro(UniversityofValencia)- Prof.AliciaMasTur(UniversityofValencia)- Prof.NoratRoig-Tierno(UniversityofValencia)- Dott.AlessandroZardini(UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona)- Dott.FrancescaRicciardi(UniversitàdegliStudidiVerona)- Dott.YolandaGomez(DevStat,Valencia)

LectureOutlineLecture1–Topics:Theroleofconfigurationalanalysisinthewiderpictureofthemostcommonresearchdesignsandmethods.Differencesandsynergiesbetweenconfigurationalapproaches,in-depth case studies and traditional statistical surveys. The role of configurational analysis in theinvestigationofboundaryconditions,jointcausality,interventiondesignandevaluationresearch.Typology theory, taxonomies, and the explanatory power of configurations (as formative andreflectivemeasurements).Hands-on:basedonagivendata-gatheringsettingandbroadresearchquestion, participantswillwork in small groups to draft an appropriate andpromising researchdesignandthepossibleroleofconfigurationalanalysisinit.Theresultswillbediscussedinclass.Lecture2–Topics: Introductiontoconfigurationalcoding:top-downandbottom-uptechniques.Hands-on: based on a given set of unstructured contents (e.g. interview excerpts) and a broadresearchquestion,participantswillworkingroupstodefineasetofcodesaimedatconfigurationalanalysis,basedonanorganization/managementtheoryoftheir interest.Then,theywillconductcodingindividuallyinordertochecktheeffectivenessoftheirpre-definedsetofcodesandtoletpossiblenewcodesemergethroughbottom-up/inductivereasoning.Resultswillbediscussed inclass,andtechniquesofcodefine-tuning/adjustment/clusteringwillbeshown.Lecture 3 – Topics: Introduction to equifinality and joint causality. Necessary and sufficientconditions. Boolean truth tables and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Hands-on:participantswillbuildsimpletruthtablesbasedondiversesources(codedinterviews,secondarydata,multimedia).Then,theywillwork insmallgroupstowritebriefreviewsofexemplaryQCA

papers,followingthedirectionsoftheLecturer/Tutors.Results(andpossiblequestionsraised)willbediscussedinclass.Lecture 4 – Topics: Introduction to fuzzy-set QCA (fs/QCA). How to conduct fs/QCA analyses.ComplementaritiesbetweenQCAandwithin-subjectexperimentaldesigns.Hands-on:participantswill carry out a real practice with the development of scientific research using the fsQCA 3.0software.Thesoftwarewillbeavailableinclass.Lecture 5 – Topics: Introduction to experimental designs: randomized experiments, quasi-experiments, natural experiments. Within-subject (longitudinal) and between-subjects (cross-sectional)designs.Theroleofsubjectcategorization(throughconfigurationalanalysis)inordertoachieve category-based generalizability of the results. Hands-on: participantswill work in smallgroupstowritebriefreviewsofexemplarypapersbasedonnaturalexperimentaldesigns,followingtheinstructionsoftheLecturer/Tutors.Resultswillbediscussedinclass.Lecture 6 – Topics: Introduction to the role of statistical analyses in configuration-basedexperimental designs. How to conduct and how to use statistical analyses with categoricalindependentvariables(ANOVA,MANOVA,chisquare).Hands-on:participantswillcarryonexercisesonstatisticalanalyses,usingasoftwarethatwillbemadeavailableinclass.Resultswillbediscussedinclass.Lecture7-Hands-on:participantswillworkindividuallyorinsmallgroupsandwilldraftacompleteresearchprojectandprotocoleitherwithacomparativeoranexperimentaldesign,basedontheirowninterests.Lecturers/tutorswillsupporttheworkandofferadvice.Resultswillbediscussedinclass.Lecture8–Hands-on:participantswillwork ingroupstobuildpresentationsonwhattheyhavelearned from the seminar. Results will be discussed in class to let questions and constructivecriticism emerge. Further readings will be suggested, along with personalized advice on eachparticipant’sfutureresearchwork.Participantswillbeprovidedinadvancewithpreliminaryreadings.