An Exploration of the Presence of Positive-Results Bias in Qualitative Comparative Analysis

The value of negative results for knowledge advancement stands in contrast to the abundance of positive findings found in quantitative research across research fields. There is reason to believe that positive-results bias is also present in studies that use qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This possibility has been neglected so far in work on QCA. This article contributes to the field of meta science and QCA by exploring whether hypothesis-testing QCA articles collectively indicate the presence of positive-results bias. An analysis of consistency scores and comparison of hypotheses and findings reported in QCA articles and PhD theses indicate the presence of biases. The results suggest two implications. First, the interpretation fo findings in a field should take into account that negative results may be underreported. Second, QCA research would benefit from exploring techniques that could be integrated into the research and peer-review process to address positive-results bias.