QCA in Empirical Marketing Research: An Experiment Featuring Dorah Explorah,Investigating Celebrity Endorsement's Effect on Product Selection

Abstract

This study explains how to disentangle the relationships between outcomes and the configurations of marketing brand tactics and consumer attributes for a particular marketing phenomenon. We demonstrate that qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) can be implemented in marketing contexts, and that it can explain marketing phenomena to the standards of rigour, generality and complexity demanded by scientific research. Fuzzy set QCA (fsQCA) need not be feared; it can be a very useful case-based method for marketing theorists. The “thought experiment” featuring the hypothetical Dorah Explorah brand demonstrates fsQCA's value and its similitude with real markets, and confirms that a single attribute, marketing tactic or condition can affect the examined outcome differently when it is part of a different configuration, although it may not be necessary or sufficient for the outcome by itself. We extend the literature on marketing theory creation by drawing on social psychology and management disciplines (for methodology) and Heider's (1958) balance theory to propose a specific hypothesis. We then test this hypothesis via an experimental manipulation. We present the theoretical background supporting the study's hypothesis and make a strong plea for marketing scholars to develop theories using truly useful, highly predictive asymmetrical logic. We hope that this paper will act as a tutorial for marketing researchers, novices and experts, making the application of fsQCA as a methodology and as a set of techniques easier and more transparent. We explicitly highlight the configurationally important aspects of qualitative research in empirical marketing studies and comparative scientific enquiry.