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Paper info: Causal process tracing: a new approach to studying the dynamics and evolution of business relations and networks

Title


Causal process tracing: a new approach to studying the dynamics and evolution of business relations and networks

Authors


Ian Wilkinson
University of Sydney
Australia
Ian Wilkinson , Louise Wilkinson and
Yimin Huang
Fudan University
China
Yimin Huang

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 35th IMP-conference in Paris, France in 2019.

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Abstract


In this paper we describe an approach originally developed in political science, causal process tracing (CPT) or process tracing and show how it facilitates deeper understanding and researching of change processes in a business relation and its network. CPT originated in earlier research on process tracing systems but has been further developed to become a well specified methodology that can be used to study the change process in many types of socio-economic systems. To our knowledge CPT has not been used in the study of business markets. In this paper we describe this approach, its philosophical underpinnings and compare and contrast it with other approaches, including configural approaches, such as QCA, TQCA, event structure analysis and narrative sequence methods. We then show how it can be used to better understand the dynamics and evolution of business relations and networks and illustrate its use by analysing part of a case study of the development of a business relation.