Towards a Set-theoretic Approach for Studying Organizational Configuations*

I argue that research on organizational configurations has been limited by a mismatch between theory and methods. While configurational theory stresses nonlinearity, synergistic effects, and equifinality, empirical research has largely drawn on methods that assume linearity, additive effects, and unifinality. I introduce set-theoretic methods as a viable alternative for overcoming this mismatch. Set-theoretic methods conceptualize cases as combinations of attributes and use Boolean algebra to derive simplified expressions of combinations that lead to a specific outcome. I demonstrate the value of such methods for studying organizational configurations and discuss their applicability for examining equifinality and limited diversity among configurations.