Applying QCA and Cross-impact Analysis to the Study on ICT Adoption and Use by Croatian SMEs

QCA reduces complexity and richness of each individual case through the process of Boolean minimization. This poses a challenge for future development of QCA as a case study method. We address this challenge and propose complementing QCA with cross-impact analysis. This latter method provides an in-depth, holistic analysis of a single case by focusing on the set of factors that are an essential part of each case, and focuses on capturing and analyzing interactions between these factors. That is, after deriving causal explanations, researchers can return to the cases and capture their complexity and interactions. Application of both methods is demonstrated in this paper in the context of ICT adoption and use in Croatian SMEs. While QCA provides a macro overview of a number of cases and identifies seven key factors that influence SMEs’ adoption of ICT, cross-impact analysis has a case-based focus that provides additional insights into SMEs actual experiences and challenges with ICT use. The alignment between the two methods produces important implications for the future development of QCA towards in-depth case analysis and exploring the complexity of each case.