Qualitative + Mixed methods/ Research design
Process tracing
Test mechanisms with diagnostic evidence
Process tracing investigates hypothesised causal processes within a case using evidence evaluated for its diagnostic value. It connects sequences to explicit mechanisms and rival explanations. Hoop tests and smoking-gun tests have different implications when evidence is found or absent. Process tracing informs both case design and analysis, so it is not merely a chronology-writing technique.
WHEN IT FITS
Use when the question concerns how a particular outcome came about and records, interviews or observations can reveal intermediate steps and distinguish competing mechanisms.
Strengths
- Can examine causal processes invisible in aggregate comparisons
- Makes the relevance of particular observations explicit
Limitations
- Decisive process evidence may be missing or inaccessible
- Retrospective accounts and selective records can mislead
Know the boundary
Temporal sequence alone does not establish causation or rule out a common cause.
USED ACROSS
Banking & financeBusiness & MBAPsychologyComputer scienceEducation