Recent years have witnessed a host of innovations for conducting research with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Concurrently, important issues surrounding its uses have been highlighted. This paper seeks to help users design their QCA studies. It argues that establishing inference with QCA involves three intertwined design components: first, clarifying the question of external validity; second, ensuring internal validity; and third, reasoning. Rather than one, we identify several different emerging approaches to QCA. Some approaches emphasize case knowledge, while others are condition-oriented. Approaches either emphasize substantively interpretable or non-redundant causal arguments, and some designs apply an inductive/explorative mode of reasoning, while others integrate deductive elements. Based on extant literature, we discuss issues surrounding inference with QCA and tools available under different approaches to address these. We specify trade-offs as well as the importance of doing justice to the nature and goals of QCA in a specific research context.
