The Complexity Turn

This book takes the reader beyond net effects and main and interaction effects thinking and methods. Complexity theory includes the tenet that recipes are more important than ingredients-any one antecedent (X) condition is insufficient for a consistent outcome (Y) (e.g., success or failure) even though the presence of certain antecedents may be necessary. A second tenet: modeling contrarian cases is useful because a high or low score for any given antecedent condition (X) associates with a high Y, low Y, and is irrelevant for high/low Y in some recipes in the same data set. Third tenet: equifinality happens-several recipes indicate high/low outcomes.


Arch G. Woodside is Professor of Marketing, Boston College. He is the Editor in Chief, Journal of Business Research. His research appears in marketing, psychology, tourism, and hospitality journals. His i10-index is 175 ins 2014 according to Google Scholar; his h index = 48. He is a Member and Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association of Psychological Science, Royal Society of Canada, International Academy for the Study of Tourism, Society for Marketing Advances, and the Global Academy of Innovation and Knowledge. He is the Founder of the International Academy of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. His work appears in Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Retailing, and 46 additional scholarly journals. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of 50 books, 350 journal articles, and 220 book chapters. In 2013 he received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Montreal. His Ph.D. in Business Administration is from Penn State, 1968.