Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) in Business History Principles and an application

Tony Hak (1950) was trained as a medical sociologist and psychiatric epidemiologist (MSc, Erasmus Medical Centre, 1973). He specialized in conversation analysis, discourse analysis and text sociology. In his doctoral dissertation (1988, University of Amsterdam) he developed a research methodology for sociological text analysis.
He published articles and book chapters on the methodology of discourse analysis, conversation analysis, principles of coding and coder training, survey interviewing, and cognitive interviewing. Journals in which his publications have appeared include British Medical Journal, Social Science & Medicine, Sociology of Health and Illness, Qualitative Sociology, Quality of Life Research and Survey Research Methodology.
In 2002-2003 he worked at the U.S. Census Bureau as an ASA/NSF Research Fellow, supporting the Establishment Survey staff in the development of qualitative methods for on-site data collection on the response and reporting process in establishment surveys, in particular in the Economic Census.
His main current research interests are the methodology of theory-testing, necessary condition analysis, case study methodology, and the challenges of academic business surveys.

Jan Dul's research area is Human factors (ergonomics), which focuses on the interaction between people and the technological and social-organizational work environment in order to improve productivity, quality, creativity and health and safety. The goal is to realize products, tools, workplaces, production systems, procedures, etc. to maximize business performance and human well-being. When applied to operations and logistics management, human factors deals with 'fitting the job to the man' (rather than the other way around), in order to maximize employee performance and satisfaction. When applied to innovation management, human factors deals with realizing work environments for creativity and innovation. Special topics: - business ergonomics (embedding human factors in organizations, human factors and performance, human factors standardization) - creative work environments for innovation - case study research methodology.

Abe de Jong (1970) is Professor in Corporate Finance and Corporate Governance at the Rotterdam School of Management. He obtained a PhD in finance at Tilburg University (1999). His research and teaching interests are in the area of empirical corporate finance and include capital structure choice, dividend policy, risk management, corporate investment and divestment policies, and corporate governance. In addition, he works on the history of governance and finance in The Netherlands.

Gerarda Westerhuis is currently a postdoc researcher at Utrecht University as part of the research project on Business in the Netherlands in the 20th century (BINT; www.bintproject.nl). She obtained her PhD from Utrecht University with a dissertation on the expansion of Dutch banks and insurance companies to the United States, published under the title Conquering the American market. ABN AMRO, Rabobank and Nationale-Nederlanden working in a different business environment, 1965-2005. She also holds an MA in Social and Economic History from the University of Groningen, and worked for three years as a project manager in the Marketing department of Fortis Bank. Her most recent research focuses on the corporate governance and financing of business in the Netherlands during the 20th century. She has several co-authored articles on this topic in Business History Review and Business History as well as another article on ABN AMRO and LaSalle Bank in Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis. 
In short, her research focuses in particular on banking and elites. She combines theories and methodologies from economic and sociological sciences applying the long term perspective of a historian. She makes use of large data sets, in-depth archival research, and interviews.