An innovative application of event structure analysis (ESA)

This paper presents an innovative application of event structure analysis (ESA). The key improvements incorporated on the method are: (i) a robust system for coding events; (ii) the use of causal process tracing tests for inferring necessary connections; (iii) the combination of ESA with network analyses. Finally, we propose five types of analysis for event network models (i.e., • ESA can be combined with process-tracing tests to ground counterfactual causal inferences. • ESA can be combined with network analysis to explore quantitative patterns in event structures. • ESA is an outstanding method to conduct process research in management and engineering.