Why organisations (do not) evaluate? Explaining evaluation activity through the lens of configurational comparative methods. Pattyn, Valérie This is the version of the article that was accepted for publication by the journal. The final, definitive article has been published in Evaluation. The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice by Sage, all rights reserved. Pattyn, V. (2014). Why organisations (do not) evaluate? Explaining evaluation activity through the lens of configurational comparative methods. Evaluation: the International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 20 (3), 348-367. Abstract The present contribution aims at explaining why some Flemish (Belgian) organisations evaluate policy, while others don’t. The study relies on a unique combination of two configurational comparative methods: the Most Similar Different Outcome/Most Different Similar Outcome method and crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. This combination of methods helps us unravel the combinations of conditions that promote or impede policy evaluation activity in a public administration that recently underwent major changes in line with New Public Management. The analysis reveals that the impact of the New Public Management reforms on evaluation activity is not to be overestimated. Such important conditions that explain policy evaluation activity or inactivity are the anchorage of the evaluation function, the availability of skills to evaluate, evaluation demand from organisational management, and the measurability of the outputs and outcomes of the organisation. Keywords Evaluation capacity building, evaluation activity, Flanders, configurational comparative methods