Weakest link, mean, and best shot are zones on one substitutability continuum.

Evidence

Core to concept structure is the problem of aggregation. The continuum of aggregation involves degrees of substitutability. To analyze this substitutability continuum I use a combination of fuzzy logic and public goods economics, i.e., production and utility functions. The three aggregation classes below are not a free-floating typology, but rather constitute alternatives along a continuum of substitutability. There are three zones of the substitutability continuum, but it is still a continuum. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 103

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames three aggregation rules as a single continuum of substitutability rather than three separate types.
• XREF: Connects to fuzzy-set/QCA methods literature and to public-goods aggregation typologies.