そのため details

Examples

for that reason; consequently — the situation just described caused what follows

大雪おおゆきの影響えいきょうで線路せんろの点検てんけんを行おこなっております。そのため、電車でんしゃに遅おくれが出でております。

ooyuki no eikyou de senro no tenken o okonatte orimasu. sono tame, densha ni okure ga dete orimasu.

We are inspecting the track owing to the heavy snow. Trains are therefore running late. formal

部品ぶひんの入荷にゅうかが遅おくれている。そのため、来月らいげつの生産せいさん計画けいかくを見直みなおすことになった。

buhin no nyuuka ga okurete iru. sono tame, raigetsu no seisan keikaku o minaosu koto ni natta.

Parts are arriving late. For that reason, next month's production plan is being revised. neutral

母ははは昔むかしから体からだが弱よわかった。そのため、家事かじはほとんど私わたしが引ひき受うけていた。

haha wa mukashi kara karada ga yowakatta. sono tame, kaji wa hotondo watashi ga hikiukete ita.

My mother was frail for as long as I can remember. Because of that, I took on nearly all the housework. neutral

だから
だから puts the speaker's own reasoning on display and belongs to speech; そのため keeps the speaker out of it and states the causal link as an established fact, which is why service announcements and reports use it — and why it never carries the impatient "like I said" ring だから has.
それで
それで needs the cause fresh in the conversation and reports what followed; そのため asserts the link itself and belongs to writing, notices and prepared speech, so a report or a news item takes そのため where the same content in conversation would take それで.
したがって
そのため names the previous sentence as the CAUSE of the next and takes a plain happening after it (大雪おおゆきが降ふった。そのため、電車でんしゃが止とまった); したがって draws an inference or a ruling from it, so what follows is a conclusion or a decision — 「したがって、電車が止まった」 reads as though the stoppage were deduced rather than caused.
その結果
そのため looks forward from a cause and is happy with a standing state before it (雪ゆきが多おおい地域ちいきだ。そのため…); その結果 looks back from an outcome and needs a process that ran its course before it — an effort, an investigation, a sustained change — which is why 話はなし合あいを重かさねた。その結果、 works and a bare description of the weather does not.

ために
〜ために inside a sentence swings between purpose and cause depending on what precedes it (合格ごうかくするために勉強べんきょうする is purpose, 事故じこのために遅おくれた cause); sentence-initial そのため is read as cause unless what precedes it names a goal, and the variant そのために makes the purpose reading available outright.