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Case study
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the method of doing research. For the teaching method, see Case method. For
the method of teaching law, see Casebook method. For reports of clinical cases, see Case report.
For the Case Study (1969) film series by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, see propaganda film.

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In the social sciences and life sciences, a case study is a research method involving an up-close,
in-depth, and detailed examination of a subject of study (thecase), as well as its related contextual
conditions. Although no single definition of the case study exists, case study research has long had a
prominent place in many disciplines and professions, ranging from psychology, anthropology,
sociology, and political science to education, clinical science, social work, and administrative
science.[1][2]
The 'case' being studied may be an individual, organization, event, or action, existing in a specific
time and place. For instance, clinical science has produced both well-known case studies of
individuals but also case studies of clinical practices.[3][4][5] However, when case is used in an abstract
sense, as in a claim, proposition, or argument, such a case can be the subject of many research
methods, not just a case study.
Thomas[6] offers the following definition of case study: "Case studies are analyses of persons, events,
decisions, periods, projects, policies, institutions, or other systems that are studied holistically by one
or more method. The case that is the subject of the inquiry will be an instance of a class of
phenomena that provides an analytical frame an object within which the study is conducted
and which the case illuminates and explicates." According to J. Creswell, data collection in a case
study occurs over a "sustained period of time."[7]
Another suggestion is that case study should be defined as a research strategy, an empirical inquiry
that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context. Case study research can mean single
and multiple case studies, can include quantitative evidence, relies on multiple sources of evidence,
and benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions. Case studies should not be
confused with qualitative research and they can be based on any mix of quantitative and qualitative
evidence. Single-subject research provides the statistical framework for making inferences from
quantitative case-study data.[2][8] This is also supported and well-formulated in (Lamnek, 2005): "The
case study is a research approach, situated between concrete data taking techniques and
methodologic paradigms."
The case study is sometimes mistaken for the case method, but the two are not the same.
Contents
[hide]

1 Case selection and structure

2 Generalizing from case studies

3 History of the case study

4 See also

5 References

6 Further reading

7 External links

Case selection and structure[edit]

An average, or typical, case is often not the richest in information. In clarifying lines of history and
causation it is more useful to select subjects that offer an interesting, unusual or particularly
revealing set of circumstances. A case selection that is based on representativeness will seldom be
able to produce these kinds of insights. When selecting a subject for a case study, researchers will
therefore use information-oriented sampling, as opposed to random sampling. Outlier cases (that is,
those which are extreme, deviant or atypical) reveal more information than the potentially
representative case. Alternatively, a case may be selected as a key case, chosen because of the
inherent interest of the case or the circumstances surrounding it. Or it may be chosen because of
researchers' in-depth local knowledge; where researchers have this local knowledge they are in a
position to soak and poke as Fenno[9] puts it, and thereby to offer reasoned lines of explanation
based on this rich knowledge of setting and circumstances.
Three types of cases may thus be distinguished:
1. Key cases
2. Outlier cases
3. Local knowledge cases
Whatever the frame of reference for the choice of the subject of the case study (key, outlier, local
knowledge), there is a distinction to be made between thesubjestorical unity [10] through which the
theoretical focus of the study is being viewed. The object is that theoretical focus the analytical
frame. Thus, for example, if a researcher were interested in US resistance to communist expansion
as a theoretical focus, then the Korean War might be taken to be the subject, the lens, the case
study through which the theoretical focus, the object, could be viewed and explicated.[11]
Beyond decisions about case selection and the subject and object of the study, decisions need to be
made about purpose, approach and process in the case study. Thomas [6] thus proposes a typology
for the case study wherein purposes are first identified (evaluative or exploratory), then approaches
are delineated (theory-testing, theory-building or illustrative), then processes are decided upon, with
a principal choice being between whether the study is to be single or multiple, and choices also
about whether the study is to be retrospective, snapshot or diachronic, and whether it is nested,
parallel or sequential. It is thus possible to take many routes through this typology, with, for example,
an exploratory, theory-building, multiple, nested study, or an evaluative, theory-testing, single,
retrospective study. The typology thus offers many permutations for case study structure.
A closely related study in medicine is the case report, which identifies a specific case as treated
and/or examined by the authors as presented in a novel form. These are, to a differentiable degree,
similar to the case study in that many contain reviews of the relevant literature of the topic discussed
in the thorough examination of an array of cases published to fit the criterion of the report being
presented. These case reports can be thought of as brief case studies with a principal discussion of
the new, presented case at hand that presents a novel interest.

Generalizing from case studies[edit]

A critical case is defined as having strategic importance in relation to the general problem. A critical
case allows the following type of generalization, If it is valid for this case, it is valid for all (or many)
cases. In its negative form, the generalization would be, If it is not valid for this case, then it is not
valid for any (or valid for only few) cases.
The case study is also effective for generalizing using the type of test that Karl
Popper called falsification, which forms part of critical reflexivity. Falsification is one of the most
rigorous tests to which a scientific proposition can be subjected: if just one observation does not fit
with the proposition it is considered not valid generally and must therefore be either revised or
rejected. Popper himself used the now famous example of, "All swans are white," and proposed that
just one observation of a single black swan would falsify this proposition and in this way have
general significance and stimulate further investigations and theory-building. The case study is well
suited for identifying "black swans" because of its in-depth approach: what appears to be "white"
often turns out on closer examination to be "black."
Galileo Galileis rejection of Aristotles law of gravity was based on a case study selected by
information-oriented sampling and not random sampling. The rejection consisted primarily of a
conceptual experiment and later on of a practical one. These experiments, with the benefit of
hindsight, are self-evident. Nevertheless, Aristotles incorrect view of gravity dominated scientific
inquiry for nearly two thousand years before it was falsified. In his experimental thinking, Galileo
reasoned as follows: if two objects with the same weight are released from the same height at the
same time, they will hit the ground simultaneously, having fallen at the same speed. If the two
objects are then stuck together into one, this object will have double the weight and will according to
the Aristotelian view therefore fall faster than the two individual objects. This conclusion seemed
contradictory to Galileo. The only way to avoid the contradiction was to eliminate weight as a
determinant factor for acceleration in free fall.[12]

History of the case study[edit]

It is generally believed that the case-study method was first introduced into social science
by Frederic Le Play in 1829 as a handmaiden to statistics in his studies of family budgets. (Les
Ouvriers Europeens (2nd edition, 1879).[13]
The use of case studies for the creation of new theory in social sciences has been further developed
by the sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss who presented their research
method, Grounded theory, in 1967.
The popularity of case studies in testing hypotheses has developed only in recent decades. One of
the areas in which case studies have been gaining popularity is education and in particular
educational evaluation.[14](MacDonald, B., & Walker, R. (1975) Case Study and the social philosophy
of educational research. Cambridge Journal of Education 5, pp. 211.) (MacDonald, B. (1978) The
Experience of Innovation, CARE Occasional Publications #6, CARE, University of East Anglia,
Norwich, UK) ( Kushner, S. (2000) Personalizing Evaluation. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications)
Case studies have also been used as a teaching method and as part of professional development,
especially in business and legal education. The problem-based learning (PBL) movement is such an
example. When used in (non-business) education and professional development, case studies are
often referred to as critical incidents.
Ethnography is an example of a type of case study, commonly found in communication case studies.
Ethnography is the description, interpretation, and analysis of a culture or social group, through field
research in the natural environment of the group being studied. The main method of ethnographic
research is through observation where the researcher observes the participants over an extended
period of time within the participants own environment.[15]

As a final observation, using case studies to do research differs from their use in teaching. As stated
in Wikipedia's preamble to this article, the article is "about the method of doing research." For the
teaching method, the preamble refers readers to separate articles on the Case
method and Casebook method. At the same time, many people's first exposure to case studies
occurred in the classroom, and teaching case studies have been a highly popular pedagogical
format in many fields ranging from business education to science education.
The Harvard Business School has possibly been the most prominent developer and user of teaching
case studies.[16][17] Business school faculty generally develop case studies with particular learning
objectives in mind, and the classroom experiences may lead to refinement prior to publication.
Additional relevant documentation (such as financial statements, time-lines, and short biographies,
often referred to in the case study as "exhibits"), multimedia supplements (such as video-recordings
of interviews with the case protagonist), and a carefully crafted teaching note often accompany the
case studies. Similarly, teaching case studies have become increasingly popular in science
education. The National Center for Case Studies in Teaching Science [18] has made a growing body of
case studies available for classroom use, for university as well as secondary school coursework.
Nevertheless, the principles in doing case study research contrast strongly with those in doing case
studies for teaching. The teaching case studies need not adhere strictly to the use of evidence, as
they can be manipulated to satisfy pedagogical needs. The generalizations from teaching case
studies also may relate to pedagogical issues rather than the substance of the case being studied.
Unfortunately, the contrast between the two types of case studies have not always been
appreciated. For this reason, many people have had poor impressions of the validity and
generalizability of case study research. The present article will hopefully help to rectify these
impressions.

See also[edit]

Casebook method

Case method

Case study in psychology

Case competition

Case report

Washington County Closed-Circuit Educational Television Project

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ Mills, Albert J.; Gabrielle Durepos; Elden Wiebe. (Eds.).
(2010). Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. Sage Publications.
California. p. xxxi. ISBN 978-1-4129-5670-3.

2.

^ Jump up to:a b Robert K. Yin. Case Study Research: Design and

Methods. 5th Edition. Sage Publications. California, 2014. Pages 56. ISBN 978-1-4522-4256-9

3.

Jump up^ Rolls, Geoffrey (2005). Classic Case Studies in

Psychology. Hodder Education, Abingdon, England.

4.

Jump up^ Suzanne Corkin. Permanent Present Tense: The

Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, H.M.. Basic Books. New
York. 2013. ISBN 978-0-4650-3159-7

5.

Jump up^ Rodger Kessler & Dale Stafford. Editors. Collaborative

Medicine Case Studies: Evidence in Practice. Springer. New York.
2008. [ISBN 978-0-3877-6893-9]

6.

^ Jump up to:a b G. Thomas (2011) sonia is typing..... A typology for the

case study in social science following a review of definition, discourse
and structure. Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 6, 511-521

7.

Jump up^ Creswell, John (2009). Research Design; Qualitative and

Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. London:
Sage. ISBN 978-1-4522-2609-5.

8.

Jump up^ Siegfried Lamnek. Qualitative Sozialforschung. Lehrbuch.

4. Auflage. Beltz Verlag. Weihnhein, Basel, 2005

9.

Jump up^ R. Fenno (1986) Observation, context, and sequence in the

study of politics. American Political Science Review, 80, 1, 3-15

10. Jump up^ M. Wieviorka (1992) Case studies: history or sociology? In

C.C. Ragin and H.S. Becker (Eds) What is a case? Exploring the
foundations of social inquiry. New York: Cambridge University Press.
11. Jump up^ Gary Thomas, How to do your Case Study (Thousand
Oaks: Sage, 2011)
12. Jump up^ B. Flyvbjerg (2006) Five Misunderstandings about CaseStudy Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12, 2, 219-245
13. Jump up^ Sister Mary Edward Healy, C. S. J. (1947). "Le Play's
Contribution to Sociology: His Method". The American Catholic
Sociological Review 8 (2): 97110.doi:10.2307/3707549.
14. Jump up^ Robert E. Stake, The Art of Case Study
Research (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995). ISBN 0-8039-5767-X
15. Jump up^ Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture
16. Jump up^ D.A. Garvin (Sept.-Oct.2003) Making the Case:
Professional Education for the World of Practice. Harvard Magazine,
106, 1, 56-107
17. Jump up^ W. Ellet. The Case Study Handbook: How to Read, Write,
and Discuss Persuasively about Cases. Harvard Business School
Press. Boston, MA. 2007. [ISBN 978-1-422-10158-2]
18. Jump up^ (http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/)

Further reading[edit]

Baxter, P and Jack, S. (2008) "Qualitative Case Study Methodology:

Study design and implementation for novice researchers", in The
Qualitative Report, 13(4): 544-559. Available from [1]

Dubois, Anna, and Lars-Erik Gadde. "Supply strategy and network

effectspurchasing behaviour in the construction
industry." European Journal of Purchasing & Supply
Management 6.3 (2000): 207-215.

Dul, J. and Hak, T. (2008) Case Study Methodology in Business

Research. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-81964.

Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989) "Building theories from case study

research", in The Academy of Management Review, 14 (4), Oct,
532-550. doi:10.2307/258557

George, Alexander L. and Bennett, Andrew. (2005) Case studies

and theory development in the social sciences. London: MIT
Press. ISBN 0-262-57222-2

Gerring, John. (2005) Case Study Research. New York: Cambridge

University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-67656-4

Hanck, Bob. (2009) Intelligent Research Design. A guide for

beginning researchers in the social sciences. Oxford University
Press.

Kay, L., Youtie, J., & Shapira, P. (2014). Signs of things to come?
What patent submissions by small and medium-sized enterprises
say about corporate strategies in emerging technologies.
Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 17.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2013.09.006

Kyburz-Graber, Regula. (2004). "Does case-study methodology lack

rigour? The need for quality criteria for sound case-study research,
as illustrated by a recent case in secondary and higher education",
in Environmental Education Research 10(1): 53
65. doi:10.1080/1350462032000173706

Lijphart, Arend. (1971) "Comparative Politics and the Comparative

Method", in The American Political Science Review, 65(3): 682-693.
Available from [2]

Mills, Albert J., Durepos, Gabrielle, and Wiebe, Elden. Eds.

(2010) Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. (2 vols.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN 978-1-4129-5670-3

Ragin, Charles C. and Becker, Howard S. Eds. (1992) What is a

Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-42188-8

Scholz, Roland W. and Tietje, Olaf. (2002) Embedded Case Study

Methods. Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Knowledge.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN 0-7619-1946-5

Straits, Bruce C. and Singleton, Royce A. (2004) Approaches to

Social Research, 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-514794-4. Available from:[3]

Thomas, Gary. (2011) How to do your Case Study: A Guide for

Students and Researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Yin, Robert. (2014) Case Study Research: Design and Methods.

(5th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Case Studies from Colorado State University

Project Management Collaborative Case Studies

Examples of Case Studies from Higher Learning at Work

External links[edit]

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Clinical research and experimental design

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Psychology

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Evaluation methods

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