CASE STUDY RESEARCH

An Introduction
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WHY CASE STUDY RESEARCH?

The case study method is amongst the most flexible of research designs, and is particularly
useful in researching issues related to sustainability and institutional systems. It incorporates a
number of data-gathering strategies: document analysis, surveys, participant or nonparticipant observation, and participatory or action research.

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WHY CASE STUDY RESEARCH? [contd]

Case study research can serve a variety of functions: exploratory(enabling researchers to get
a feeling for potentially important variables and to describe phenomena in the appropriate
contextual setting), for testing hypotheses or theories (relating to cause and effect in a quasiexperimental fashion), and for policy analysis(teasing out prescriptions for action).

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TYPES OF CASE STUDIES

Most Favourable: to illustrate a theory and show it in a positive light

Exceptional: to validate or falsify a hypothesis by choosing a least favourable case

Critical Case: using a case to show the limitations of previous theories and other factors that
might be operating.

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GENERALIZING FROM CASES

Ones ability to generalize from case studies increases with the number of case studies.
However, one way to overcome the limitations of a small number of cases is to choose ones
that have the greatest variety of characteristics, and that encompass a range of extremes.

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FOCUSES OF STUDY
Case studies are classified according to the focus of study. This can include:

Individuals

Communities

Social groups

Organizations and institutions, and

Events, roles, relationships, and interactions.

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PROBLEM OF CASE STUDY RESEARCH

Ideally, one should avoid studying an issue solely from the perspective of one stakeholder.

Case study researchers are often guilty of two additional errors: 1) presenting a mass of
indigestible data, or 2) only presenting the conclusions without showing the logical inferences
from evidence that make those conclusions possible. Researchers should try to be
both selective and systematic.

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TRIANGULATION
There are different kinds of triangulation (ways of trapping the answers):

Methodological (different types of research methods)

Data (different types of data, or replication)

Investigator (using more than one), and

Theoretical (using different theoretical frameworks).

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CONSTRUCT VALIDITY

This is establishing correct operational measures for the things being studied. To meet the
test of construct validity, an investigator must be sure to 1) select the specific types of changes
that are to be studied and 2) demonstrate that the selected measures of these changes do
indeed reflect the specific types of changes that have been selected.

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CONSTRUCT VALIDITY [contd]
There are a number of strategies for ensuring construct validity:

Using multiple sources of evidence to see if they converge

Building a sold chain of evidence

Circulating a case study report to key informants for them to review for accuracy.

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INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL VALIDITY

Internal validity involves establishing a causal

variables; causality is not the same ascorrelation

External validity involves establishing the domain to which ones studies can be generalized.
Unless one is studying a large number of cases, the ability to generalize is based on analytical,
notstatistical, grounds.

relationship

between

factors

or

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RELIABILITY

Reliability involves demonstrating that the operations of a study, such as data collection
procedures, can be repeated with the same results (i.e. would a different researcher, using the
same methods, reach the same conclusions?)

To allay concerns, one documents the steps undertaken and keeps proper records for
instance, transcribing interviews and explaining how one coded the results. However, no
matter how linear one tries to be, there is always a certain amount of doubling back.

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RSEOURCES ON CASE STUDY RESEARCH

Applications of Case Study Research by Robert K. Yin (Sage Publications, 2012).

Research Design: Successful Designs for Social Economics Research by Catherine Hakim
(Routledge, 2012).