Case Studies and Research in Management Science

Paul Lapoule1 and Erwan Lamy2

Abstract
The complexity of management situations means that their scientific review is based
not only on quantitative approaches but also on qualitative methods, including the
case study methodology. But if, for many years, writing teaching cases did not cross
any scientific ambitions of their authors, the gap is breaking down. Professors must
meet the objectives of publication, while continuing their teaching activity, including
the production of case studies. Beyond statements of a general nature, the way in
which the articulation between teaching and research functions concretely has not
yet been adequately described. This is the question to which we intend to provide an
answer in this empirical study.

Key words: case studies – methodology – epistemology - management

To highlight the complexity of management situations and reveal the processes that
underlie them, any meaningful scientific analysis should encompass not only
quantitative approaches, but also qualitative methods. It is notably through case
studies that managerial situations can best be understood, and this method of
investigation should be encouraged and developed. Indeed, even if case studies are
used differently in teaching and research, this does not stop the method from being
fully deployed.
The case study method is an important pedagogical tool in the field of management
science (Abdessemed, 2005). The production of “pedagogical case studies” for
teaching purposes is a part of well established institutional and corporate system,
which largely defines their form, quantity and even content. In Great Britain, the
leader in the case studies publishing sector is the ECCH (European Case Clearing
House), while its French counterparty is the CCMP (Centrale de Cas et de Médias
Pédagogiques), run under the aegis of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. The number of case studies lodged at and published by these bodies is
steadily increasing in number, and, as a result, these organizations, which now sell
turnkey products (case studies, teaching notes, debriefing slide presentations, and
videos) are becoming ever-more demanding and selective. The authors’ of
pedagogical case studies are obliged to follow precise norms, which can be either
formal (where case studies must be accompanied by “teaching notes”, for example),
or informal (for example, care must be taken to ensure that case studies are “lively”).
It is, above all, a question of providing a key to the understanding of a phenomenon
or a particular situation for learners who are highly sensitive to the concrete nature of

1
Professor and Researcher at NOVANCIA (Paris) and a Visiting Professor to International
Institutions. E-mail: plapoule@novancia.fr
2
Professor and Researcher at NOVANCIA (Paris). E-mail : elamy@novancia.fr
1

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2589394

what they are presented with, and who particularly appreciate elements that
emphasize that concrete nature, such as films, advertisements, dialogues between
employees, quotes from business people, and so on.
When they are used in a scientific perspective, case studies are not subject to the
same normative constraints as they are when they are used for teaching purposes.
Whereas pedagogical case studies have to be attractive and capable of retaining the
attention of students, articles generally adopt a “neutral”, academic vocabulary
couched in a distant, factual style designed to reveal the essence of the phenomena
described while ensuring that contingent factors do not detract from clarity of
exposition. Nor are the objectives the same: scientific articles must provide a
demonstration, while pedagogical case studies must make it possible to understand
a situation. But it is here that the two approaches can coincide: “understanding”, in
the sense outlined by Max Weber, is, evidently, an essential aspect of articles based
on the use of one or more case studies. A scientific article must enable the reader to
understand a particular phenomenon in exactly the same way as a pedagogical case
study must make it possible for students to understand a specific situation.
However, for a long time, the case study method applied in the realm of teaching
remained separate from the method applied to scientific articles. The writing of case
studies did not feed any scientific ambitions on the part of their authors, and the use
of the case study method within the framework of scientific projects did not lead to
the production of pedagogical case studies but, rather, to academic books or articles.
Furthermore, their reception in the field of management studies varied greatly. While
the role of “pedagogical case studies” in teaching is well known (Bonoma, 1989), the
scientific value of articles based on case studies still has a questionable status,
notably in Britain and the United States, where quantitative approaches to
management phenomena are dominant. Authors including Yin (1994) posit a
“nomothetic modelization” based on series of case studies, from which a number of
generalizations can be derived. Others prefer an “idiographic modelization” (La Ville,
2000) focusing on revealing the rich and singular history of a specific situation, and
underlining the particular conditions of its development. Regardless, while the case
study method has long been the object of a good deal of scepticism in the scientific
field (Yin, 1981; Scholz, 2001), it is fully recognized in the sphere of teaching, at least
in management science.
But the gap between the two is breaking down (Jenkins, 2011). Business schools,
which must today position themselves on an increasingly globalised education
market and whose academic reputations are meticulously evaluated in both national
and international classifications, are subject to growing pressure to develop their
scientific output (particularly in terms of the publication of articles in peer-reviewed
journals). Teacher-researchers have to meet publication objectives, while at the
same time – naturally enough – continuing their teaching activities, an area which
includes the production of case studies. Again according to Jenkins (2011), teacher-
researchers are being put under increasing pressure to combine teaching and
research. In this regard, cases studies are the most efficient way of exploiting
research data and communicating effectively with a class of students. After having
written and applied a case study in a teaching situation, authors are entitled to
suppose that their subject is worthy of further exploration and that it may lead to a
publication in a scientific journal. Indeed, pedagogical case studies dealing with
subjects as diverse as international management (Schmid and Grosche, 2008),
international trade (Hampton and Rowell, 2011), strategic innovation (Bourdon and
2

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2589394

Lehmann-Ortega, 2007), multi-channel retail strategies (Colla and Lapoule, 2011),
and the launch of a new product (Mayrhofer and Roederer, 2009) have been
expanded into research articles. Meanwhile, Netzley (2011) considers the kind of
groundwork required to develop case studies as an opportunity to improve teaching
and research methods.
The question thus arises of potential synergies between approaches to teaching and
research, notably in terms of the articulation between pedagogical case studies and
research articles. Here, we pose the question of potential synergies by examining the
ways in which the transition from one sphere to the other can be made. The
importance of a strong articulation between teaching and research activities is now
widely recognized, as is the role of case studies in that articulation. For example,
Quinn (1994) initiated each of his research articles by writing and teaching one or
more pedagogical case studies. But, beyond statements of a general nature, the way
in which the articulation between teaching and research functions concretely works
has not yet been adequately described. This is the question to which we intend to
provide an answer in this empirical study.
1 Methodology  
Our study, which is still ongoing, is divided into three major stages. The first, an
exploratory stage, consisted in a series of unstructured interviews with a number of
teacher-researchers working, like us, in business schools. Rather than introduce our
own a priori on the question of the articulation between teaching and research
practices and the role of the case study method therein, we preferred instead to listen
to colleagues with experience in the area.
We carried out nine interviews, recording and transcribing them from beginning to
end. Using the interviews, we were able to identify the three main ways in which
pedagogical case studies and research articles can mutually enrich one another.
The first corresponds to taking certain elements from a pedagogical case study
(verbatims and other components) and using them as the basis of a research article.
The second is based on extracting elements from an article and using them to
develop a pedagogical case study. The third situation consists in using points raised
in debates with students about the case study in a classroom situation
simultaneously to clarify the problematic and provide the bases of future research
articles.
We will also examine the role of teaching notes (Hermant, 1980), which are published
alongside case studies and represent an “explicit bridge” between research and
teaching. Teaching notes can clearly serve as prolegomena to scientific articles
based on material deriving from pedagogical case studies.
For the second phase of the study, we developed a questionnaire containing the
various elements described above (see appendix). The questions mainly focus on
the way in which case studies and teaching notes can be used in research articles
and, inversely, the way in which articles can be used in case studies and their
teaching notes, as well as the way in which the use of a case study for teaching
purposes can improve research practices.
This questionnaire was sent to 7,467 researchers and teachers throughout the world.
This sample of the academic population was extracted from the Social Science
Citations Index (SSCI) database. We started by identifying 6,646 articles published
3
between 2005 and 2012 in journals indexed on this database, of which either the title,
or the abstract, or the list of key words contained the phrase “case study” or “case
studies”, and which were categorized in the fields of management, finance, business
science, economics or sociology.i From this database of articles we identified the
7,467 email addresses of the principal authors and sent the questionnaire to them.
We received 964 replies, or a rate of reply of approximately 13%.
At the same time, a French version of the questionnaire was also drawn up and sent
to 687 teacher-researchers active in major business schools in France. We received
93 replies, or a reply rate of approximately 13.5%.
In the final analysis, we received a total of 1,057 replies. These replies were entered
into a database and the names were rendered anonymous after the nationalities and
disciplines of the respondents had been added with a view to identifying any
differences of a cultural nature.
The distribution of nationalities and disciplines of this population are as follows:
[Table 1]
[Table 2]
In the third phase of the study, using an analysis of the results of the questionnaire,
we intend to conduct a series of semi-structured interviews focusing on the various
aspects of the articulation between research and teaching practices.
2 Results  of  the  survey  
A large majority of respondents to the questionnaire (72.4%) had produced at least
one pedagogical case study, while over a third (36%) had produced at least three.
[Table 3]
A substantial majority considered that it is increasingly important to combine teaching
and research (only 0.8% of respondents strongly disagreed with this idea).
[Table 4]
We also found that a substantial majority of respondents considered that case
studies are a particularly suitable tool for combining teaching and research.
[Table 5]
Lastly, a majority of respondents had already combined teaching and research
practices by using the results of a survey to write up a case study and a research
article.
[Table 6]
These early results confirm the initial hypotheses of this study: the question of the
rapprochement between teaching and research is considered to be increasingly
important, and case studies are viewed as offering a means of promoting it. The
modalities of this rapprochement, or at least the respective importance the various
ways in which the case study method can be used to affect a rapprochement
between teaching and research, have yet to be defined.
The exploratory surveys that we conducted with nine European teacher researchers
helped us to identify three main approaches: incorporating elements from
pedagogical case studies or the accompanying teaching note into the article;

4
incorporating elements from an article into a case study; and using scientific
elements gleaned from the use of a case study in a teaching context.
We used our exploratory interviews to distinguish a number of different aspects of
each approach.
For the transition to the case study (and its teaching note), we envision the possibility
that the following elements can be incorporated into an article: the description of the
situation, the verbatims, the results of the analysis, the theoretical contributions, the
bibliography.
In the opposite configuration – the transition from an article to a case study (or its
teaching note) – we envision the possibility of the following elements being
incorporated: the conclusions, the theoretical considerations, some extracts from
interviews, the quantitative analyses (if there were any), the theoretical developments
or the bibliography.
Lastly, the use of case studies in a teaching context (in a classroom) could have the
following advantages: it could help to clarify managerial contributions (practical
aspects, recommendations), it could lead the authors to return to the field, it could
enable to better define the research problematic, it could help to reveal certain
weaknesses in the theoretical approach, to identify a number of interesting
theoretical perspectives, to clarify certain concepts, to organize the literature review
more effectively. We have also envisioned the possibility that the use of case studies
may have no scientific value.
Below, we examine empirically the respective importance of the various kinds of
synergies between teaching and research practices.

2.1 From  the  article  to  the  pedagogical  case  study              

The table below shows that the elements most frequently taken from articles and
used in case studies are conclusions and theoretical developments, as well as,
unsurprisingly, verbatims (quotes from interviewees). Conclusions and theoretical
developments are incorporated into both the case study and the accompanying
teaching note. It should be observed that bibliographies from articles are only
relatively rarely used in teaching notes.
[Table 7]
In differentiating between respondents with a good deal of experience of case studies
(those who had produced at least 6) and those with average (3-5) or little (at most 2)
experience (no more than 2 case studies), we were able to observe that the most
experienced subjects distinguishedii themselves from the other respondents, on the
one hand because their use of extracts from interviews is more systematic, and, on
the other, because they tend to add conclusions and theoretical developments from
research articles to their teaching notes. Similarly, it can be observed that, although
they are in a small minority, experienced respondents make a more extensive use of
bibliographical elements from research in their teaching notes. This result
demonstrates the importance of teaching notes in terms of linking research to
teaching practices, especially amongst specialists in the case study method.
[Table 8]
2.2 From  case  study  to  article          
5
In terms of the use of elements of pedagogical case studies in research articles, it is,
unsurprisingly, not only descriptive features, but also results that are most frequently
incorporated. There is an unexpected contiguity, or even a continuity between
pedagogical and scientific approaches. While the objective of analyses of case
studies is, above all, to deliver a concrete reality to students, it can be observed that
such analyses can also contribute to the development of research issues. The
problematic of a specific organization thus becomes a scientific problematic, with the
case study providing support to the publication of research articles in the form of a
theoretical system that not only satisfies internal validity criteria, but also has a more
general application (Yin, 1994). Consequently, it does not come as a surprise that
theoretical considerations developed for the case study are often incorporated into
the article. It can also be observed – but this is less unexpected – that verbatims from
case studies are infrequently used in research articles.

[Table 9]

The analysis of the distribution of these synergies in function of the experience of the
respondents in terms of the case study method does not substantially modify these
observations. It is, however, possible to observe that experienced respondents use
verbatim and bibliographical elements significantly more often than their less
experienced colleagues, which suggests that, for the former, there is a greater
proximity between case studies and research articles.

[Table 10]
2.3 From  the  use  of  the  case  study  to  the  research  article              
Teaching with case studies is also a way to get some scientifically useful lessons
from students’ reactions. In effect, case studies used for teaching make it possible to
test information acquired in the field on various groups of learners with a view to
defining situations which are not, initially, sufficiently clear to either the students or
the author. Indeed, they can prompt researchers to return to the field in order to
rework the case or find new elements of proof. Getting learners to draw conclusions
from a case can help to anticipate certain theoretical and conceptual limits. Students
can also help to point out empirical gaps that can only be filled thanks to additional
fieldwork. Writing a research article based on a pedagogical case study presupposes
a more critical perspective. Using case studies for teaching purposes can help to
develop a critical stance of this kind. Authors like Bonnafous-Boucher, Redien-Collot
and Teglborg (2010) think that pedagogical case studies are inherently optimistic,
that they give students the impression that there is always an answer to everything;
but student reactions can always help to reveal weaknesses that need to be
corrected or, more simply, points that need to be better explained. It is these various
approaches to exploiting case studies scientifically that we have examined in our
study. The table below shows the respective incidence of each of these approaches
amongst the respondents.
[Table 11]
In our survey, only a small minority of respondents – 26% – considered that
pedagogical case studies contributed nothing scientifically. Even more worthy of
note, as is shown in the following table, even fewer of the most experienced
respondents considered that pedagogical case studies were of no scientific interest.

6
We then observed that the main contributions made by pedagogical case studies
were to clarifying concepts and problematics. This is where the articulation between
teaching and research, and the place occupied by case studies in that configuration,
acquires all its meaning. What might seem obvious to the teacher-researcher
becomes decidedly less so when presented to the critical gaze of the student body.
And the approach consisting in never being satisfied with superficial clarity is at the
heart of scientific practice. However, it should be pointed out that case studies make
only a small contribution to the task of identifying theoretical weaknesses. That is
probably due to the superficial nature of the theoretical dialogue between teachers
and students, who have not yet mastered theoretical tools.
Case studies can also be used, although to a lesser degree, to identify interesting
theoretical perspectives. This is probably more an indirect effect of outlining the case
to students than the result of a theoretical dialogue with them. On this point, it would
be better to focus on the teacher-researchers themselves in order to gain a better
understanding of how they are able to identify these theoretical perspectives.
An analysis of the distribution of responses between experienced teacher-
researchers and their less experienced counterparts in the writing of case studies
reveals no notable discrepancy from the preceding observations.

[Table 12]

3 Conclusions  
The table above recapitulates the principal initial conclusions of our study by showing
the most current interactions and synergies between pedagogical case studies and
research articles. Again, the importance of the teaching note as a kind of bridge
between teaching and research is apparent, as the conclusions of research articles
are often incorporated in them. More interesting is the role played by case studies in
terms of providing clarification. This is one of the most frequent sources of synergy
(over 22% of respondents mention it) and, as such, it is a point that should be further
examined in the following stage of this study. Moreover, it can also be observed that
exchanges between pedagogical and scientific practices are balanced: amongst the
main synergies there are not significantly more contributions to articles than
contributions to teaching notes.
[Table 13]
Of course, for the moment this is only the first phase of a survey on the potential
synergies between pedagogical case studies and research. This first phase should
enable us to explore a number of avenues to get a better idea of this emerging
problematic. In effect, there are more questions than there are answers in the
preceding paragraphs.
Making better use of research carried out in management schools on pedagogical
and exploratory case studies should contribute to narrowing the gap between theory
and practice, and between testable theories and empirical observations, and to
enrich management research. Without wishing to be exhaustive, this survey may
encourage teacher-researchers to apply this as yet still little recognized method of
investigation in terms of both practice and theory.

7
Our research has a certain number of limits. Some elements of the relationship
between teaching and research were not discussed, for example the choices made
and ways of addressing a subject or a field, and the possible articulations in terms of
form and content between research articles and pedagogical case studies. In
particular, we have neither mentioned the modifications that can be made to a
teaching note in order to transform it into a more academic form, nor focused on the
style of writing employed (MacNair, 1971; Cova & de la Baume, 1991), a style on
which structure and tone depend. Nor have we dealt with the question of the
generalization of pedagogical case studies, or that of the choice of field in which they
are carried out. All these question and a number of others should be developed in the
wake of this study.

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9
Table 1 – Distribution of respondents by nationality (57 nationalities, 15 of which provided over
20 respondents each)

USA   187   17.7%  

France   127   12.0%  
England   107   10.1%  
Australia   46   4.4%  
Canada   44   4.2%  
Spain   43   4.1%  
Netherlands   43   4.1%  
Italy   39   3.7%  
Sweden   39   3.7%  
Brazil   31   2.9%  
Germany   28   2.6%  
Denmark   27   2.6%  
Norway   25   2.4%  
Finland   23   2.2%  
Switzerland   20   1.9%  
Others   228   21.6%  

Table 2 – Distribution by discipline (the total is superior to 1,057 since individual authors may
be involved in more than one discipline)

Business  &  Economics   823   51.0%  

Sociology   156   9.7%  
Operations  Research  &  Management  Science   100   6.2%  
Social  Sciences  -­‐  Other  Topics   82   5.1%  
Engineering   74   4.6%  
Public  Administration   66   4.1%  
Environmental  Sciences  &  Ecology   60   3.7%  
Others   254   15.7%  

Table 3 – Number of case studies undertaken by the respondents

0   292   27.6%  
1   112   10.6%  
2   129   12.2%  
3-­‐5   262   24.8%  
6-­‐10   118   11.2%  
10  and  
over   144   13.6%  

Table 4 – Replies to the question: "In your view, is it increasingly important to ensure that there
is a close relationship between teaching and research?"

No,  not  at  all   8   0.8%  

No,  not  really   69   6.5%  
10
 Yes,  to  a  certain  degree   416   39.4%  
Yes,  absolutely   564   53.4%  

Table 5 – Replies to the question: "Are case studies particularly suited to associating teaching
and research?"

No,  not  at  all   13   1.2%  

No,  not  really   108   10.2%  
Yes,  to  a  certain  degree   531   50.2%  
Yes,  absolutely   289   27.3%  
NR   116   11.0%  

Table 6 – Replies to the question: "Have you already used the results of an empirical
investigation to write both a pedagogical case study and a research article (for an academic
journal)?"

No   367   34.7%  
Yes   571   54.0%  
NR   119   11.3%  

Table 7 – Respective weighting of different sorts of use of scientific articles in case studies or
teaching notes, expressed as a percentage of respondents

Use  of  conclusions  in  the  teaching  note   41%  

Use  of  theoretical  developments  in  the  teaching  note   37%  
Use  of  conclusions  in  the  case  study   36%  
Use  of  extracts  of  interviews  in  the  case  study   35%  
Use  of  theoretical  considerations  in  the  case  study   34%  
Use  of  any  quantitative  analyses  in  the  teaching  note   20%  
Use  of  the  bibliography  in  the  teaching  note   16%  
Other  uses  of  the  article  in  the  teaching  note   13%  
Other  uses  of  the  article  in  the  case  study   11%  

Table 8 – Distribution of various synergies in terms of elements from articles used in case
studies in function of respondents’ experience of the case study method. (Results significantly
lower than average highlighted in pink, results significantly higher than average in blue).

  Experience  of  case  study  method      

Weak   Average   Strong   Average   Fisher  
 
Use   of  extracts  of  interviews  in  the  case  
studies   23%   43%   51%   35%   38.76  
Use  of  theoretical  developments  in  the  
teaching  note   27%   41%   52%   37%   27.81  
Use  of  conclusions  in  the  teaching  note   30%   51%   53%   41%   27.66  
Use  of  the  bibliography  in  the  teaching  
note   11%   14%   26%   16%   15.83  
Use  of  theoretical  considerations  in    the  
case  study   26%   39%   45%   34%   15.67  
Use  of  conclusions  in  the  case  study   29%   44%   42%   36%   12.62  

11
Potential  use  of  quantitative  analyses  in  
the  teaching  note   15%   23%   28%   20%   10.84  

Table 9 – Respective incidence of different kinds of use of the case study in the teaching note
or the article as a percentage of respondents

Use  of  descriptive  elements   38%  

Use  of  an  analysis  of  the  case   35%  
Use  of  theoretical  consideration   26%  
Other  elements  used   15%  
Use  of  the  bibliography   13%  
Use  of  verbatim   12%  

Table 10 – Distribution of various synergies in terms of elements from case study used in
articles in function of respondents’ experience of the case study method. (Results significantly
lower than average are highlighted in pink, results significantly higher than average in blue).

  Experience  of  case  study  method      

Type   Weak   Average   Strong   Average   Fisher  
Use  of  the  results  of  the  
analysis  of  the  case  study   23%   44%   48%   35%   32.95  
Use  of  descriptive  elements   27%   48%   50%   38%   30.31  
Use  of  verbatim   6%   14%   21%   12%   19.22  
Use  of  theoretical  
considerations   20%   27%   38%   26%   15.05  
Use  of  the  bibliography   8%   13%   21%   12%   13.04  

Table 11 – Respective incidence of different kinds of use of case studies in articles as a

percentage of respondents

Clarification  of  concepts   29%  

Clarification  of  managerial  contributions   27%  
No  contribution  to  the  article   26%  
Improved  definition  of  the  problematic   21%  
Identification  of  interesting  theoretical  perspectives   20%  
Identification  of  theoretical  weaknesses   12%  
Improved  organization  of  the  literature  review   9%  
Other  contributions   8%  
Leads  to  additional  fieldwork   6%  

Table 12 - Distribution of various synergies in terms of elements from case studies used in
articles in function of respondents’ experience of the case study method. (Results significantly
lower than average highlighted in pink, results significantly higher than average in blue).

  Experience  of  case  study  methods      

Type   Weak   Average   Strong   Moyenne   Fisher  
Clarification  of  managerial  contributions   17%   35%   37%   26%   25,86  
Clarification  of  concepts   22%   31%   42%   29%   16,47  
Improved  definition  of  the  problematic   16%   22%   31%   21%   12,69  

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Identification  of  interesting  theoretical  
perspectives   15%   19%   29%   19%   11,87  
No  contribution  to  the  article   32%   17%   21%   26%   11,56  
Identification  of  theoretical  weaknesses   9%   15%   15%   12%   4,76  
Improved  organization  of  the  literature  
review   7%   10%   12%   9%   2,95  
Leads  to  a  return  to  the  field   5%   6%   9%   6%   2,37  

Table 13 – Respective incidence of various synergies envisioned and direction of the exchange
(from the article to the teaching note: AT; from the article to the case study: AC; from the case
study and the teaching note to the article: CTA ; from the pedagogical treatment of the
teaching note to the article : PTA)

Use  of  conclusions  in  the  teaching  note        AT   41%  

Use  of  descriptive  elements   CTA   38%  
Use  of  theoretical  developments  in  the  teaching  note   AT   37%  
Use  of  conclusions  in  the  case  study   AC   36%  
Use  of  extracts  of  interviews  in  the  case  study   AC   35%  
Use  of  analysis  of  case  study     CTA   35%  
Use  of  theoretical  considerations  in  the  case  study   AC   34%  
Clarification  of  concepts   PTA   29%  
Clarification  of  managerial  contributions   PTA   27%  
Use  of  theoretical  considerations   CTA   26%  
Average     22%  
Improved  definition  of  the  problematic   PTA   21%  
Identification  of  interesting  theoretical  perspectives   PTA   20%  
Use  of  any  quantitative  analyses  in  the  teaching  note     AT   20%  
Use  of  the  bibliography    in  the  teaching  note   AT   16%  
Use  of  the  bibliography   CTA   13%  
Identification  of  theoretical  weaknesses   PTA   12%  
Use  of  verbatim   CTA   12%  
Improved  organization  of  the  literature  review   PTA   9%  
Leads  to  additional  to  fieldwork   PTA   6%  

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Appendix: questionnaire
How many pedagogical case studies have you written?
• 0
• 1
• 2
• Between 3 and 5
• Between 6 and 10
• More than 10

In your view, is it increasingly important to ensure that there is a close relationship

between teaching and research?
• No, not at all
• No, not really
• Yes, to a certain degree
• Yes, absolutely

Is there an increasingly close relationship between your teaching and research

approaches?
• No, not at all
• No, not really
• Yes, to a certain degree
• Yes, absolutely

Are case studies particularly suited to associating teaching and research?

• No, not at all
• No, not really
• Yes, to a certain degree
• Yes, absolutely

Have you already used the results of an empirical investigation to write both a
pedagogical case study and a research article (for an academic journal)?
• Yes
• No

How did your use of a case study in a teaching situation contribute to the writing of the
article?
• It made no contribution
• It helped to clarify managerial contributions (practical aspects,
recommendations)
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• It led me to return to the field
• It enabled me to better define the research problematic
• It helped to reveal certain weaknesses in my theoretical approach
• It helped to identify a number of interesting theoretical perspectives
• It helped to clarify certain concepts
• It helped me to organize my literature review more effectively
• Other (please explain)

After writing a research article, which of the following elements did you use later,
either partially or in their entirety, in the case study?
• The conclusions
• Theoretical considerations
• Extracts from interviews
• Other (please explain)

After writing a research article, which of the following elements did you later use, either
partially or in their entirety, in the teaching note of your case study?
• Quantitative analyses (if there were any)
• The conclusions
• The theoretical developments
• The bibliography
• Other (please explain) 313761

After writing a case study and its accompanying teaching note, which of the following
elements did you later use, either partially or in their entirety in writing the research
article?
• The description of the situation
• The verbatims
• The results of the analysis
• The theoretical contributions
• The bibliography
• Other (please explain)
i
The key used is as follows: TS=("case study") or TS=("case studies"). Refined by: Web of Science
Categories=(MANAGEMENT OR BUSINESS FINANCE OR BUSINESS OR ECONOMICS OR SOCIOLOGY);
Timespan=2005-2012. Databases=SSCI.
ii
The Fisher test reveals a very significant gap with the average. The gap is also significant for other synergies, only less so.

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