A Brief Guide to Preparing for Case Study Analysis

1) What is a Case?
A Case is essentially a story, usually but not always, a true story. In business schools or
business-related units, a Case typically illustrates challenges and opportunities face by many
organisations, whether they be established organisation or young start-ups. Cases usually
contain a variety of information such as, industry and market data, financials reports, human
resource issues, the organisation’s strategies, including marketing and management
strategies, the protagonist and other characters. Information provided may be quite general
in nature but usually illustrates concepts and theories related to the course you are studying.
A Case usually ends with dilemmas faced by the protagonist, the firm or other main
characters.

2) Why use a Case Study approach?

A case study approach to solving problems and evaluating opportunities started in the early
1900’s. We would be forgiven into thinking that case study analysis started at Harvard
Business School, but in fact, it started at the Harvard Law School! Nowadays just about
every faculty and department, from business to engineering to medicine use case studies as
an applied approach to teaching and learning.
A key characteristic of case studies is that there is no right answer. Students are forced to
analyse situations, very often with limited information given, or given vast array of
information, which students need to decipher and interpret the relevance of the information
to the Case. This can be quite disconcerting for many students, but the intention is to mirror
as close as possible to real-life situation in practice. The case study approach provides
opportunities for students to think, make decisions and act like managers.

3) How to respond to Case Study analysis?

In responding to a case study analysis, start by carefully reading the assessment
instructions, guidelines and marking criteria. Typically, the following may be required of you:

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a) Sometimes a set of questions are asked for students’ response. These questions may be
quite specific to the case, for example “At what point did the whole project fell apart?” or
“Provide creative and workable recommendations for XYZ to more forward”.
b) Other times, students may be asked to provide a synopsis of the Case or an in-depth
analysis of key issues
c) Students may be asked to provide an analysis of the Case. This type of question can be
quite broad. As you approach the analysis of the Case, it might help if you provide a
conceptual framework. Your conceptual framework may include, where appropriate, a simple
SWOT analysis, PESTEL, Porter’s Generic model or 5-Forces model, business model
frameworks, etc.
Use theoretically grounded arguments as much as possible. Apply what you have learnt
from other disciplines such as management (leadership, negotiation, value chain, managing
conflicts and diversity, cross cultural management) and marketing (consumer behaviour,
communication models, adoption models). If you are in finance and accounting, economics,
psychology and sociology, there are many theoretical models that you can use too. For
example, we often use the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in management, marketing
and entrepreneurship to help explain why people behave the way they do. TPB was in fact
developed by Icek Ajzen, a social psychologist.

4) How to maximise your learning from a Case Study approach

Here are some recommended steps for you to follow:
a) Preparing BEFORE class
- Read your assigned Case as you would read a story, simply because it is an interesting
piece you want to read.
- Then read the Case again, this time focusing on the first and last sections of the Case.
These sections tend to give you clues as to the key issues of the Case.
- Read the other sections again. This time, think deeper as you read through the section
- Start highlighting key points or start to jot down notes – what are the major issues? Who
are the key characters? What might be some theoretical arguments that can help explain the
issues or the characters?
- Analyse deeper – think of “what if.., why not…, how…, when…” etc.
- Arrive at a position or conclusion backed by evidence. Be open as your position and
conclusion might change
- What actions or recommendations might you recommend? Justify your recommendatins.
b) Discussing a Case in class
If you have conscientiously done all the points in (a) above, you are well-prepared and
confident to approach the class discussion. The true essence of case study analysis is in-
class discussion – this is where we can collectively share and exchange knowledge.
Remember, there is no correct response to a Case but when we critique, discuss, argue and
even debate potential responses, everyone in the class will be all the more richer in gaining
knowledge of how to address and resolve real-live situations.

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During discussion, aim to be concise, compelling and distinctive. Learn to listen, do not jump
to conclusion. Respect your classmates’ point of view, be generous to them when they
convinced you. Be ready to add to the discussion, not merely start your own discussion
thread.
Analysis must be relevant to decision-making. We cannot keep analysing with no directions
and no end in sight.
c) Responding to written Case Study analysis
For this, refer to Point 3 above “How to respond to Case Study analysis”.
Use concise writing. Write in a formal style, using business language. Use complete
sentences. Check and adhere to assessment guidelines. Stick to word count, reference
where appropriate and remember to use theoretically grounded arguments.

Bibliography
This Brief Guide is prepared by Dr Frances Chang for Case Study Analysis in
MGMT8027/MGMT7027 and MGMT2080
Many of the guidelines provided in this “Brief Guide to Case Study Analysis” are
sourced from Harvard Business School articles and videos. A good example is,
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/casestudyhandbook/