The art of case study research

ROBERT E. STAKE (1995)

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Table of content
2

Introduction
The unique case
The nature of qualitative research
Data gathering
Analysis and interpretation
Case research roles
Triangulation
Writing the report
Reflections
Harper school

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Introduction
3

A case study is the study of the particularity and

complexity of a single case, coming to understand its
activity within important circumstances
Case as a
 Bounded system
 Integrated system
Types of cases
 Intrinsic (having an intrinsic interest in the case, here the case is
dominant)
 Instrumental (interested in understanding something else, here the
issue is dominant)
 Collective (several cases adopted)

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 The unique case
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Selection of cases
 Case study research is not sampling research
 Case typically have petite generalization
 The real business of a case study is particularization, and not
generalization
Emphasis on interpretation
 Progressive focusing by an observer, comprises of observation, renewed
inquiry, and explanation (Parlett and Hamilton, 1976)
 More interpretation in qualitative research than quantitative
 Called as ‘assertions’ (Erickson)
 Assertions to be immediately written after observations
 An ethic of caution is not contrary to an ethic of interpretation
 Need to preserve ‘multiple realities’ of the case

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Research questions
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Design of research requires

 Conceptual organization (especially null hypothesis; focus on
context versus the case; could be declarative or interrogatory;
issue questions evolve from etic to emic, i.e. related to
researcher and related to the actors; each issue has its life;
topical questions seeking description of the case follower by
issue questions; coded data versus direct interpretation, coding
becomes complex eventually)
 Ideas to express needed understanding
 Conceptual bridges from what is already known
 Cognitive structures to guide data gathering
 Outlines for presenting interpretations to others

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 The nature of qualitative research (1/2)
Quantitative research
Explains and controls
Simple causal relationships as observed
Try to nullify context to generalize and
arrive at a ‘grand theory’. Here
uniqueness of the case is treated as an
error
Use of scales and measurements
Research question seeks relationship
between small number of variables
Correlation or covariance
Seeking meaning from repetition of
phenomenon
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6
Qualitative research
Understanding of complex relationships
Empathetic/ experiential understanding
using thick description
Uniqueness of case is respected.
Particularization is an important aim.
Multiple realities.
Direct interpretations and observations
Seeking patterns of unanticipated and
expected relationships
Pattern
Seeking meaning emerging from a single
instance
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 The nature of qualitative research (2/2)
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Orientation away from cause and effect relationship

and towards personal interpretation
Holistic treatment of the phenomenon
Existential (non-determinist) and constructivist
Researchers are non- interventionists
Many qualitative studies are personalistic studies

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Defining characteristics of qualitative study (1/3)
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It is holistic
 Its conceptuality is well developed
 It is case oriented (bounded system)
 It resists reductionism or elementalism
 It is relatively non comparative, seeking to understand its objective
more than to understand how it differs from others
It is empirical
 It is field oriented
 Its emphasis is on observables, including the observations by
informants
 It strives to be naturalistic, non-interventionistic
 There is a relative preference for nature language description,
sometimes disdaining grand constructus

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Defining characteristics of qualitative study (2/3)
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It is interpretive
 Its researchers rely more on intuition, with many important criteria
not specified
 Its on- site observers work to keep attention free to recognize
problem- relevant events
 Its attuned to the fact that research is a researcher- subject
interaction
It is emphatic
 It attends to actors intentionality
 It seeks actor frames of reference, value commitments, although
planned, its design is emergent, responsive, its issues are emic
issues, progressively focused, and its reporting provides vicarious
experiences

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Defining characteristics of qualitative study (3/3)
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Its observations and immediate interpretations are validated

 Triangulation of data is routine
 There is deliberate effort to disconfirm own interpretations
 Its reports assist readers to make their own interpretations
 Its reports assist readers in recognition of subjectivity
Its non-hortatory, resisting the exploitation of the
specialist’s platform
It is sensitive to the risks of human subjects research
Its researchers are not just methodologically competent and
versed in some substantive discipline but versed in the
relevant discipline

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Data gathering
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Organizing the data gathering

 Data gathering plan
 Definition of case
 List of research questions
 Identification of helpers
 Data sources
 Allocation of time, expenses
 Intended reporting
Interview
 Interview is the main road to multiple realities, discovering
and portraying the multiple views of the case

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Analysis and interpretation
12

Everlasting efforts to make sense of things

Categorical aggregation or direct interpretation
 Categorical aggregation more suitable for instrumental case
 Direct interpretation more suitable for intrinsic case
Search for meaning, analysis, is often a search for
patterns or correspondence
Naturalistic generalizations as a result of thorough
personal engagements in life or vicarious
experience, as against explicated (propositional)
generalization

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Case researcher roles
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Teacher (learn what the readers need to know)

Advocate (discover the best arguments against your assertions and
provide data to counter them)
Evaluator (give careful attention to case merits and shortcomings)
Biographer
Theorist (use the uniqueness of the case to illustrate ways in which
each case is likely to be complex, not what cases have in common)
Interpreter
Constructivist (nourishing the belief that knowledge is constructed
rather than discovered)
Relativist (value of interpretations vary- relative to credibility and
utility)

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Triangulation
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Data situation Need for triangulation

Uncontestable description
Dubious and contested description
Data critical to an assertion
Key interpretations
Author’s persuasions, so identified
Needs little effort towards confirmation
Needs confirmation
Need extra effort towards confirmation
Need extra effort towards confirmation
Need little effort towards confirmation

Triangulation protocols: Member checking

 Data source The actor is required to
 Investigator examine rough drafts of
 Theory writing where the actions or
 Methodological words of the actor are featured

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Writing the report (1/3)
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Sections Purpose
Early vignette I want my readers immediately to start developing a
vicarious experience, to get the feel of the place, time
Issue Although most of my readers care little about my methods, I
identification, want to tell them something about how the study came to be,
purse and method who I am, and what issues I think will help us to understand
of study the case
Development of Somewhere, perhaps in the middle, I want to carefully
issues develop a few key issues, not for the purpose of
generalization beyond the case but for understanding the
complexity of the case. It is often here that I will draw on
other research or on my understanding of other cases.
Descriptive details, Some of the issues need further probing. This should be the
documents, place for the most confirming experiential data. I will
quotations, indicate not only what I have done to confirm the
triangulating data observations but what I have done to try to disconfirm them

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Writing the report (2/3)
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Sections Purpose
Assertions It is my intent to provide information that allows the readers
to reconsider their knowledge of the case or even to modify
existing generalizations about such cases. Nevertheless,
having presented a body of relatively un-interpreted
observations, I will summarize what I feel I understand
about the case and how my generalizations about the case
have changed conceptually or in level of confidence.
Closing vignette I like to close on an experiential not, reminding the reader
that the report is just one person’s encounter with a complex
case.

Empirical reader: The actual person who reads the report, who can’t be
known or controlled.
Model reader: The person for whom the researcher writes
Case study reporting is not simply storytelling.

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Writing the report (3/3)
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Paths for writing a case

 Realist tales (provides a direct, matter-of-fact portrait)
 Confessional tales (focus far more on the field work, than on
the case)
 Impressionist tales (personalized accounts of the fleeting
moments of fieldwork case in dramatic form)
Vignettes
 Briefly describes the episodes to illustrate an aspect of he case,
perhaps one of the issues.

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021

 Critique checklist of a case study report
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 Is the report easy to read?
 Does it fit together, each sentence
contributing to the whole?
 Does this report have a conceptual
structure (i.e. theme or issue)?
 Are its issues developed in a serious
and scholarly way?
 Is the case adequately defined?
 Is there a sense of story to the
presentation?
 Is the reader provided some vicarious
experience?
 Have quotations been used effectively?
 Are headings, figures, artifacts,
appendixes, indexes effectively used?
 Was it edited well, then again with a
list minute polish?
Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore)
Has the writer made sound
assertions, neither over not under-
interpreting?
Had adequate attention being paid to
various contexts?
Were sufficient raw data presented?
Were data sources well chosen and in
sufficient number?
Do observations and interpretations
appear to have been triangulated?
Is the role and point of view of
researcher nicely apparent?
Is the nature of intended audience
apparent?
Is empathy shown for all sides?
Are personal intentions examined?
Does it appear individuals were put at
risk?
10/17/2021
 Reflections
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Issues are problems about which people disagree,

complicated problems within situations and
contexts.
Case study work is said to be ‘progressively focused’
Qualitative case study is highly personal research

Prepared by Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore) 10/17/2021