The Case Study as a Research Method

Using case studies for research purposes remains one of the most challenging of all social science endeavors. The purpose of this book is to help you—an experi­enced or budding social scientist—to deal with the challenge. Your goal is to design good case studies and to collect, present, and analyze data fairly. A further goal is to bring the case study to closure by writing a compelling report or book.

Do not underestimate the depth of your challenge. Although you may be ready to focus on designing and doing case study research, others may espouse and advocate other research methods. Similarly, prevailing federal or other research funds may favor other methods, but not the case study. As a result, you may need to have ready responses to some inevitable questions.

First and foremost, you should explain and show how you are devoting yourself to following a rigorous methodological path. The path begins with a thorough literature review and the careful and thoughtful posing of research questions or objectives. Equally important will be a dedication to formal and explicit procedures when doing your research. Along these lines, this book offers much guidance. It shows how case study research includes procedures central to all types of research methods, such as protecting against threats to validity, maintaining a “chain of evidence,” and investigating and testing “rival explanations.” The successful experiences of scholars and students, for over 25 years, may attest to the potential payoffs from using this book.

Second, you should understand and openly acknowledge the strengths and lim­itations of case study research. Such research, like any other, complements the strengths and limitations of other types of research. In the face of those who might only see the need for a single research method, this book believes that, just as dif­ferent scientific methods prevail in the natural sciences, different social science research methods fill different needs and situations for investigating social science topics. For instance, in the natural sciences, astronomy is a science but does not rely on the experimental method. Similarly, much neurophysiological and neuroanatomical research does not rely on statistical methods. For social science, later portions of this chapter present more about the potential “niches” of different research methods.

As a research method, the case study is used in many situations, to con­tribute to our knowledge of individual, group, organizational, social, political, and related phenomena. Not surpris­ingly, the case study has been a com­mon research method in psychology, sociology, political science, anthropol­ogy, social work, business, education, nursing, and community planning. Case studies are even found in eco­nomics, in which the structure of a given industry or the economy of a city or a region may be investigated. In all of these situations, the distinctive need for case studies arises out of the desire to understand complex social phenomena. In brief, the case study method allows investigators to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events—such as individual life cycles, small group behavior, organi­zational and managerial processes, neighborhood change, school performance, international relations, and the maturation of industries.

This method covers the distinctive characteristics of the case study as a research method. We will help you to deal with some of the more diffi­cult questions still frequently neglected by available research texts. So often, for instance, the author has been confronted by a student or colleague who has asked (a) how to define the “case” being studied, (b) how to determine the rel­evant data to be collected, or (c) what to do with the data, once collected. This book answers these questions and more, by covering all of the phases of design, data collection, analysis, and reporting.

Different Kinds of Case Studies, but a Common Definition

Our discussion has progressed without a formal definition of case studies. Moreover, commonly asked questions about case studies still have been unan­swered. For example, is

Comparing Case Studies with Other Research Methods in the Social Sciences

When and why would you want to do case studies on some topic? Should you consider doing an experiment instead? A survey? A history? An

The Case Study as a Research Method

Using case studies for research purposes remains one of the most challenging of all social science endeavors. The purpose of this book is to help

Case Study Designs

These general characteristics of research designs serve as a background for considering the specific designs for case studies. Four types of designs will be discussed,

Criteria for Judging the Quality of Research Designs

Because a research design is supposed to represent a logical set of statements, you also can judge the quality of any given design according to

General Approach to Designing Case Studies

In identifying the method for your research project, Chapter 1 has shown when you might choose to use the case study method, as opposed to

Preparation and Training for a Specific Case Study

1. Human Subjects Protection Some time between the completion of your design and the start of your data collection, you will need to show how

The Case Study Investigator: Desired Skills

Too many people are drawn to the case study strategy because they believe it is “easy.” Many social scientists—especially budding ones—think the case study strategy

Modest Advice in Selecting Case Study Designs

Now that you know how to define case study designs and are prepared to carry out design work, three pieces of advice may be offered.

The Pilot Case Study

Pilot cases may be conducted for several reasons unrelated to the criteria for selecting the final cases in the case study design. For example, the

Screening the Candidate “Cases” for Your Case Study

Another preparatory step is the final selection of the case(s) to be part of your case study. Sometimes, the selection is straightforward because you have

The Case Study Protocol

A case study protocol has only one thing in common with a survey question­naire: Both are directed at a single data point—either a single case

An Analytic Strategy in Case Study Research: More Than Familiarity with Analytic Tools

1. Need for an Analytic Strategy Introduction. The analysis of case study evidence is one of the least developed and most difficult aspects of doing

Three Principles of Data Collection in Case Study Method

The benefits from these six sources of evidence can be maximized if you fol­low three principles. These principles are relevant to all six sources and,

Six Sources of Case Study Evidence

The sources of evidence discussed here are the ones most commonly used in doing case studies: documentation, archival records, interviews, direct obser­vations, participant-observation, and physical

Targeting Case Study Reports

Giving some initial thought to your likely or preferred audience and reporting formats serves as a good starting point for composing your case study. It

Pressing for a High-Quality Analysis in Case Study Research

No matter what specific analytic strategy or techniques have been chosen, you must do everything to make sure that your analysis is of the highest

Five Analytic Techniques in Case Study Research

None of the analytic techniques should be considered easy to use, and all will need much practice to be used powerfully. Your objective should be

What Makes an Exemplary Case Study?

In all of case study research, one of the most challenging tasks is to define an exemplary case study. Although no direct evidence is available,

Procedures in Doing a Case Study Report

Every investigator should have a well-developed set of procedures for analyz­ing social science data and for composing an empirical report. Numerous texts offer good advice

Illustrative Structures for Case Study Compositions

The chapters, sections, subtopics, and other components of a report must be organized in some way, and this constitutes your case study report’s composi­tional structure.

Case Study Reports as Part of Larger, Mixed Methods Studies

Your completed case study may include data from other methods (e.g., surveys or quantitative analysis of archival data such as health status indicators). In particular,

At the same time, the book does not cover all uses of case studies. For example, it is not intended to help those who might use case studies as a teach­ing tool, popularized in the fields of law, business, medicine, or public policy (see Garvin, 2003; Llewellyn, 1948; Stein, 1952; Towl, 1969; Windsor & Greanias, 1983) but now prevalent in virtually every academic field, including the natural sciences. For teaching purposes, a case study need not contain a complete or accurate rendition of actual events. Rather, the purpose of the “teaching case” is to establish a framework for discussion and debate among students. The criteria for developing good cases for teaching—usually of the single- and not multiple-case variety—are different from those for doing research (e.g., Caulley & Dowdy, 1987). Teaching case studies need not be concerned with the rigorous and fair presentation of empirical data; research case studies need to do exactly that.

Similarly, this book is not intended to cover those situations in which cases are used as a form of record keeping. Medical records, social work files, and other case records are used to facilitate some practice, such as medicine, law, or social work. Again, the criteria for developing good cases for practice dif­fer from those for doing case study research.

In contrast, the rationale for this book is that case studies are commonly used as a research method in the social science disciplines—psychology (e.g., D. T. Campbell, 1975; Hersen & Barlow, 1976), sociology (e.g., Hamel, 1992; Platt, 1992; Ragin & Becker, 1992), political science (e.g., George & Bennett, 2004; Gerring, 2004), and anthropology—and for doing research in different professional fields, such as social work (e.g., Gilgun, 1994), business and mar­keting (e.g., Benbasat, Goldstein, & Mead, 1987; Bonoma, 1985; Ghauri & Grdnhaug, 2002; Gibbert & Ruigrok, 2007; Graebner & Eisenhardt, 2004; Voelpel, Leibold, Tekie, & von Krogh, 2005), public administration (e.g., Agranoff & Radin, 1991; Perry & Kraemer, 1986), public health (e.g., Pluye, Potvin, Denis, Pelletier, & Mannoni, 2005; Richard et al., 2004), education (e.g., Yin, 2006a; Yin & Davis, 2006), accounting (e.g., Brans, 1989), and evaluation (e.g., U.S. Government Accountability Office, 1990).

You as a social scientist would like to know how to design and conduct single- or multiple-case studies to investigate a research issue. You may only be doing a case study or may be using it as part of a larger mixed meth­ods study (see Chapter 2). Whichever, this book covers the entire range of issues in designing and doing case studies, including how to start a case study, collect case study evidence, analyze case study data, and compose a case study report.

Source: Yin K Robert (2008), Case Study Research Designs and Methods, SAGE Publications, Inc; 4th edition.