Case Study Research

1
Case Study Research

• MIS 611b Behavioral Research Methods
• April 3, 2003

2
What is Case Research?

• Aims for in-depth understanding of a phenomenon
  in its natural context
• Studies the phenomenon at one of a few sites
• Makes use of qualitative tools and techniques for
  data collection and analysis

3
Relating Case Research to Other Methods

• Field Study
• observer in the field
• Action Research
• participant-observer
• Application Descriptions
• accounts of actual events
• Ethnographic Research
• data is interpreted from the participants
  viewpoints

4
Building Theories from Case Research

• Examples of case study research
• Selznicks study of TVA
• Allisons study of Cuban missile crisis
• Perrows study of Three Mile Island
• Others?
• Single or multiple cases and numerous levels of
  analysis
• Combine data collection methods (e.g., archives,
  interviews, questionnaires, etc.)

5
Negative Case Analysis

• Rather than design a study to test a hypothesis
  (deductive research), field researchers typically
  gather data to generate hypotheses (inductive
  research)
• Field researchers begin with preliminary hunches
  and crude hypotheses, but as they proceed, they
  revise their hypothesis by the method of negative
  case analysis
• Begin with observations and generate hypothesis
  that fit the data

6
Process of Building Theory

• Getting Started
• A well-defined focus - to collect specific kinds
  of data systematically
• A priori specification of constructs
• Both are tentative in case research
• Selecting Cases
• When to use a random sample and when to be
  selective?

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Process of Building Theory (cont.)

• Crafting Instruments and Protocols
• Multiple data collection methods provides
  stronger substantiation of constructs and
  hypotheses
• Case studies can involve qualitative data only,
  quantitative data only, or both
• Multiple investigators
• Enhance creative potential
• Convergence of observations increases confidence
  in findings
• Allows the case to be observed by multiple
  perspectives

8
Process of Building Theory (cont.)

• Entering the Field
• Field notes
• Overlapping data analysis with data collection
• Is it okay to alter and even add data collection
  methods during a study?
• Analyzing Within-Case Data
• This is the heart of theory building and also the
  most difficult
• Staggering volume of data, detailed case study
  write-ups
• One cannon ordinarily follow how a researcher
  got from 3600 pages of field notes to the final
  conclusion (Miles Huberman, 1986, p.16)

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Process of Building Theory (cont.)

• Searching for Cross-Case Patterns
• See Table 3 in Eisenhardt (p.543)
• Force investigators to go beyond initial
  impressions
• Shaping Hypotheses
• Enfolding Literature
• Reaching Closure

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Strengths of Case Research

• Likely to generate novel theory
• Emergent theory is likely to be testable with
  constructs that can be readily measured and
  hypotheses that can be proven false
• The resultant theory is likely to be empirically
  valid

11
Weaknesses of Case Research

• Intensive use of empirical data can yield theory
  which is overly complex
• Theorists working from case data can lose their
  sense of proportion as they confront vivid,
  voluminous data
• The risks are that the theory describes a very
  idiosyncratic phenomenon or that the theorist is
  unable to raise the level of generality of the
  theory