Case Research
Case Research, also called a case study, is a method of intensively studying a phenomenon over time within its natural setting in one of a few sites.
Multiple methods of data collection, such as interviews, observations, prerecorded documents secondary data, may be employed and inferences about phenomenon of interest tend to be rich, detailed and contextualized.
Case research is different from case descriptions. Case descriptions typically describe an organizational problem in rich detail with the goal of stimulating classroom discussion and critical thinking among students or analyzing how well an organization handled a specific problem.
Case research is a formal research technique that involves scientific method to derive explanations of organizational phenomena.
Case research is a difficult research method that requires advanced research skills on the part of the researcher and is therefore prone to error.
Key Decisions in Case Research
Determine that the right method for the research question is being studied.
Determine the appropriate unit of analysis for a case study. The researcher must decide whether to study the phenomena at the individual, group or organizational level or at multilevel.
Should there be a single case or a multi-case design system.
Determine what sites should be chosen forces research.
What techniques of data collection should be used in case research.
Conducting Case Research
Define Research questions...case research must also start with defining research questions that are theoretically and practically interesting and identifying some intuitive expectations about possible answers to those researchq questions or preliminary contracts to guide initial case design.
Select case sites, the researcher should use a process of "theoretical sampling" to identify case sites.
Create instruments and protocols, the primary role of data collection in case research in interviews an interview protocol should be designed to guide the interview process.
Select Respondents, select interview respondents at different organizational levels, departments, and positions to obtain divergent perspectives on phenomenon of interest.
Start data collecetion, it is usually a good idea to electronically record interviews for future reference.
Conduct within-case data analysis, data analysis may follow or overlap with data collection.
Conduct cross-case analysis, multi-site research requires cross-case analysis as the second stage of data analysis.
Build and test hypothesis, based on emergent concepts and themes that are generalizable across use sites, tentative hypothesis are constructed.
Write case research, in writing the report the researcher should describe very clearly the detailed process used for sampling, data collection, data analysis and hypotheses development, so that readers can independently assess the reasonableness, strength, and consistency of the reported inferences.
Interpretive Case Research
The best way to learn about case research is to examine an illustrative example.
Review the prior literature on executive decision making.
Questionnaires, Secondary Data, Personal observations
Positivist Case Research Examplar
Case research can also be used in a positivist manner to test theories or hypothesis.
Three alternative explanations: (1) system-determined theory or that resistance is caused by factors related to an inadequate system, such as its technical deficiencies, poor ergonomic design, or lack of user friendliness. (2) people-determined theory, resistance was caused by factors internal to users, such as accountants' cognitive styles or personality traits that were incompatible with using the system (3) interaction theory: resistance was not caused by factors intrinsic to the system or the people, ut by the interaction between the two factors.
Comparisons with Traditional Research
Positivust case research, aimed at hypothesis testing is often criticized by natural science researchers as lacking in controlled deductions, replicability, and generalizability of findings.
Replicability refers to the difficulty of observing the same phenomenon given the uniqueness and idiosyncrasy of a given case site.
Case research examines the unique and non-replicable phenomena that may not be generalized to other settings.
Four requierements of scientific theories: (1) Theories should be falsifiable (2) they should be consistent (3) they should have adequate predictable ability (4) they should provide better explanation than rival theories.