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WHAT IS A CASE STUDY? - Coggle Diagram
WHAT IS A CASE STUDY?
Case study versus Large N Cross-Case Analysis
Hypothesis: Generating versus testing
Many works of social sciences are seminal rather than definite
There are two moments of empirical research: a lightbulb moment and a skeptical moment. Both are esential to the disclipline progress
Case study are more useful than cross case study when a subject is being encountered for the first time or is being considered in a fundamentally new way
This advantage that case study offers in work of exploratory nature may also serve as impediments in work of confirmatory/disconfirmatory nature
Conjecture and refutation. One should not be allowed to contaminate the other. It is more apparent in case studies
The subjectivity of case study research allows for the generation of a great number of hypothesis. There is more room for authorial intervention
Validity: Internal vs external
Case study is weaker with respect to external validity
It is often easier to establish the veracity of a causal relationship pertaining to a single case
Bias of experimentalists: More disturbed by threats to within sample validity than threats to out f sample validity
Causal insight: Causal mecchanismvs causal effects
The magnitude of a causal relationship and the relative precisión or uncertainty of that point estimates
It is always grounded in cross case evidence
Causal arguments depends not only on measuring causal effects but also on the identification of a causal mechanism
Common criticism of large N cross national research that such studies demonstrates correlations between inputs and outputs without clarifying the reasons for those correlations. Case studies may locate intermediate factors lying in between
The opportunities for investigating causal pathways are generally more apparent in a case study format
Scope of proposition: Deep vs Broad
The breadth of an inference constituted one factor, among many, in determining the utility of the case study mode of analysis
One of the primary virtues of a case study method is the depth of analysis that it offers
The researches face a choice between knowing more about less or less about more
Case study research is often lauded for its holistic approach to the study of social phenomena in which behavior is observed in natural settings
The population of cases: Heterogeneous vs homogeneous
Case study researches are often suspicious of large sample research, which contains heterogeneous cases whose differences can not easily be modeled.
Under circumstances of extreme case heterogeneity, it s better to focus on a single case or a small number of relatively homogeneous cases
For heterogeneous adjacent cases, additional cases are expensive, for every addition model must be corrected and each modeling correction it requires a separate assumption
Causal strength: Strong vs weak
It refers to the magnitude and consistency of X effect on Y across a population os cases
There is a methodological affinity between weak causal relationships and large-N cross-case analysis, and between strong causal relationships and case study analysis
Consider that a deterministic causal proposition can be disproved with a single case
Case study research design has, from the very beginning, been associated with causal arguments that are deterministic
Useful variation: Rare vs common
Where useful variation is rare – that is, limited to a few cases the case study format recommends itself
Suppose that a case provides a “crucial” test for a theory: it fits that theory’s predictions so perfectly and so precisely that no other explanation could plausibly account for the performance of the case
Data availability
It is appropriate to observe that collecting new data and correcting existing data, is usually easier in a case study format
Case studies are sometimes the most defensible alternative when the researcher is faced with an information-poor environment
Where the evidence for particular cases is richer and more accurate e, there is a strong prima facie argument for a case study format focused on those cases
Causal complexity
Case study researchers often laud their favored method for its better grasp of complex causes
Non definitional attributes of case study.
Research design considerations for case study
and cross case study
Basic research goals
Hypothesis
Validity
Causal insight
Scope of proposition
Empirical factors
Population of cases
Causal strength
Useful variation
Data availability
Additional factors
Causal complexity
State of the field
The state of the field
The utility of case study research relative to non–case study research is to some extent the product of the state of research within a given field
The problem of definition
A Typology of Covariational Research Design
Research design classification
Number of cases (one, several, many)
Variation
Spatial
None
Cross-case
Within case
Tamporal
Yes
No
The N question
The number of observations N employed by a case study may be either small or large and consequently may be evaluated in a qualitative or quantitative fashion
Type 1: One observation
Type 2: Before and after: two observations
Type 3: No temporal variation but several within case observations
Type 4: Combines temporal and spatial observations. The N increases accordingly
N=4. The current, before and after / the reconstructed, before and after (intervention)
The style of analysis
Only in case study the rigueur qualitative analysis comprise a big portion of the research
When hundreds of individuals are being studied at once, there is not opportunity to evaluate cases in a qualitative manner
The technique of analysis is not in function of number of observations but in function of number of comparable observations
The traditional association of case study work with qualitative methods is correctly regarded as a methodological affinity not definitional entailment
To refer to a work as case study might mean
A method of qualitative, small N
Research is holistic, thick
Utilizes a particular type of evidence
Method of evidence gathering is naturalistic
Topics is diffuse
It employs triangulation
It investigates the properties of a single observation, phenomenon, instance or example
Definitions
Case connotes a spatially delimited phenomenon observed at a single point in time or over some period of time
Spatial boundaries
Temporal boundaries
Case study is the intensive study of single case where the purpose is the shed light on a larger class of clases
It may incorporate several cases: Cross case study
The fewer cases there are, the intensively they are studied, the more a work merits the appellation "case study"
One or fewer cases: Case study
Homogeneity across the sample and the population is not assured
A single observation may be understood as containing several dimensions, each of which may be measured as a variable
Observation
Diachronic: Observing the case or within case units over time
Synchronic: Observing withing variations in a single point in time
Sample: whatever cases are subject to formal analysis. Subject of study. In case study the sample is small or one.
In some circumstances, a single study may combine the two elements. An intensive case study and more superficial analysis conducted in a larger sample
Population os cases: It is an inference equivalent to the breadth or scope of proposition
Meta-analysis: systematic attempt to integrate the results of individual studies into a qualitative analysis pooling individual cases drawn from each study into a single dataset