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Case Study, Case Study - Coggle Diagram
Case Study
Category
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Yin (1984) notes three categories, namely exploratory, descriptive and explanatory case studies
Exploratory Case studies
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Prior fieldwork and small-scale data collection may be conducted before the research questions and hypotheses are proposed
As a prelude, this initial work helps prepare a framework of the study
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Descriptive case studies
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Researcher must begin with a descriptive theory to support the description of the phenomenon or story
Explanatory Case studies
They examine the data closely both at a surface and deep level in order to explain the phenomena in the data
On the basis of the data, the researcher may then form a theory and set to test this theory
They are also deployed for causal studies where pattern-matching can be used to investigate certain phenomena in very complex and multivariate cases
Yin and Moore (1987) note that these complex and multivariate cases can be explained by three rival theories
a knowledge-driven theory: Eventual commercial products are the results of ideas and discoveries from basic research
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a social-interaction theory: overlapping professional network causes researchers and users to communicate frequently with each other
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In defining case studies, Stake (1995) distinguishes three types, the intrinsic, the instrumental and the collective
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Instrumental Case study
researcher selects a small group of subjects in order to examine a certain pattern of behaviour, for instance, to see how tertiary level students study for examination
Collective
researcher coordinates data from several different sources, such as schools or individuals
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Instrumental and collective case studies may allow for the generalisation of findings to a bigger population
Definition
Yin (1984:23) defines the case study research method “as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.”
Method
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Explores, investigates and analyses contemporary real-life phenomenon
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It provides a systematic way of observing the events, collecting data, analysing information, and reporting the results over a long period of time
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Introduction
Case study research, through reports of past studies, allows the exploration and understanding of complex issues
It can be considered a robust research method particularly when a holistic, in-depth investigation is required
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Through case study methods, a researcher is able to go beyond the quantitative statistical results and understand the behavioural conditions through the actor’s perspective
Design
Researchers can adopt either a single-case or multiple-case design depending on the issue in question
Single - case design
It cannot provide a generalising conclusion, in particular when the events are rare
One way of overcoming this is by triangulating the study with other methods in order to confirm the validity of the process
Multiple - case study
It can be adopted with real-life events that show numerous sources of evidence through replication rather than sampling logic
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Case Study
Advantages
The examination of the data is most often conducted within the context of its use, within the situation in which the activity takes place
Variations in terms of intrinsic, instrumental and collective approaches to case studies allow for both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data
The detailed qualitative accounts often produced in case studies not only help to explore or describe the data in real-life environment, but also help to explain the complexities of real-life situations which may not be captured through experimental or survey research
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Conclusion
Despite these criticisms, researchers continue to deploy the case study method particularly in studies of real-life situations governing social issues and problems