Chapter 1
The distinctive need for case studies arises out of the desire to understand complex social phenomena.
“How” and “why” questions are explanatory and likely lead to the use of case studies, histories, and experiments as the preferred research methods. This is because such questions deal with operational links needing to be traced over time, rather than mere frequencies or incidence.
Case studies, like experiments, are generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to populations or universes.
A case study is an empirical inquiry that
o Investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and with its real-life context, especially when
o The boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident
The case study inquiry
o Copes with the technically distinctive situation in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one results
o Relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a
triangulating fashion, and as another result
o Benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis
Chapter 2-Designing Case Studies
Definition of Research Designs
In the most elementary sense, the design is the logical sequence that connects the empirical data to a study’s initial research questions and ultimately to its conclusions
Another way of thinking about a research design is a “blueprint” for your research, dealing with at least four problems: what questions to study, what data are relevant, what data to collect, and how to analyze the results.
Components of Research Design:
1. a study’s questions
2. its propositions, if any
3. its unit(s) of analysis
4. the logic linking the data to the propositions
5. the criteria for interpreting the findings
The Role of Theory in Design Work-For case studies, theory development as part of the design phase is essential, whether the ensuing case study’s purpose is to develop or to test theory.
Analytic generalization, in which a previously developed theory is used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the case study.
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