Doing case studies

A case study is an in-depth investigation of a single case or instance in a real context -- a single person, patient, group, event, community, program, policy, agency, organization, business, or other entity. It allows for detailed exploration of complex events or phenomena. The data involved are often gathered from observations, interviews, or other methods.

1 Rationale

Because it focuses on a single entity or subject, it is often done as an exploratory study, e.g., to identify a possible explanation or analysis, which can be studied further with other research methods. It is also used for more practical purposes, such as situations where a full academic analysis is not needed or practical, such as case studies of business and companies, for practical understanding of reasons for a company's success or failure. It can also be used to evaluate a program (e.g., an educational program, a government program or policy) based on established criteria for evaluation (such as an often-used model for evaluating programs) to assess the effectiveness of a program.

A case study can be an effective tool for creating business reports and for conducting business analysis. This can be valuable for students in a business program learning how to analyze companies. This is also valid for more senior workers in a company who are tasked with analyzing their company, its challenges, problems, or potential future directions. In fact, business analysis is an important field in business, and an important tool for companies' growth and success.

2 Steps

For conducting a case study, such as for my IW or Intermediate Writing course, the following steps are useful.

1. Identify a well-defined case
2. Formulate a specific research question
3. Determine the research methods
4. Collect empirical materials
5. Describe the case
6. Analyze and interpret data
7. Evaluate solutions, outcomes, or recommendations

2.1 Identifying a well-defined case

This may involve doing background reading on a subject area to help identify a good, specific case. The case should be specific enough that it can be managed well in a single in-depth paper or report. Otherwise, the paper topic will become unmnanageable, and your paper will lack depth and coherence. The case should also be well defined, so that your research can be truly informative and novel for an intelligent reader, rather than simply rehashing familiar information or ideas.

Depending on the type of case study you are doing, you will want to find some sources to inform your research and to provide some informative background information on the topic. This will also help to identify a specific case for your study. Some possible sources include:

1. Research articles from academic research journals
2. Articles from trade magazines / journals. These are not popular periodicals, but publications for professionals in a particular industry or occupation. Examples would include professional magazines for those working in the film industry, food industry, IT / technology, psychology, higher education, language education, health care, aviation, or any other relevant profession.
3. Business and business news periodicals, especially those that also carry good articles on analyzing particular issues and companies.
4. Professional business magazines like 'Harvard Business Review'
5. Publications for science news, health news, and such
6. High-quality news sources, including those with good analytical articles by experts

3 See also

1. Case study