This paper contains a walkthrough of how to do a case study. This walkthrough includes a process on how to do research, record field notes, how arrive at a conclusion, and report the findings. Lastly, this paper will address the importance of case study research.
Developing Case Studies Case studies are a research method that seeks to derive an in-depth understanding of a single or small number of real world cases (Yin, 2012). The process by which this specialized research is performed is briefly outlined in this paper. The process begins with defining a case you wish to investigate and gain a greater understanding of (Yin, 2012). A case can be a certain person, team, organization, behavior, event or another social phenomenon (Yin, 2012).
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The design could be a single or multiple-case study (Yin, 2012). A single case study design is usually representing an extreme or unique case (Crowther, 2017). A single-case study may also have multiple units of analysis (Crowther, 2017). A multiple-case study design will involve two or more cases, which make the results more compelling because the research is more robust (Crowther, 2017). These cases will be similar or contrary (Crowther, 2017). The next step is to research theories that will be used in the design work (Yin, 2012). It is essential that the case study have a rich, theoretical framework; because it allows for effective replication of the research (Crowther, 2017). This theoretical framework is the logic behind the design of case study research (Yin, 2012). This is what distinguishes case studies from qualitative research and analysis (Yin, 2012). With a case or cases in mind, a theoretical framework, and a case study design the researcher would prepare to conduct the actual research (Yin, 2012). At this point the researcher will select individuals to survey or interview that are relative to the case (Yin, 2012). During data collection the researcher will need to be asking good questions and follow up questions (Crowther, 2017). The researcher will also need to be a good listener who takes good field notes and is unbiased by preconceived notions (Crowther, 2017). …show more content…
The researcher will use the final analysis and summary to write a case study report. This report will quickly identify what could be potentially important to the audience. This can be done through multiple report styles such as: linear-analytic, theory building, comparative, and or suspense (Crowther, 2017).
The importance of Case Study Research This paper will now address the importance of case study research. Mccutcheon states that case study research is the primary means of exploring field conditions, making it highly valuable (1993). Case study research allows you to get a specialized view of what takes actually takes place in the world instead of in a laboratory. That is why its is advised to do interviews in environments that are most comfortable for the interviewee because you are more likely to get more in-depth and accurate research (Crowther, 2017). This is especially true with Yin wrote that case study research has, “covered a broad variety of subjects, such as community studies, education, public health, businesses and industry, public policy and public administration, and social and societal problems and controversies. In addition, case study research has a long and important role in clinical and biographical research, including research on infants”
In this paper, the definition and description of what a case study is, what are some reasons for using a case study, what are some disadvantages and advantages of this approach? Also included in this paper I will talk about what are some of the ways a researcher can acquire information that can is used for a case study. A case study can be defined as a descriptive account of the behavior, history, and other relevant factors concerning a particular individual (Cozby, Bates, 2012).
A case study is “a method of analysis and a specific research design for examining a problem” (University of Southern California, 2010). It can be used to analyze a person, place, event, or other subjects in order to help discover mitigating issues, misconceptions, failures, trends, or recommendations (USC, 2010). Case studies will be used to gain a better understanding of situations and topics to help others make better policies, procedures, and decisions (USC, 2010).
A case study is a puzzle that has to be solved. The first thing to remember about writing a case study is that the case should have a problem for the readers to solve. The case should have enough information in it that readers can understand what the problem is and, after thinking about it and analyzing the information; the readers should be able to come up with a proposed solution. Writing an interesting case study is a bit like writing a detective story. You want to keep your readers very interested in the situation.
You have been chosen by a local business enterprise group to write a case study
These two Case Studies come from a National Center on Case Studies. I think that a case study approach is very useful in applying knowledge and this is what makes you learn it better. They may be a little daunting when you read them but I will help you go through them. Please ask for help so this topic becomes more enjoyable for you.
An in-depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. Case study research is a method that was used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic.
Case studies are one of the first types of research to be used in the qualitative methodology and repeating the study several times will lead to the increased reliability of the study (Starman, 2013). This methodology is appropriate because it will allow for data collection results to be generalized based on the theoretical propositions and not the population (Harrison et al. 2017).
“Case studies are stories. It presents a realistic, complex, and contextually rich situations and often involve a dilemma, conflict, or problem that one or more of the characters in the case must negotiate”,
This aligns to my problem of practice, since I plan to use the case study design, conduct interviews and review other relevant documents during the data collection phase of my research.
The authors used a descriptive case study which is a methodological approach that can use a number of different methods to conduct an instrumental investigation that is bounded by place and time. Case study research asks questions of ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ in a non controlled or non artificial environment to analyse existing, real life situations with all their complexity
IT projects take a lot of planning and resources to complete. Once the idea of an IT project is created, it is up to the project’s developer to provide the justification to move forward with completing the project. In order to sell the project’s idea to a company, the company must see a need for that project or product. Case studies can be used to do exactly this. Case studies are intended to provide all the benefits, the cost associated with the project, and the estimated risks involved with a project.
A case study is a simple tool researchers can use to gather data. Within the textbook, a case study is described as a detailed analysis of a selected individual over a span of time (Newman, 2011, sec. 3.2). Case studies can be quite useful because they are simple, easy to conduct, and require less involvement to achieve a result. Oftentimes, the researcher will observe an individual and record data over a specific amount of time.
Now, case studies are considered to be more of an in-depth study that uses many approaches and data sources of a solo case. Percy, Kostere, & Kostere, (2015, p. 19) stated that when we do a single case study, we do not mean a case study of one person, but instead we mean a study of a solo research/topic questions. From time to time there is a quantity of cases that are reported and studied together. The cases in a
In case study research, an investigator studies an individual or small group of individuals with an unusual condition or situation. Case studies are typically clinical in scope. The investigator (often a clinical sociologist) sometimes uses self‐report measures to acquire quantifiable data on the subject. A comprehensive case study, including a long‐term follow‐up, can last months or years.
A case study is a specific instance that is frequently designed to illustrate a more general principle (Nisbet and Watt, 1984). Hitchock and Hughes (1995) further suggest that the case study approach is particularly valuable when the researcher has little control over evens. Case studies strives to portray ‘what it like’ to be a particular situation, to catch up reality and ‘thick description’ (Geertz, 1973) of participants’ lives experiences of, thoughts about and feelings for a situation. They involve looking at a case or phenomenon in its real-life context, usually employing many types of data (Robson, 2002). It is important in case studies for events and situations to be allowed to speak for themselves, rather than to be largely interpreted, evaluated or judged by the researcher. In this respect the case study is akin to the television documentary. Case studies can make theoretical statements, but, like other forms of research and human sciences, these must be supported by the evidence presented.