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Developing Case Studies

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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). …show more content…

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”

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