Case Studies

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• Case Studies
• Pat McGee

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Why Research?

• To distinguish between rival plausible
  hypotheses. Campbell 1994
• To attack proposed scientific theories. Popper
  

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Research Tools

• Controlled experiments on population samples.
• Survey
• Archival Analysis
• History
• Case Study

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Applicability of Tools after Yin 1994
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vs. Rival Theories

• Controlled experiments requires theory to know
  what to control.
• Randomized experiment Renders unstated rival
  theories implausible by statistics.
• Case study Requires explicit theories in order
  to define models.

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What is a Case Study?

• 'Case Study' is ambiguous.
• Teaching case study B-school.
• Record keeping case study medicine, law.
• Research case study many social sciences.

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Research Case Study

• Purpose distinguish between rival plausible
  hypotheses
• Evidence
• Documents
• Artifacts
• Direct observation
• Interviewing
• Participant observation

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Yin's Definition

• 1. A case study is an empirical inquiry that
• investigates a contemporary phenomenon within
  its real-life context, especially when
• the boundaries between phenomenon and context
  are not clearly evident.

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Yin's Definition

• 2. The case study inquiry
• copes with the technically distinctive situation
  in which there will be many more variables of
  interest than data points, and as one results
• relies on multiple sources of evidence, with
  data needing to converge in a triangulating
  fashion, and as another results
• benefits from the prior development of
  theoretical propositions to guide data collection
  and analysis.

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Parts of good case study Yin

• Question Why did X happen?
• Propositions X happened because of A, B, and C.
• Unit of analysis person, team, company, etc.
• Logic linking data to propositions What effects
  do data points D, E, and F have on X?
• Criteria for interpreting findings How do you
  know?

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Parts of a good case study McGee

• Data

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Validity

• Copy Yin fig 2.3

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External Validity

• A case study is not a data point. Saying you
  can't generalize from a single case misses the
  point.
• A single case study is analogous to a single
  experiment. Each either supports or refutes a
  theory.

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Types of case studies