1. Case Studies Pat McGee

2. Why Research? ● To distinguish between rival plausible hypotheses. [Campbell 1994] ● To attack proposed scientific theories. [Popper +++]

3. Research Tools ● Controlled experiments on population samples. ● Survey ● Archival Analysis ● History ● Case Study

4. Applicability of Tools [after Yin 1994]

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Research Case Study ● Purpose: distinguish between rival plausible hypotheses ● Evidence: – Documents – Artifacts – Direct observation – Interviewing – Participant observation

8. 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.”

9. 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.”

10. 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?

11. Parts of a good case study – McGee ● Data

12. Validity ● [Copy Yin fig 2.3]

13. 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.

14. Types of case studies