Designing Case Studies

A Qualitative Research Method

• “ A Case Study is a research process aimed at learning about a subject, an

• A case study method is one of the methods of doing social science research
• Case study method is preferred when:
a. “how” or “why” questions are being inquired.
b. investigator has little control over events &
c. Focus is on contemporary phenomenon within real-life context.
d. It comprises of design, data collection, analysis and reporting.
 Types of Case Study
There are two types of case studies which are as under:
1. Explanatory Case Study (How & Why Questions over occurrence of
events)
2. Descriptive Case Study (Analysis of sequence of interpersonal events,
Investigation of Key Phenomena)
3. Exploratory Case Study (What & Who Questions, Differences /
Comparisons)
 Designing Case Studies
• Research Design is a logic that links the data (to be collected) to initial
questions of the study i.e. strategy/plan for answering particular research
question using empirical data.
• Articulating theory about what is being studied helps to operationalize
case study design.
• Construct Validity, Internal Validity, External Validity and Reliability are
the 04 conditions related to design quality that need to be maximized to
develop a good case study design.
 Designing Case Studies
Creating a Research Design means making decision about:
• Overall research objectives and approach.
• Type of Research.
• Sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects/issues.
• Data Collection Methods.
• Procedures for data collection
• Data Analysis Methods.
 Components of Research Design
• In case study research, five components of a research design are especially
important:
1. A case study’s questions
2. Its propositions, if any
3. Its case(s)
4. The logic linking the data to the propositions
5. The criteria for interpreting the findings.
 Research Question
• Case study research is most likely to be appropriate for “how” and “why”
questions, so your initial task is to clarify precisely the nature of your
study questions in this regard
• Questions should not be covered by previous researches.
• Other less desirable questions focus on too trivial or minor parts of an
issue.
 Finding Research Question-Stages
• First Stage: Use the literature to narrow down one two topic of interest.
• Second Stage: Examine closely a few key studies on your topic of interest.
Identify their questions whether they conclude with new questions or loose ends
for future research. These may then stimulate your own thinking and imagination,
and you may find yourself articulating some potential questions of your own.
• Third Stage: Examine another set of studies on the same topic. They may
reinforce the relevance and importance of your potential questions or even
suggest ways of sharpening them.
 Research Proposition
• Each proposition directs attention to something that should be
examined within the scope of study.
• Only “How” and “Why” questions may not sufficiently point to what you
should study.
• Research propositions must be stated to move in right direction.
 Unit of Analysis
• It is related to fundamental problem of defining what the “case” is.
• Classic case study depicts that a case my be an individual. Information of
each relevant individual would be collected.
• Embedded Case design includes cases within a case (Multiple individuals
or cases).
• Propositions are key competent to identify relevant information.
• Propositions must be specific to stay in the limits.
 Linking Data to Propositions
• Data may be linked with propositions through pattern matching.
• Several pieces of information from same case may be related to some
theoretical propostions.
 The Case
• After figuring out components of question and propositions, identifying
the “case” to be studied—a problem that rightfully confronts many
researchers at the outset of their case studies (e.g., Ragin & Becker, 1992).
• You will need to consider at least two different steps:
i. defining the case (In past single Case, Eventually multiple cases).
ii. bounding the case.
 Discussion
• Select a topic for a case study you would like to do.
• Identify some research questions to be answered or propositions to be
examined by your case study.
• Does the naming of these questions or propositions clarify the boundaries
of your case with regard to the time period covered by the case study; the
relevant social group, organization, or geographic area; the type of
evidence to be collected; and the priorities for data collection and
analysis? If not, should you sharpen the original questions?
 Role of Theory
• After covering the preceding five components of research designs, next
step is constructing some preliminary theory or theoretical propositions
related to study.
• At the same time, some preliminary fieldwork may be done before trying
to specify any theory or propositions in greater detail.
 Theory Development
• The needed theory can be plain and simple.
• Theory development is must in case study method because it helps to shape the
case study (Blueprint of study).
• It will increasingly cover the questions, propositions, specifications for defining
and bounding the case, logic connecting data to propositions, and criteria for
interpreting the findings i.e. the five components of the needed research design.
• In this sense, the research design can come to embrace a “theory” of what is
being studied.
 Illustrative Topics for Theory
• To overcome the barriers to theory development, you should try to prepare
for your case study by doing such things as reviewing the literature related
to what you would like to study (e.g., see Cooper, 1984).
• Discussing your topic and ideas with colleagues or teachers, and asking
yourself challenging questions about what you are studying, why you are
proposing to do the study, and what you hope to learn as a result of the
study
 Illustrative Topics for Theory
• Individual theories: Theories of individual development, cognitive behavior,
personality, learning and disability, individual perception, and interpersonal interactions.
• Group theories: Theories of family functioning, informal groups, work teams,
supervisory-employee relations, and interpersonal networks.
• Organizational theories: Theories of bureaucracies, organizational structure and
functions, excellence in organizational performance, and interorganizational
partnerships
• Social Justice Theories—Theories of housing segregation, international conflicts,
cultural assimilation, uneven access to technologies, and marketplace inequities.
 Using Theory to Generalize From Case
Studies
• Besides making it easier to design your case study, having some theory or
theoretical propositions will later play a critical role in helping you to
generalize the lessons learned from your case study.
• Two types of Generalizing:
i. Analytical Generalization
ii. Statistical Generalization
• In statistical generalization, an inference is made about a population (or
universe) on the basis of empirical data collected from a sample from that
universe (Survey Methods).
• A fatal flaw in doing case studies is to consider statistical generalization to
be the way of generalizing the findings from your case study. This is
because your case or cases are not “sampling units” and also will be too
few in number to serve as an adequately sized sample to represent any
larger population.
• Analytical generalization is used to compare a theory (template) with
empirical results of case study.
• Analytic generalization can be used whether your case study involves one
or several cases, which shall be later referenced as single-case or multiple-
case studies.
Criteria For Judging The Quality Of Research
Designs
• Construct validity: Identifying correct operational measures for the concepts being
studied.
• Internal validity (for explanatory or causal studies only and not for descriptive or
exploratory studies): seeking to establish a causal relationship, whereby certain
conditions are believed to lead to other conditions, as distinguished from spurious
relationships.
• External validity: showing whether and how a case study’s findings can be generalized
• Reliability: demonstrating that the operations of a study—such as its data collection
procedures—can be repeated, with the same results
 Single Vs Multiple Case
• Single-case studies are a common design for doing case study research. Two
variants have been described: using holistic designs & using embedded units of
analysis.
• Single-case design is eminently justifiable under certain conditions where case
represents:
i. a critical test of existing theory
ii. an extreme or unusual circumstance, or
iii. a common case, or where the case serves a revelatory or longitudinal purpose.
• A major step in designing and conducting a single-case study is defining
the case itself.
• An operational definition is needed, and some caution must be exercised
—before a total commitment to the whole case study is made—
• to ensure that the case to be studied is in fact relevant to the original issues
and questions of interest.
• Single- and multiple-case study designs to be variants within the same
methodological framework.
• No broad distinction is made between the so-called classic (i.e., single)
case study and multiple-case studies.
• The choice is considered one of research design, with both being included
as a part of case study research
• The evidence from multiple cases is often considered more compelling,
and the overall multiple-case study is therefore regarded as being more
robust

• At the same time, the rationale for single-case designs cannot usually be
satisfied by the multiple cases. By definition, the unusual or extreme case,
the critical case, and the revelatory case all are likely to involve only
single-case studies
 Advices regarding Case Studies
• Multiple-case designs may be preferred over single-case designs.
• If you can do even a “two-case” case study, your chances of doing a good
case study will be better than using a single-case design.
• Single-case designs are vulnerable if only because you will have put “all
your eggs in one basket.” More important, the analytic benefits from
having two (or more) cases may be substantial.
• To begin with, even with two cases, you have the possibility of direct replication.
Analytic conclusions independently arising from two cases, as with two
experiments, will be more powerful than those coming from a single-case (or single
experiment) alone.
• Alternatively, you may have deliberately selected your two cases because they
offered contrasting situations, and you were not seeking a direct replication.
• In this design, if the subsequent findings support the hypothesized contrast, the
results represent a strong start toward theoretical replication—again strengthening
your findings compared with those from a single-case study alone
• Research design can be modified by new information and discovery
during data collection.