What is a case study?

• In-depth investigation: A case study deeply examines a specific subject (person, group, event, organization, etc.) within its real-world environment.
• Multiple disciplines: Used in fields like business, medicine, psychology, education, social sciences, and more.
• Data types: Incorporates both qualitative (interviews, observations) and quantitative (statistics, surveys) data.

Why use case studies?

• Complex or unique situations: They help understand nuanced cases where experiments might be unethical or impractical.
• Rich insights: Case studies provide detailed contextual information, leading to a deeper understanding of a phenomenon.
• Exploratory: They can investigate potential causes, relationships, and generate hypotheses for future research.

Types of case studies

• Illustrative: Provide examples to describe a situation or theory.
• Exploratory: Investigate possible research questions, serving as a pilot for larger studies.
• Cumulative: Aggregate information from several cases to identify patterns or trends.
• Critical Instance: Examine a unique or exceptional situation to challenge a theory or generalization.

How to write a case study

1. Define the problem or focus: Clearly state the research question your case study aims to address.
2. Choose your case(s): Carefully select your subject ensuring it aligns with your research question and objectives.
3. Data collection: Use diverse methods – interviews, observations, documents, surveys, archival records, etc.
4. Data analysis: Identify themes, patterns, relationships, and key takeaways. Look for both confirming and disconfirming evidence.
5. Report writing: Present a clear, structured narrative with a compelling introduction, background, data presentation, analysis, and conclusions,

Example Case Study Topics

• Business: A company’s successful marketing campaign, a product launch failure, organizational change management.
• Medicine: A patient’s response to novel treatment, the management of a rare disease.
• Psychology: An in-depth study of an individual with a phobia or mental health condition.
• Education: An innovative teaching strategy, a student overcoming learning difficulties.
• Social sciences: Community response to a natural disaster, an analysis of a social movement.

Here’s how to determine the characteristics of a case study, along with explanations of the terms involved:

Types of Case Study Designs

• Descriptive: Aims to provide a rich description of a situation or phenomenon. It focuses on “what” questions.
• Exploratory: Investigates potential research questions or relationships. Often used to generate hypotheses for further study.
• Explanatory: Seeks to explain causal links or “how” and “why” certain events or outcomes happen.
• Evaluative: Examines the merits, outcomes, or effectiveness of a program, policy, or intervention.

Reasoning Approaches

• Deductive: Starts with a theory or hypothesis and tests it against a specific case. It focuses on confirming or falsifying existing ideas.
• Inductive: Builds conclusions from observations of the case itself. Theory or a framework emerges from the data analysis.
• Abductive: Combines elements of both, moving between existing theories and the patterns emerging from the case study to find the best possible explanation.

Strategy

• Orthodox: Pre-determined structure, data collection methods, and analysis planned in advance.
• Emergent: Design evolves as the study progresses, allowing for flexibility and adaptation to new insights.

Case Selection

• Single Case: Deep examination of a unique or particularly revealing case.
• Multiple Cases: Comparison across cases to identify patterns, differences, commonalities, and potential generalizations.

Analysis

• Holistic: The entire case is the primary unit of analysis, focusing on its overall context and complexity.
• Embedded (Analytic Units): Specific sub-units within the case (e.g., individuals within an organization) are analyzed separately.

How to Determine Your Case Study’s Characteristics

To figure out the characteristics of your specific case study research, consider these questions:

1. Purpose:
   • Were you primarily describing a phenomenon?
   • Were you exploring possible factors or relationships without a set hypothesis?
   • Were you testing a specific theory or looking for cause-and-effect links?
   • Were you judging the value or impact of something?
2. Approach:
   • Did you start with a theory and apply it to the case?
   • Did you let the data guide you, building insights as you went along?
   • Was it a blend of both?
3. Strategy

• Did you have a strict plan from the start, or did your design change as the study evolved?

4. Cases
   • Did you focus on a single in-depth case, or did you compare multiple instances?
5. Analysis
   • Did you treat the entire case as a whole, or did you examine specific aspects within it separately?

Let’s break down the similarities and distinctions between case studies and project reports.

Case Studies

• Focus: Case studies provide an in-depth examination of a specific real-world situation, event, organization, or individual. They often highlight challenges faced, strategies used, and outcomes achieved.
• Purpose:
  • Illustrative: To explain complex concepts or theories through concrete examples.
  • Exploratory: To uncover insights, potential solutions, or factors contributing to a particular issue.
  • Marketing: To showcase the success of a product, service, or company’s approach.
• Structure: While less rigid than project reports, common elements include:
  • Introduction: Outlining the case subject and purpose.
  • Background: Providing context, relevant information, and key challenges.
  • Analysis: Examining data, methods, strategies used and their effectiveness.
  • Findings: Key takeaways and lessons learned.
  • Recommendations: Suggesting potential solutions or future actions.

Project Reports

• Focus: A project report documents the entire lifecycle of a project. It systematically outlines the project’s purpose, execution, and outcomes.
• Purpose:
  • Accountability: Keeping stakeholders informed, and serving as a record of work completed.
  • Evaluation: Measuring success against initial goals and identifying areas for improvement.
  • Knowledge Transfer: Providing a reference point for future similar projects.
• Structure: Typically includes these sections:
  • Abstract/Summary: A brief project overview.
  • Introduction: Problem statement, objectives, and scope.
  • Methodology: Approaches and tools used.
  • Results: Outputs, deliverables, and overall outcomes.
  • Discussion: Challenges encountered, analysis of successes/failures.
  • Conclusion: Evaluation of project success and recommendations.

Key Differences

Feature	Case Study	Project Report
Scope	Focused on a specific situation or event	Covers the entire project lifecycle
Depth	Deep analysis of contributing factors and outcomes	Detailed but less focus on deep contextual analysis
Purpose	Illustrate, explore, market	Accountability, evaluation, knowledge transfer

Overlap

• Both case studies and project reports provide factual accounts based on real-world data and experiences.
• Case studies can be integrated within project reports to support the analysis or illustrate the efficacy of particular approaches.