General approach to developing case study criteria for judging the quality of research designs Case study design. It should be done before you start collecting case study data. Case Study Investigator: Desired Skills. First, it presents the breadth of the case study method, but also at a detailed level.
Thus, previous versions of this book have been used as a perfect portal into the world of case study research. His foreword also sets out well the role of case study research as illustrated in this book. Second, you must understand and openly acknowledge the strengths and limitations of case study research.
Perhaps the biggest concern has been over the lack of rigor of case study research. In the eyes of many, the emphasis has led to a downplaying of case study research because case studies (and other types of non-experimental methods) cannot directly address this issue. In a historical overview of the case study in American methodological thought, Jennifer Platt (1992) explains the reasons for these treatments.
The chapter provides an operational definition of the case study and identifies some variations in case studies.
Identifying Your Case(s) and Establishing the Logic of Your Case Study
In fact, the case study is a separate research method that has its own research designs. Identify some research questions to be answered or propositions to be explored through your case study. For this reason, specifying important competing explanations is part of a case study's research design work.
For this reason, theory development prior to the collection of case study data is an essential step in doing case studies. Analytical generalization can be used regardless of whether your case study involves one or more cases that will later be referred to as single-case or multiple case studies. Theory development not only facilitates the data collection phase of the subsequent case study.
Adequately developed theory is also the level at which case study results will be generalizable. A fatal mistake in conducting case studies is to think of statistical generalization as a method of generalizing the results of your case study. The same theoretical orientation also becomes the main means of generalizing the results of the case study.
CASE STUDY designs, (Type 3) Multiple Case Designs (Holistic) and (Type 4) Multiple Case Designs (Embedded). A single case study is an appropriate design in many circumstances, and below are five rationales. There are other situations where a single case study can be used as a pilot case that is the first of a multi-case study.
A further problem with the holistic design is that the entire nature of the case study may change during the course of the study without the researcher's knowledge. Selection is considered research design, both of which are included in the case study method. Such redesign may involve the selection of alternative cases or changes in the case study (ie, data collection) protocol (see Chapter 3).
Choose one of the case studies described in the BOX in this book, going through the entire case study (not just the material in the BOX). At the same time, mixed methods research need not include the use of the case study strategy at all.
What You Need to Do Before Starting to Collect Case Study Data
When this happens, many of the completed steps—including the initial case study design—need to be repeated and redocumented. The main way to stay on target, of course, is to understand the purpose of the case study. Anticipated topics to be covered in the eventual case study report (helps build consensus on end goals).
However, a legitimate and desirable training task is the understanding of the protocol by all the case study investigators. A good overview will communicate the purpose and setting of the case study to the informed reader (that is, someone familiar with the general topic of inquiry). Some people may consider this part of the protocol to be the case study "tool".
Second, the questions in the case study protocol should clearly distinguish between different types or levels of questions. Of these five levels, you should focus heavily on Level 2 for the case study protocol. Remember that being a "senior" investigator means maintaining a working knowledge of the entire case study investigation.
Researchers forget to think about the design, format or audience for the case study report Figure 3.5. The questions must relate to the case study's unit of analysis, which may be at a different level than the data collection unit of the case study. In addition, the protocol may also indicate the level of documentation for the case study report.
One option is to have the case study report include an annotated bibliography detailing each of the available documents. In summary, as far as possible, the basic outline of the case study report should be part of the protocol. Another preparatory step is the final selection of the case(s) to be included in your case study.
Pilot cases can be run for a variety of reasons unrelated to the criteria for selecting the final cases in the case study design. A pilot case study helps you refine your data collection plans, both in terms of data content and procedures to follow.
