The case study teaching method is appropriate for undergraduate, graduate, exec-utive education, and professional development courses, workshops, and seminars.
Instructors may assign questions prior to class to focus students on the particular issues they plan to address in the class session. A class session can include student-led presentations, exercises, role plays, debates, and summarizing lectures.
Table 4. Definition of different types of case studies
Case study type Definition
Explanatory It would be used if you were seeking to answer a question that ought to explain the presumed causal links in real-life interventions that are too complex for the survey or experimental strategies.
In evaluation language, the explanations would link programme implementation with programme effects
Exploratory It is used to explore those situations in which the intervention being evaluated has no clear, single set of outcomes
Descriptive It is used to describe an intervention or phenomenon and the real-life context in which it occurred
Collective, multiple-case studies
It enables the researcher to explore differences within and between cases. The goal is to replicate findings across cases. Because
comparisons will be drawn, it is imperative that the cases are chosen carefully so that the researcher can predict similar results across cases, or predict contrasting results based on a theory
Instrumental It is used to accomplish something other than understanding a particular situation . It provides insight into an issue or helps to refine a theory. The case is of secondary interest; it plays a supportive role, facilitating our understanding of something else. The case is often looked at in depth, its contexts scrutinized, its ordinary activities detailed, and because it helps the researcher pursue the external interest.
Source: P. Baxter, S. Jack, Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers, “The Qualitative Report” 2008, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 547–549.
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To solve a problem when to use a case study it is worth to analyze the argu-mentation of R.K. Yin12. According to him, a case study design should be con-sidered when:
– the focus of the study is to answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions;
– you cannot manipulate the behaviour of those involved in the study;
– you want to cover contextual conditions because you believe they are rel-evant to the phenomenon under study;
– the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and context.
One of the common pitfalls associated with case study is that there is a ten-dency for researchers to attempt to answer a question that is too broad or a topic that has too many objectives for one study.
Students act as co-creators of the learning process in the case method. They are responsible for preparing the case in advance, first individually, and then of-ten in small study groups. During the class session, students are expected to par-ticipate as contributors and as listeners to help advance their own learning and that of their classmates. Ideally, learning should continue after class as students reflect on the discussion and apply insights and lessons in the broader context of their academic, professional, and personal lives13 .
The fields, in which the case method will be successful, include management, logistics, sales and marketing, finance, law, strategy and organization, commu-nication and information technology, media and many other areas. However, the more important issue, than specifying the kind of knowledge, is creating the ability to discover what is important in the specific problem, how the mechanism works, and what the relations between its main determinants are. It requires the discipline and understanding .
Another problem, in particular in teaching entrepreneurship with the case study method, is how to teach economists and non-economists. It seems that teaching should be the same; however, non-economists are forced to work hard-er to find out chard-ertain regularities economists are aware of. The same response cannot be expected from both groups; moreover, there is a temptation to reach non-economists in a simplified manner. However, economic knowledge is not the basic achieved outcome in the case study method. The objective is to gain an economic insight into relationships and data and the ability to explain certain mechanisms of the reality. Hence, an economic point of view should be mani-fested in the skill to perceive human actions and their tangible and measurable effects in the observed reality. Only such observations are taken into account that have an economic effect. For this reason, it will be much simpler for those with economic background than for those without such preparation14. This process of
12 R.K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage 2003.
13 Case Method in Practice. Core Principles, Harvard Business School, http://www.hbs.edu/teaching/
case-method-in-practice/core-principles.html [access: 18.03.2013].
14 J.C. Vázquez-Dodero, Pillars of a Pedagogical Process for Educating Professionals of Action, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, ASNN-2-E, October 1993, p. 2.
Application of case study method. Conditionings and benefits 4949 teaching may be defined as ‘knowledge oriented’, though, as it was explained about the essence of a method, it does not deliver the economic knowledge itself.
According to the users of the Case Simulator project given in its evaluation process, the case study method can be addressed well to various categories of recipients15, such as:
– first-year students, to focus them on entrepreneurship and a selective ap-proach to gaining knowledge during courses (as a result, they can manage their learning process and development better in a selected direction), – final year students who think of their future on the labour market and
prepare for it, are clever, active, and open-minded,
– people who think of establishing a business and are enterprising, – the unemployed who are afraid of self-employment,
– secondary school students, to focus them on professional courses and pre-pare for business future,
– students of technical secondary and vocational schools – to prepare them to enter the labour market, and
– primary school pupils – to teach them logics.
Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the case study method requires genuine commitment and cannot be applied thoughtlessly. Therefore, trainees at courses taught with this method should be aware how much its effects de-pend on themselves, i.e. their dedication, work, knowledge as well as earlier experiences. Hence, one should be conscious that the higher advancement of the group in terms of its knowledge, ability to discuss, life and professional experi-ence, the deeper effects of the case study training will be in the given discipline.
In general, one should always ask a question about the level represented by the group, to adapt the skills of the teacher and the applied methods and techniques.
That is why at the undermediate level (bachelor, master, and doctoral stu-dents) classes will have a quite technical character, evolving next to functional cases .
The use of case method at different levels will require a different approach to the audience and teaching techniques. The programme for experienced execu-tives should be taught by a professional and experienced teacher. J.C. Vázquez-Dodero, the expert in case method, indicates the simple, but important rule: ‘the more experienced and mature the audience is, the more mature and experienced the instructor should be’. He also recognizes the relation between the academic focus and the superiority of a mentor16 .
15 Partial report on the Case Simulator project evaluation, 18 December 2012.
16 J.C. Vázquez-Dodero, The Case: the Instructor…, p. 14.
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