Case Study as Research Design
Case studies are widely used for research in education, marketing, social sciences, psychology, medicine, and other fields of study. As a type of research design, case studies provide a detailed analysis of a phenomenon, event, company, place, or person.
We mostly need qualitative methods to do this research, Nevertheless, quantitative ones are also sometimes used. The design works perfectly for describing, assessing, comparing, and analyzing the different aspects of a concrete research question.
When Can You Use a Case Study?
The main characteristic feature of a case study is that it is used in the context related to a concrete subject, its existence and performance. The subject is accessible in the real world, and you can have an in-depth look at its characteristics and implications.
You can easily use case studies for more extended scientific research projects, such as dissertations or theses. Your project can be considered in more detail, focused, and available for further management and development. You do not need a lot of time and resources to do such research, but use only one complex study of a sole subject. Or you may opt for using several case studies devoted to the same problem that highlight its different aspects.
Let’s look at the examples of case studies with their research questions that are an indivisible part of such a design.
| Research Question | Case Study |
|---|---|
| 1) How do children with autism perceive colors? | 1) A case study of a local art school that reveals and explains the most popular misconceptions. |
| 2) How does remote education in rural locations of the US influence the quality of all training processes? | 2) Case studies of three rural schools in Tennessee that display the main challenges. |
| 3) How does the Python programming language limit the capabilities of AI? | 3) A case study of a machine learning program powered by Python and meant for trading that it has limitations in using external databases. |
| 4) How does ecological tourism promote the idea of energy saving? | 4) Case studies of two green tourism farms in Oregano that use solar panels for their household and tourism needs. |
| 5) How does the German automobile industry influence the American market? | 5) A case study of a big automobile dealer in Texas showing the main pros and cons of German car promotion in the US market. |
| 6) How can an immediate innovation find its place in marketing? | 6) Case studies of five immediate innovations in app development that have been successfully marketed. |
How to Create and Develop a Case Study?
Now, let’s look at a step-by-step guide on how to develop and use this type of research design.
1. Case Selection
To start with your research project, you need to make up a problem statement and create a research question. Your specific case for research should be based on this question. If a case study is successful, it helps with:
- achieving unexpected and unique insights into the subject matter;
- challenging and complementing the existing theories or hypotheses;
- putting forward practical implementations of the ways to resolve problems;
- providing new ideas and directions for further research.
Remember!
A case study differs a lot from such research design types as quantitative or experimental ones. It needs neither representative nor random samples.
Actually, a case study accurately highlights the new aspects of a phenomenon or problem that have been neglected, omitted, or undervalued before. A new look at the subject matter can provide innovative ideas and unexpected discoveries related to the research problem.
Let’s have a look at the examples of the two main kinds of case studies - outlying and representative ones.
| An Outlying Case Study | A Representative Case Study |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Australian and Asian employees, working in the Mitsubishi Car Company in Adelaide and Tokyo, have displayed different understanding of the work ethic values. This case study is useful for understanding the temporary problems at the manufacturing facilities and finding the ways of solving them. The difference in understanding of work ethics was previously neglected or not considered so vitally important. | ✔️ In the 1950s, psychologists used the case of Chris Sizemore to understand how to treat multiple personality disorder. A representative case study, though, is a more common type. You can use it for highlighting a particular phenomenon, category, or experience that has already become the focus of some studies but was not deliberately considered. |
2. A Theoretical Framework
The connection with theoretical aspects is essential for any case study, no matter that it mostly deals with practice. That is why never make a case study a simple description of an object or phenomenon. Try to integrate this description into the existing theoretical background of the subject matter. Your case study should:
- use a theory as a consistent explanation of its peculiarities
- add a lot to the theory by discovering new aspects of the phenomenon that need to become a part of it
- challenge the traditional postulates and theoretical statements by introducing an outlier part of it that does not entirely correspond to all the previous assumptions
In short, your case analysis needs a reliable academic grounding to sound persuasive. Having an extended literature review of the academic sources will add a lot to your case study’s reliability. They should become a theoretical framework for your research that highlight the basic concepts and ideas you can further analyze and interpret.
3. Data Collection
Collecting data requires a variety of methods, too. You need qualitative data for your case study. Therefore, you will use such techniques as observations, interviews, analysis of your primary and secondary sources (official reports, blog posts, or newspaper articles, and others). In some cases, you may also need quantitative data.
For the case study about the energy saving potential of ecological tourism, you can collect the qualitative data from local authorities reports, plans, and schedules related to energy saving, analyze the coverage of the ecological tourism outcomes and gains in this field in local and federal media, and research the people’s experiences and impressions. You can also gather quantitative data from these official reports, the information about the revenues solar panels bring yearly to their owners, and the amounts of carbon footprint in the area.
The aim of such a combined approach is to obtain the most detailed and unbiased picture of the problem solution and its possible outcomes in a more extended context.
4. Description and Analysis of the Case
When you create your written academic paper on the case study, your purpose is to combine all the various aspects of the problem you have discovered to get a complete picture that can answer your research question.
The findings you report in the paper need to comply with the type of research and its goals. You can structure it as a standard dissertation or thesis, with many chapters and sections, discussion and result parts, and substantial conclusions. Or you can opt for a more narrative format that can describe the researched case from different points and angles. This format is better to use when you need a deeper analysis of the case’s meanings, outcomes, and possible implications. Such techniques as discourse analysis or textual analysis can be pretty helpful here.
Anyway, you need to provide consistent contextual details of your case and highlight its relation to the theoretical basis and academic literature. You also need to evoke the discussion or debate on the more extended patterns of the problem that can become the core of the future research.
Final Thoughts
Now you know more about a case study as an efficient research design, about its structure, methods and techniques. You can use this design for your academic research project whenever it is applicable.
The practical outcomes of this use will be apparent. Such a research project can become a great basis for your future academic career or any advancement in your business or marketing career. If you are going to be a healthcare expert, an engineer, an IT developer, or education worker, the skills and experiences you have got with your case studies will help you a lot, too.