CASE STUDY NOTES

1141 WD

A case study is an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. The case study inquiry copes with the technically distinctive situation in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one result relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion, and as another result benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis.Performing a case study entails:

Literature Review Posing research questions formal and explicit procedures Protecting against threats to validity Maintaining “chain of evidence” Investigating and testing rival explanations

In advance of doing a case study:

Define the “case” being studied Determine relevant data to be collected What to do with data once