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Case Studies Pat McGee

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Learn the importance and application of case studies in research, exploring how they distinguish hypotheses, attack theories, and provide valuable insights in various fields. Understand the components of a good case study and its significance in empirical inquiries.

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Case Studies Pat McGee

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  1. Case Studies Pat McGee

  2. Why Research? • To distinguish between rival plausible hypotheses. [Campbell 1994] • To attack proposed scientific theories. [Popper +++]

  3. Research Tools • Controlled experiments on population samples. • Survey • Archival Analysis • History • Case Study

  4. Applicability of Tools [after Yin 1994]

  5. vs. Rival Theories • Controlled experiments: requires theory to know what to control. • Randomized experiment: Renders unstated rival theories implausible by statistics. • Case study: Requires explicit theories in order to define models.

  6. What is a Case Study? • 'Case Study' is ambiguous. • Teaching case study: B-school. • Record keeping case study: medicine, law. • Research case study: many social sciences.

  7. Research Case Study • Purpose: distinguish between rival plausible hypotheses • Evidence: • Documents • Artifacts • Direct observation • Interviewing • Participant observation

  8. Yin's Definition • “1. A case study is an empirical inquiry that • “investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when • “the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident.”

  9. Yin's Definition • “2. 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 results • “relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion, and as another results • “benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis.”

  10. Parts of good case study – Yin • Question: Why did X happen? • Propositions: X happened because of A, B, and C. • Unit of analysis: person, team, company, etc. • Logic linking data to propositions: What effects do data points D, E, and F have on X? • Criteria for interpreting findings: How do you know?

  11. Parts of a good case study – McGee • Data

  12. Validity • [Copy Yin fig 2.3]

  13. External Validity • A case study is not a data point. Saying “you can't generalize from a single case” misses the point. • A single case study is analogous to a single experiment. Each either supports or refutes a theory.

  14. Types of case studies

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