Case Studies

A Case study is a popular research method in business area. Case studies aim to analyze specific
issues within the boundaries of a specific environment, situation or organization. According to its
design, case study research method can be divided into three categories: explanatory, descriptive
and exploratory.

Explanatory case studies aim to answer how or why questions with little control on behalf of
researcher over occurrence of events. This type of case studies focus on phenomena within the
contexts of real-life situations. Example: An investigation into the reasons of the global
financial and economic crisis of 2008 2010.

Descriptive case studies aim to analyze the sequence of interpersonal events after a certain
amount of time has passed. Case studies belonging to this category usually describe culture or
sub-culture, and they attempt to discover the key phenomena. Example: Impact of increasing
levels of multiculturalism on marketing practices: A case study of McDonalds Indonesia.

Exploratory case studies aim to find answers to the questions of what or who. Exploratory
case study data collection method is often accompanied by additional data collection method(s)
such as interviews, questionnaires, experiments etc. Example: A study into differences of
leadership practices between private and public sector organizations in Atlanta, USA.

Advantages of case study method include data collection and analysis within the context of
phenomenon, integration of qualitative and quantitative data in data analysis, and the ability to
capture complexities of real-life situations so that the phenomenon can be studied in greater
levels of depth.
Case studies do have certain disadvantages that may include lack of rigor, challenges associated
with data analysis and very little basis for generalizations of findings and conclusions.

Discussions of disadvantages of data collection method(s) you are using and explaining how you
have compensated those disadvantages are going to increase your marks.