CASE STUDY RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

The chapter 1 of the book entitled ‘Case Study Research Design and Methods’, written
by Robert K. Yin (2003), explained that the research methodology that is usually used in social
sciences is a case study and it is also a way to examine an empirical topic by following a set of
procedures. Furthermore, this chapter does not only explained about the definition of case
study, but it also explained about the importance of the case study as a research method and a
strategy, exploring the variations of case study, and also the differences of case study from
other alternative research strategies in social sciences.
It is also explained in this chapter, that the case study as a research strategy is commonly
used in many situations, in order to contribute our knowledge as an individual, group,
organization, social, political, and related phenomena. It is also known as a distinctive form of
empirical inquiry that explores the contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context,
especially when there are no clear evidence about the boundaries between phenomenon and
context. The writer argued that strategy in case study has advantages and disadvantages and
these are also based on the three conditions such as, the type of research questions, the control
an investigator has over actual behavioral events, and the focus on contemporary as opposed
to historical phenomena. Moreover, Gilgun (1994) and Ghauri & Gronhaug (2002) as cited in
Yin (2003) pointed out that case study has been known as a research strategy that can be found
in several fields such as in psychology, sociology, political science, social work, business,
community planning, and economics.
Furthermore, this chapter also compared the case study with other research strategies
in the social sciences. The strategy can be different from the way of collecting and analyzing
the empirical evidence and the logic of the study. In addition, the writer argued that case studies
are not only appropriate for the explanatory phase of an investigation, because those can be
exploratory case study, and also descriptive case study. In this chapter it is also mentioned that
the five major strategies in research are case studies, experiments, surveys, archival analyses,
and histories. Those strategies are differentiated based on their types of research questions,
extent of control over behavioral events and degree of focus on contemporary as opposed to
historical events.
The writer also mentioned the reasons why case studies were rarely conducted by
researchers, so that they probably have been claimed as a form of research that was less
desirable to conduct than experimental and surveys research. The first reason is probably
because of the huge concern has been over the lack of the rigor of case study research. It is
found that there were many case study investigators who have been careless when conducting
a case study. They used to not follow systematic procedures, and sometimes they have allowed
biased views to influence the findings and conclusions direction. The second reason is that
some people might have confused between case study in teaching and case study in research.
In teaching, case study materials may be deliberately altered to demonstrate a particular point
more effectively. While in research, all researchers who are conducting case study have to work
hard to report all evidence fairly and any step of the case study would be strictly forbidden.
The problems in experiments, surveys, and case study research probably are not much different
but in the case study research, they may have been more frequently encountered and less
frequently overcome than others.
In addition, the case studies probably provide little basis for scientific generalization.
The writer argued that scientific facts are rarely based on single experiments, they are usually
based on multiple sets of experiments that have the same phenomenon under different
conditions. Therefore, the case studies are generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to
populations or universes. Furthermore, it is also explained that the case study is similar to
experiments which does not represent a ‘sample’. Then, the goal of the case study is to expand
and generalize theories (analytic generalization) and not to enumerate frequencies (statistical
generalization). Another reason why the case study is less desirable to conduct is because of
the length of time. The case study usually takes too long and result in massive or huge
unreadable documents. Moreover, the writer also mentioned that there are two methods of data
collection in a case study, such as ethnography and participant-observation.
This chapter is also mentioned about the variations within case studies as a research
strategy. The case study research includes both single and multiple case studies. Case studies
can include and even be limited to quantitative evidence. In fact, the contrast between
quantitative and qualitative evidence does not distinguish the various research strategies. Some
experiments and some surveys questions rely on qualitative and not quantitative evidence.
Furthermore, a case study can be based on both quantitative and qualitative evidence.
Therefore, the needs of the case study do not always include direct and detailed observations
as a source of evidence. It is also explained in this chapter about the five different applications
of the case studies in evaluation research. The first is explaining the presume causal links in
real-life interventions that there are too complex for the survey and experimental strategies.
The second is to describe an intervention and the real-life context in which it has occurred. The
third application is argued that the case study can illustrate certain topics within an evaluation
in a descriptive mode. The fourth application is that case study can be used to explore those
situations in which the intervention being evaluated has a single set of outcomes. The fifth is
that case study probably be a meta-evaluation.
After reading this chapter of the book, I got some information especially about the case
study. I also understood that if we want to conduct a research or being a researcher, we have to
be able to identify some situations in which all research strategies might be relevant, identify
other situations in which two strategies in any given study, and also identify some situations in
which a specific strategy has a distinct advantages. We can also use more than one strategy or
multiple strategies in our research.