1st Edition

Case Study Methodology in Business Research

By Jan Dul, Tony Hak Copyright 2008
    328 Pages
    by Routledge

    328 Pages
    by Routledge

    The complete guide for how to design and conduct theory-testing and other case studies…

    Case Study Methodology in Business Research sets out structures and guidelines that assist students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines to develop their case study research in a consistent and rigorous manner. It clarifies the differences between practice-oriented and theory-oriented research and, within the latter category, between theory-testing and theory-building. It describes in detail how to design and conduct different types of case study research, providing students and researchers with everything they need for their project. The main aims are to:

    * present a broad spectrum of types of case study research (including practice-oriented case studies, theory-building case studies and theory-testing case studies) in one consistent methodological framework.

    * emphasize and clearly illustrate that the case study is the preferred research strategy for testing deterministic propositions such as those expressing a necessary condition case by case and that the survey is the preferred research strategy for testing probabilistic propositions.

    * stress the role of replication in all theory-testing research, irrespective of which research strategy is chosen for a specific test.

    * give more weight to the importance of theory-testing relative to theory-building.

    Case Study Methodology in Business Research is a clear, concise and comprehensive text for case study methodology. Templates are supplied for case study protocol and how to report a case study.

    A modular textbook primarily aimed at serving research methodology courses for final year undergraduate students and graduate students in Business Administration and Management, which is also useful as a handbook for researchers.

    Written by Jan Dul, Professor of Technology and Human Factors, RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam and Tony Hak, Associate professor of Research Methodology, RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam, in collaboration with other authors from RSM Erasmus University.

    Foreword (Chris Voss, London Business School); Aims and overview of this book; A review of case studies in business research (Raf Jans and Koen Dittrich); Principles of empirical research; Theory-testing research; Part II: Theory-testing in case study research; Testing sufficient and necessary conditions; How to test a sufficient or a necessary condition;Case study 1: Testing a theory of collaboration characteristics of innovation projects (Koen Dittrich); Methodological reflection on case study 1; Case study 2: Testing a theory of ideal typical organizational configurations of successful product innovations (Ferdinand Jaspers and Jan van den Ende; Methodological reflection on case study 2; Testing a deterministic proportional relationship; How to test a deterministic proportional relationship; Case study 3: Testing the influence of urban time access windows on a retailer’s distribution costs (Hans Quak); Methodological reflection on case study 3; Testing a probabilistic proportional relationship; How to test a probabilistic proportional relationship; Case study 4: Testing the influence of a retailer’s distribution strategy on a retailer’s sensitivity to urban time access windows (Hans Quak; Methodological reflection on case study 4;
    Part III: Other types of case study research; The pilot case study; How to design and conduct a pilot case study; Case study 5: Testing a theory of conditions of success of new products (Murthy Halemane and Felix Janszen; Methodological reflection on Case study 5; The theory-building case study; How to design and conduct a theory-building case study; Case study 6: Exploring which company representatives are involved in communication with providers of business services (Wendy van der Valk and Finn Wynstra; Methodological reflection on case study 7; The practice-oriented case study; How to design and conduct a practice-oriented case study; Case study 7: Building a model of best practice of company standardization (Henk de Vries and Florens Slob);Methodological reflection on case study 7

    Biography

    Jan Dul, Professor of Technology and Human Factors, RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam and Tony Hak, Associate Professor of Research Methodology, RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam