What is a Case Study? Components

What is a Case Study? Components

What exactly is a case study? We might look at what are the elements of a good Case Study by applying the following "formula":

Case Study = Empirical Investigation + Contemporary Phenomenon + Real Context

• EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION: Case study is a strategy in which an empirical investigation is done for a particular contemporary phenomenon in its real context while using multiple sources (Robson, 2002).
• CONTEMPORARY PHENOMENON: The case is “a unit, entity, or phenomenon with defined boundaries’’ (Marriam, 1998).
• REAL CONTEXT: Because it describes the real context, the case study is best way for “appreciating the complexity of organizational phenomenon” (Yin, 1994) and study of human affair (Stake, 2000). The context of the phenomenon is also important in case study research because the real boundaries within ‘phenomenon’ and ‘context’ are not always clear (Yin, 2003).

		Comments Rating
		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Definition of a Case Study A case study is a research method involving an up-close, in-depth, and detailed examination of a sub... Sign up