Abstract
The paper maps the value of case study in management research. In particular, it deals with the paradigmatic aspects of case study as a research strategy. In order to analyse the convergence and divergence on different dimensions of the case study research, I focus on three well-known methodology experts, namely Robert Yin, Sharan Merriam and Robert Stake. I argue that case study is a comprehensive research strategy. It has the capacity to embrace paradigm plurality representing both inductive and deductive strategies. Because of its epistemological, ontological and methodological flexibility case study has become one of the established research approaches in management. There is no fixed set of methods for the case study research. This depends on the ontological presuppositions of the researchers. The significance of the ontology becomes apparent depending on the nature of the case and the types of the research questions. As case study research is reflexive, flexible and context-specific, it allows emerging contexts to shape methods. That is why it can act as a bridge across the research paradigms. I then look at the considerable influence that the case study approach has on the management research, i.e., the role for case study in the research process. Because of its overarching role, multi-paradigmatic approach can be adopted under case study research. Case study research is, in practice a varied methodology with paradigmatic pluralism covering an array of research methods and techniques and different levels of analysis.
Highlights
What does case study research represent in Management research? Is it quantitatively oriented along a linear deductive path underpinned by reductionism or is it a qualitative research strategy? Does it involve theory testing instead of theory building or both? Are there any fixed recipes for case study in terms of paradigm? These questions are highly relevant to case researchers
According to Verschuren (2003), divergence occurs in the case of: a) the empirical object of the case study and the way we look at it b) the research methods and c) the adequacy of the results to be obtained that are used
One good example of such a case study is a book by Gross et al (1971) titled Implementing Organizational Innovations: A Sociological Analysis of Planned Educational Change where both the observational and survey data led to quantitative information about attitudes in the school whereas the open-ended interviews led to the qualitative information
Summary
What does case study research represent in Management research? Is it quantitatively oriented along a linear deductive path underpinned by reductionism or is it a qualitative research strategy? Does it involve theory testing instead of theory building or both? Are there any fixed recipes for case study in terms of paradigm? These questions are highly relevant to case researchers. Social issues are context-based that require a broader comprehensive research strategy than the reductionist-compartmentalised approach. Patton et al, (2003: 63) rightly observed that “case studies offer the opportunity for a holistic view of a process as opposed to a reductionist-fragmented view ...”. According to this view, “the whole is not identical with the sum of its parts; the whole can only be understood by treating it as the central object of study” (Gummesson, 1991, quoted in Patton et al, 2003: 63). Case study has long been a contested methodological terrain in management research which represents dissimilar, sometimes opposing approaches. Important examples of case study research include Selznick’s (1949) study of TVA, Pettigrew’s (1973) study on decision-making at a British retailer, Burgelman’s (1983) a process model of internal corporate venturing in the major diversified firm, Mintzberg and McHugh’s (1985) strategy formation in an adhocracy, Pettigrew’s (1990) longitudinal field research on change: theory and practice and Hallowell et al.’s (2002) “Four seasons goes to Paris”, among others
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