What Kind of Business Case Studies are We Writing?

Abstract

What is the difference between a research paper and a business case study? Are all good business cases decision-focused? This note provides a brief description of field-based, research-based, and armchair cases. It also reviews the notion of a descriptive or evaluative case. Although the material was written to generate a discussion of what a business case study is for case writing workshops, it is useful for those who are new to case writing—students and faculty. Excerpt UVA-PHA-0064 Apr. 12, 2012 WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS CASE STUDIES ARE WE WRITING? From time to time, debate bubbles up in the literature and at conferences over what exactly constitutes a business case study. Questions are raised, such as: Are cases theory-building tools? Verbal representations of practitioners' experiences? Perhaps a bit of both? What's the difference between a research paper and a business school case study? Understanding what exactly a case study is in the business field can be complicated. To avoid any misunderstanding in terminology, using a full description, such as business case study, distinguishes the material from a qualitative empirical approach to research that investigates a single example or limited number of cases (for example, n = 1), often called a case study. The original business case studies presented an executive's experience with a practical business issue or problem. All data was gathered through field-based interviews and, with any luck, company provided documents. Yet as business school programs expanded, so did the range of business case studies. Practicing managers and their firms were sometimes reluctant to share proprietary information, so case writers had to use existing sources of data, and the research-based business case study was born. When executives didn't want to air their missteps publicly, field-based data would be disguised, a practice that evolved into the armchair business case study, which is completely fabricated. . . .