Qualitative Case Study Analysis Research Articles

Globalizing higher education through internationalization and multiculturalism: The case of Indonesia

AbstractAs part of the efforts to globalize higher education in Indonesia, internationalization and multiculturalism are two globalization behaviors that have been promoted across higher education institutions. This study investigated both these behaviors through a qualitative case study analysis of four state universities in the country. The authors found that firstly, the autonomy of state higher education institutions played a significant role for the implementation of internationalization programs which is related not only to the flexibility in designing international programs, opening study programs, or recruiting foreign lecturers, but also to the budget amount allocations by the government. Secondly, in developing multiculturalism serious considerations on the cultural stance of the institution and the unique ideology of that institution needs to be undertaken and integrated with the national ideology. Thirdly, the role of the government in making policies and encouraging state higher education institutions to be more autonomous is essential to advance higher education in internationalization and multiculturalism.

Creating Extraordinary From Ordinary: High Resource Efficiency of Underdog Entrepreneurs and Its Mechanism.

Existing theory has not documented the potential benefits of facing the challenges of underdog entrepreneurs, who may succeed unexpectedly. This research explains why, and under what circumstances, the underdog status of entrepreneurs can promote entrepreneurial success rather than just hinder it. We predict that the underdog effect has the potential to boost entrepreneurial resource efficiency when entrepreneurs hold an incremental (vs. entity) theory, enter a low-barrier (vs. high-barrier) industry, and are in a favorable (vs. unfavorable) business environment. Study 1 provides support for the positive relationship between underdog status and resource efficiency through an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, which is accompanied by a moderating effect of the implicit theory, industry context, and business environment. The data was obtained from two nationwide surveys. By extending a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of multiple case studies, Study 2 reveals support for a synergistic effect of the above factors. Our research results examine the assumption that perceiving underdog status is detrimental and offer meaningful insights into why and when underdog entrepreneurs have good performance in entrepreneurial resource efficiency. We provide a psychological and behavioral explanation for the underdog effect, extending the underdog effect theory to the field of entrepreneurship for the first time from the perspective of the actors. Finally, theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed by indicating the limitations of the research.

Exploring user co-regulation of public services: insights from the Grenoble water user committee

ABSTRACT The co-production of public services by users and professionals has been the subject of much discussion. By contrast, we know little about how users engage in the regulation of co-produced services, a process we call co-regulation. Relying on the concept of civil regulation, our qualitative case study analysis of the Grenoble water services reveals three activities at play in co-regulation: information processing, standard-setting and modifying behaviours. Moreover, we highlight boundary conditions for co-regulation to be effective and contribute to value co-creation, namely an active civil society and strong relationships with local decision-makers.

Power dynamics in transdisciplinary research for sustainable urban transitions

Transdisciplinary Research (TDR) fosters collaboration amongst stakeholders from different academic disciplines and sectors of society, to jointly search for solutions to complex challenges including rapid urbanization. In order to enhance collaboration and ensure reciprocity of expertize amongst stakeholders, flattening the hierarchy of power is critical for working together to develop research agendas and experiment solutions. However, context dependent research on power dynamics in TDR is still limited and yet it is one of the conditions for understanding how to optimize the value and relevance of TDR in transitions to sustainable cities. This paper sheds light on power dynamics in TDR, using a qualitative analysis of case studies in the cities of Accra (Ghana), Durban (South Africa) and Nairobi (Kenya). Learnings from the case studies suggest that researchers should not overstate expert terminologies and illuminate the controversies that stem from stark differences in their methodological domains, during interfaces with stakeholders from policy and local communities, as this can dent the societal credibility and inclusiveness of the TDR process. Secondly, it is important to seize the potential of creating joint learning platforms using micro-level solutions in informal settlements, since it empowers local community representatives to assert themselves as co-researchers with legitimate perspectives on how the research agenda can be reshaped. Local-level solutions also provide scientific and policy windows for discerning expert biases in approaches used by academics and policy-makers to presuppose what can be done about the situation of under-privileged communities, which is key in building consensus when setting the research agenda.

Turnover and Retention Strategies Among Mental Health Workers

Background: The purpose of this study was to explore retention strategies that healthcare administrators use to retain mental health workers in community mental health clinics. The study was guided by the question What strategies do HCAs use to retain their MHWs with more than 2 years of experience? Methods: A qualitative case study analysis was performed. Interviews were conducted with six healthcare administrators at Fort Worth area community mental health clinics. Interviews were coded using thematic analysis. To increase the study’s reliability and validity, the interview guide was field checked by experts and member checking performed on interview transcripts. Results: The healthcare administrators identified six strategies for retention: providing good benefits packages, promoting worker health and wellness, providing competitive salaries, giving workers flexible scheduling options, incentivizing workers with rewards and positive reinforcement, and maintaining open communication channels. Conclusions: The results from this study have positive implications for mental health workers, patients, and community mental health clinics. The strategies identified in this study can be implemented to increase worker satisfaction and reduce turnover. In doing so, patients will receive higher quality care and organizations will be more attractive to prospective employees.

Assessing knowledge creation process: A case of the National Disaster Management Agency of Gambia

The Disaster Risk Management policy and strategy of Gambia’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) have technical challenges and require knowledge creation to enhance capacities to lessen the adverse effect of risks and probabilities of disasters in The Gambia. Also, limited or no resources and leadership support to knowledge creation. The research aimed to assess the current condition of knowledge creation process in NDMA on socialisation-sharing experiences from tacit knowledge, externalisation-voicing tacit to explicit, combination-structuring explicit, and internalisation-expressing explicit to tacit (SECI) and role of leadership in the knowledge creation process. Detailed interviews, questionnaires, and WhatsApp call employed with four questions targeted five staff informants from NDMA and eight partner institutions with one informant from each. The research adopted a qualitative case study and content analysis to analyse the data using Voyant tools looking at the subject and concept. The research found that SECI has unearthed NDMA strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and leadership bureaucracy coupled with fear factors to build capacities leading to coup d’état for positions. Therefore, SECI has been unnoticed and uncoordinatedly implemented from “Happy Corner” with experiential knowledge and the National Platform for disaster risk reduction (DRR).

‘The circle of life’: The role of life course in understanding job quality

This article seeks to examine the role of life course in understanding job quality. It uses a qualitative case study analysis of Australian restaurants and reveals how chefs at different life stages can subjectively perceive the same objective job characteristics differently. The findings extend pre-existing knowledge by demonstrating how workers’ subjective perceptions of job quality are shaped by their life stages.

Tackling societal challenges together: Co‐creation strategies and social innovation in EU policy and funded projects

AbstractThe last decade we saw an increasing academic, policy, and professional interest in the use of co‐creation to tackle societal challenges. Most research focused on qualitative analysis of case studies. This led to an understanding that co‐creation is essential for social innovation. We started this paper by analyzing co‐creation strategies ex ante to understand how EU‐funded consortia intend to tackle societal challenges. By quantitatively analyzing 300 EU projects and qualitatively analyzing the Horizon2020 “co‐creation for growth and inclusion” call, our research revealed four different types of consortia. We characterized these types by the coordinators and dubbed them, respectively, as research led, government led, enterprise led, and other led. These consortia were quite different in terms of diversity and preferred partners. We also distinguished three distinct co‐creation strategies that are focused on inclusion of stakeholders, the outcome, or tool development. We discovered that these strategies are not linked to types of consortia or projects, but only to the call text. We therefore conclude that the policy design of Horizon2020 led to a program that aims to stimulate innovation, but has become too rigid to be able to do so.

Scanning for Cultural Competency in Online Urban Planning Programs

This article investigates online urban planning degree programs. The Covid-19 pandemic forced urban planning programs to pivot to online delivery instantly. However, there is little preexisting knowledge on online learning in place-making fields of study both in the literature and in practice. Meanwhile, working and learning from home is expected to continue as part of urban planning education and practice. The key tension of teaching urban planning online, as a traditional place-dependent field, is the starting point for our inquiry in this article. To understand the state of online urban planning programs, an internet search was conducted. A database of 176 higher education programs was created that identified only eight online programs including degree-granting and certificate programs in urban planning. These urban planning program results were concentrated in the western United States. Key challenges in online learning were identified through a literature review, including pedagogical efforts in skill transfer and multiculturalism. The eight-program curriculum strategies were analyzed through a qualitative case study analysis. A discussion on the tactics during the transition from in-person to online education in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at California State Polytechnic University Pomona is also presented. This article provides online urban planning program information for educators currently teaching online and for those interested in creating an online program. Online programs in place-specific fields such as urban planning have particular challenges in understanding communities without site visits, ethnography, or robust in-person community engagement. Online urban planning programs must make additional efforts to achieve a social, collaborative learning and practice environment.

Technological capabilities development model in Chinese energy service companies

This paper investigates the energy service companies (ESCOs) in China from the perspective of technological capability (TC) development. The conventional capability development model of manufacturing in emerging economies has been adapted to examine the four dimensions of TC (investment, production, linkage and innovation) through a qualitative analysis of multiple case studies. Small and medium-sized private ESCOs can perform well based on investment and production capabilities to develop energy management software competence. Large state-owned ESCOs can develop more advanced linkage and innovation capabilities and serve large-scale businesses with more specialist services. For small and medium-sized ESCOs, competitiveness, customers and related business strategy are the primary drivers of TC development. These drivers are essential for large ESCOs, but government support and pressure are also important. The framework developed can be used to research ESCOs and other service providers in other developing countries.

Social Re-Evaluation Model: A Mechanism for Evaluating the Social Capital of at-Risk Adolescents in an ultra-Orthodox Collective Society

This study explores socio-cultural mechanisms in a religious collective society, Israeli Ultra-Orthodox (UO) Judaism, and describes how these mechanisms create unique risk situations for adolescents. Four risk factors contribute to a high dropout rate among Israeli UO youth: strict expectations according to gender norms, social exclusion, social surveillance, and secretiveness. The present research involved a qualitative analysis of multiple case studies of marginalized youth derived from data collected through structured interviews of 44 at-risk youth and 23 adult informants from various UO communities. Data analysis was based on grounded-theory methods and ethnographic and phenomenological content analysis. Findings showed that at-risk UO adolescents react to social reevaluation of both their personal and family’s social capital. When individuals or families are reevaluated by their community following an attempt to move between social fields or when a change in personal circumstances exposes a family problem, Social Reevaluation (SR) operates. The SR model provides a theoretical explanation for understanding why and how the social practices of UO youth at-risk may lead to changes in their behaviors. This novel approach illuminates the complexities of risk among adolescents in religious collective societies.

Social media as a medium for preventing radicalization (A case study of an Indonesian youth community’s counter-radicalization initiatives on Instagram)

This paper explores how an Indonesian national youth community uses social media as a radicalization prevention medium. In this paper, the Indonesian youth community’s applied online interventions are explored and evaluated through a mixed-method approach, using a qualitative case study and visual content analysis. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews and analyzed visual content outputs, focusing on the social media strategy enacted to create counter-radicalization narratives, and measuring social media engagement rates as a means of evaluating that strategy. This paper extends existing counter-radicalization studies by adding insights on how youth community-based social media initiatives could contribute as a non-coercive approach in combating radicalization.

An assessment of factors influencing awareness, access and use of agro-climate services among farmers in Clarendon, Jamaica

In recent times, the provision of agro-climate services has been elevated as an adaptation policy priority across the Caribbean. Despite strides in such efforts, there is a paucity of research on levels of awareness and use of climate services by farmers. Understanding these nuances can illuminate important pathways for improving climate service uptake and delivery for favourable social and economic development outcomes. In this paper, we used a mixed-method approach to assess the factors influencing climate service uptake among farmers (N = 356) in one of Jamaica’s principal agricultural regions, Clarendon. Regression analysis techniques were used to specifically determine the likelihood of farmers’ awareness, access and use of locally developed climate services disseminated via TV/radio, climate text message, online farmer bulletin, and community-specific forecast across fifteen (15) social and environmental variables. Eight (8) factors were found to have significant influence on climate service awareness, access, and use (p < 0.05). These include gender, age, access to extension service, participation in groups/organizations, climate change perceptions, non-farm income, farm size, and agronomic conditions. The active use of the climate and weather information was closely linked to farmers’ experiential observation of the relevance of the information within their own immediate context. Qualitative case study analyses further highlighted socio-spatial patterns of inequalities in CIS use, being dominated by the younger, more educated demographic. These results highlight potential entry points for increased tailoring of the design and delivery of agro-climate service products for greater effectiveness in climate service delivery. Given the projected impacts of increased climate variability on Caribbean agricultural systems, learning how farmers interact with agro-climate service products can surface opportunities to increase uptake and strengthen resilience.

Deciphering Impacts and Human Responses to a Changing Climate in East Africa

Climate-related human mobility (climate mobilities) is often portrayed as a key impact of human-induced climate change. Yet, causal, quantitative evidence on this link remains limited and suffers from disciplinary hurdles. One reason for this is that existing case studies do not incorporate insights from climate science methods and pay little attention to contextual factors in climate mobilities. We use a dual-method approach to categorise and classify. By combining a qualitative case study analysis with statistical approaches from topic modelling in an innovative dual-method framework, we show current empirical evidence on weather and climate-related impacts and human mobility in East Africa, an alleged hot-spot of climate change. We find that although climate change is referred to, implicitly and explicitly, as a tipping point for human mobility, studies imply a causal link between human mobility and climate change while under or misrepresenting evidence in climate science. A map of evidence allows studies to be matched with human mobility types and contextual factors influencing such mobilities in a changing climate with a novel and more ambitious form of synthesis, carving out the multi-causal nature of human mobility. Our findings show that climatic influences on human mobility are not independent. Rather, climate factors influencing human mobility are closely connected with contextual factors such as social norms, economic opportunities, and conflict. The findings suggest that there is currently low confidence in a climate change-human mobility nexus for East Africa. As a way forward, we propose emerging methods to systematically research causal links between climate mobilities and anthropogenic climate change globally.

Challenges and dilemmas in strategic urban experimentationAn analysis of four cycling innovation living labs

Living labs have emerged as a form of strategic urban experimentation in sustainability transitions governance among policy makers and researchers. Limited attention has been given to the various challenges and dilemmas when doing LLs in relation to enabling urban transitions. This paper unpacks 16 challenges and dilemmas that arise for different actors in the process of living lab experimentation. The paper combines theoretical insights from Strategic Niche Management literature and insights from transdisciplinary research on living labs with empirical data from a qualitative case study analysis of four cycling innovation living labs in the Netherlands. By contrasting challenges and dilemmas identified in literature and those derived from our data, we reflect on key gaps between conceptual aspirations and empirical realities of strategic urban experimentation in sustainability transitions.

Empowering students’ writing through a more useful metalanguage: A language-based approach to high school English language arts

Many systemic functional linguistics (SFL) scholars have shown the usefulness of students’ and teachers’ abilities to utilize a functional metalanguage for school writing (Berry, 2009; Coffin, 2006; Humphrey & Macnaught, 2016; Macken-Horarik & Morgan, 2011; Rose & Martin, 2012). In the U. S., SFL work has primarily focused on teaching English as an additional language (de Oliveira, 2010a; de Oliveira & Dodds, 2010b; Gebhard, Harman, & Seger, 2007; Schleppegrell, 2009). Few scholars have explored the implications of this metalanguage for heritage English speakers (e.g., Brown, 2006, 2008, 2011) or stigmatized dialects of English like in Appalachia (Angus & Iddings, 2013; Iddings & Angus, 2015). This article presents a qualitative case study and SFL analysis of student writing to discuss the metalanguage used by twelfth-grade ELA students and teachers in Appalachian Kentucky. I argue that teachers can empower students to talk about and compose their writing with a more useful metalanguage.

Framework for parametric assessment of operational and embodied energy impacts utilising BIM

In recent years advances in digital tools have been leading the way in the construction of cleaner, more energy-efficient buildings. Furthermore, improvements in Building Information Modelling (BIM) have resulted in various tools being used to assess building performance and overall Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). This work offers a unique insight into the development of a parametric LCA BIM tool, focusing on both operational and embodied energy perspectives through case study analysis of a commercial and a domestic building in the UK. A mixed research method was employed combining a literature review, qualitative and quantitative LCA case study analysis, and parametric modelling. The results indicate that embodied energy is much more critical in the early stages of the building's life, then is quickly overtaken by operational energy. In addition, many variations exist in energy outputs between domestic and commercial buildings. Operational energy takes a significant share in domestic buildings compared to commercial buildings. These variations are attributed to different design methods, construction materials, occupancy patterns and energy demands. The study proposes an LCA-BIM interactive user-led method of addressing energy hotspots for both operational and embodied elements, which can provide more instant identification of energy critical areas. Such an approach can offer real alternative BIM-based analysis tools during the design stages, compared to those currently being used, which focus mainly on either LCA of operational or embodied energy.

Evidential Pluralism and Epistemic Reliability in Political Science: Deciphering Contradictions between Process Tracing Methodologies

Evidential pluralism has been used to justify mixed-method research in political science. The combination of methodologies within (qualitative) case study analysis, however, has not received as much attention. This article applies the theory of evidential pluralism to causal inference in the case study method process tracing. I argue that different methodologies for process tracing commit to distinct fundamental theories of causation. I show that, problematically, one methodology may not recognize as genuine knowledge the fundamental claims of the other. By evaluating the epistemic reliability of these fundamental claims, we can find a way out of such conflicts and rescue pluralism.

Compounding focusing events as windows of opportunity for flood management policy transitions in Singapore

Urban floods are the result of natural and man-made events, with their economic, social, and environmental impacts reflecting policy and political decisions taken at different times in the history of cities. In this paper, we discuss flood events in Singapore over 2010 and 2011 specifically in the Orchard Road area, one of the traditionally most important retail and touristic areas in the city-state, as the compounding focusing events that opened a window of opportunity for national flood management policy transitions. Using qualitative case study analysis and topic modelling, we evaluate the multi-pronged plans and measures taken by the government to strengthen Singapore’s flood resilience, and the lessons learned that were born out of these events. We conclude the Orchard Road floods served as a focusing event that directed and raised the attention to the limitations of flood management in Singapore and reaffirmed the importance of adaptive management in policy making.

Navigating tensions in rendering both career and psychosocial functions: An exploratory study of hybrid multiplex developmental relationships

AbstractThis study presents a different perspective on multiplex developmental relationships encompassing both career and psychosocial functions by highlighting the unique contradictions and coping mechanisms underlying these relationships. The in‐depth qualitative comparative case study analyses of 73 developmental relationships of 20 nascent technology entrepreneurs yielded four tensions: disclosure‐privacy, dependence‐independence, criticism‐confirmation and formality‐informality. Entrepreneurs and their developers addressed these tensions through four coping strategies: selection, moderation, reframing and separation. The exploratory analysis suggests that tensions are inherent features of developmental relationships. Co‐existence of nurturing and enriching aspects together with the dilemmas posed by the tensions seems to provide the impetus for developers and developees to mutually calibrate ways to cope with these tensions and enhance their developmental relationships. The implications of these nuanced findings are discussed for understanding developmental relationships constituting both career and psychosocial support functions needed for career advancement.