Case study research : principles and practices

Case Study Research: Principles and Practices aims to provide a general understanding of the case study method as well as specific tools for its successful implementation. These tools can be utilized in all fields where the case study method is prominent, including business, anthropology, communications, economics, education, medicine, political science, social work, and sociology. Topics include the definition of a 'case study,' the strengths and weaknesses of this distinctive method, strategies for choosing cases, an experimental template for understanding research design, and the role of singular observations in case study research. It is argued that a diversity of approaches - experimental, observational, qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic - may be successfully integrated into case study research. This book breaks down traditional boundaries between qualitative and quantitative, experimental and nonexperimental, positivist and interpretivist. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Acknowledgments 11 1 The Conundrum of the Case Study 15 The Paradox 19 Situating This Book 22 Foregrounding the Arguments 24 Qualitative and Quantitative 24 Experimental and Observational 25 Case Studies and Cross-Case Studies 26 Part I: Thinking about Case Studies 29 2 What Is a Case Study?: The Problem of Definition 31 Definitions 33 A Typology of Covariational Research Designs 41 The N Question 43 The Style of Analysis 47 3 What Is a Case Study Good For?: Case Study versus Large-N Cross-Case Analysis 51 Hypothesis: Generating versus Testing 53 Validity: Internal versus External 57 Causal Insight: Causal Mechanisms versus Causal Effects 57 Scope of Proposition: Deep versus Broad 62 The Population of Cases: Heterogeneous versus Homogeneous 64 Causal Strength: Strong versus Weak 67 Useful Variation: Rare versus Common 70 Data Availability 71 Causal Complexity 75 The State of the Field 76 Part II: Doing Case Studies 79 4 Preliminaries 82 The Evidence 82 The Hypothesis 85 Degrees of Falsifiability 88 The Particular and the General 90 Specifying a Population 94 Cross-Level Reasoning 97 5 Techniques for Choosing Cases 100 Typical Case 105 Cross-Case Technique 107 Conclusion 110 Diverse Case 111 Cross-Case Technique 113 Conclusion 114 Extreme Case 115 Cross-Case Technique 116 Conclusion 118 Deviant Case 119 Cross-Case Technique 120 Conclusion 121 Influential Case 122 Cross-Case Technique 124 Conclusion 128 Crucial Case 129 The Confirmatory (Least-Likely) Crucial Case 130 The Disconfirmatory (Most-Likely) Crucial Case 134 Conclusion 135 Pathway Case 136 Cross-Case Technique with Binary Variables 136 Cross-Case Technique with Continuous Variables 140 Conclusion 144 Most-Similar Case 145 Cross-Case Technique 148 Conclusion 152 Most-Different Cases 153 Conclusion 156 Conclusion 159 Ambiguities 161 Are There Other Methods of Case Selection? 163 6 Internal Validity: An Experimental Template 165 An Experimental Template 166 Dynamic Comparison 171 Longitudinal Comparison 174 Spatial Comparison 178 Counterfactual Comparison 179 Ceteris Paribus 182 7 Internal Validity: Process Tracing 186 Examples 188 The Nature of Process-Tracing Evidence 192 The Usefulness of Process Tracing 195 Conclusion 198 Epilogue: Single-Outcome Studies 201 Why Study Single Outcomes? 204 The Argument 206 Causal Logic 209 Analysis 211 Nested Analysis 212 Most-Similar Analysis 217 Within-Case Analysis 218 Putting Cross-Case and Within-Case Evidence Together 221 Conclusion 224 Glossary 225 References 233 Name Index 271 Subject Index 277 "Case Study Research: Principles and Practices aims to provide a general understanding of the case study method as well as specific tools for its successful implementation. These tools can be utilized in all fields where the case study method is prominent, including anthropology, business, communications, economics, education, medicine, political science, social work, and sociology."--Jacket