BUILDING THEORY FROM CASE STUDIES

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This paper examines some of the issues which arise from management research which develops theory from case studies. It first raises some fundamental questions which arise when case material is used in management research. For example, confusion surrounds the distinctions between qualitative data, inductive logic and case study research. Further, the processes of building theory from case studies lacks clarity. To help clear up some of these matters several research programmes are described in which the author has been personally involved and which developed theory from case studies. These case studies are used as illustrations of the multiple ways that case material might be used. Although every researcher has his/her preferred approach, it is concluded that case studies may be built up in a number of ways from, on the one hand, deep single case studies to multiple case studies using comparative logic, on the other. Between these two extremes are a number of hybrid methods which use both approaches.

Citation

Gill, J. (1995), "BUILDING THEORY FROM CASE STUDIES", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 71-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb020950