Collection Spotlight: What’s a Case Study?

by Stephanie JH McReynolds, Librarian for Business, Management, and Entrepreneurship

Syracuse University Libraries offers hundreds of case studies to enhance student learning. Case studies illustrate phenomenon, situations, principles and theories in a way that helps students better understand and engage with the material they are learning. Case studies do this by presenting “an account or a scenario, either fictional or real, which allows the student to apply what they have learned and make sense of it in a realistic context” (Wallace, 2015). In addition to the main scenario, case studies often include discussion questions to prompt independent reflection and classroom conversations. Some case studies include teaching notes to help guide the instructor in how they might present and teach the case.

Case studies are used in many different disciplines and may be found in several databases. For a list of case study databases, go to Case Studies (under Types) on the Databases list.

Here are a few highlighted cases from case study databases:

Sage Business Cases

Case studies supporting several business disciplines and topics, such as Accounting, Diversity and Inclusion, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Human Resource Management, International Business, and more. Here are just a few of the many business case studies offered:

• Cultural Branding Through Music Videos: Jessie Reyez’s Advocacy for Indigenous Rights
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Reporting in the US: How to Prepare and Communicate Evolving Requirements
• Creating a Hospitality LGBTQ+ Healthcare Clinic
• SuperHeroes LLP: A Super Management Control Case
• Hiring Dilemma: Championing Gender-Equity Hiring at a Higher-Education Institution

Sage Research Methods Cases

Teaching cases used to illustrate a variety of social science research methods. Case studies for teaching research methods include:

• Afro-Indigenous Social Science Methods: Applying an Anticolonial Approach in Detroit, Michigan, as a Case Study
• Crowdsourcing Good Data: Practical Applications for Collecting Data Online
• Using Regression Analysis to Explore the Influence of Board Characteristics on Earnings Quality and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Nigerian and Ghanaian Oil Companies
• A Case Study in Working With Remote Field Interviewers
• Navigating Ethical Boundaries in Educational Research: Conducting an IRB-Guided Study on Gamified Review Sessions

Engineering Case Studies Online

Case studies related to what can be learned from engineering failures. Browse by “Engineering Events,” such as Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (BP), to find documentaries, accident reports, experiments, visualizations, case studies, lectures and interviews. Among many others, events include:

• Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
• Ford Pinto Controversy
• Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
• TWA Flight 800
• Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

JoVE, Journal of Visualized Experiments

Includes video demonstrations of laboratory methods, clinical skills and science concepts, such as:

• Tracking Individual Running Metrics in Mice Using a Voluntary Wheel Running Protocol that Minimizes Social Isolation
• Peripheral Vascular Exam Using a Continuous Wave Doppler
• Classifying Matter by Composition
• Preparation of Matcha Fresh Noodles with Stable Color using Embedding Method and Microwave Treatment
• Using GIS to Investigate Urban Forestry

WARC

Offers case studies of advertising, marketing communications and branding. A few WARC case studies:

• Knorr: Playing fast food at their own game – How Knorr hacked culture to get under-35s eating good food
• ServiceNow: Put AI to work for people
• Telkom: Unisa
• Jian Ai Elderly Charity Center: Lost in Time
• Otsuka: Salary.com family caregiver calculator

In addition to case study databases, case studies may be found via Research Guides, Libraries Search and article databases. For example, a search for case study or case studies across Research Guides reveals additional case study resource recommendations, such as Case Study Resources for the iSchool and Business Case Studies. In Libraries Search, case studies may be found by searching for case studies or case study and then limiting results by Subject or by adding relevant keywords. Article databases, such as ProQuest and EBSCO databases, sometimes include a Case Study filter.

It should be noted that these types of broader searches for case studies may result in finding illustrative teaching case studies (such as those highlighted in the list of case study databases) as well as research case studies. Rather than presenting a fictional or real scenario or example with the goal of enhancing student learning, a research case study is a type of research methodology. Accepted in many disciplines as “an established research design,” a research case study “is a research approach that is used to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context” (Crowe, 2011).

To provide feedback or suggest a title to add to the collection, please complete the Resource Feedback Form.

References

Crowe, S., Cresswell, K., Robertson, A., Huby, G., Avery, A., & Sheikh, A. (2011, June 27). The case study approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 11(100). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-11-100

Wallace, S. (2015). Case study. In A Dictionary of Education. Oxford University Press. https://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?qurl=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199679393.001.0001/acref-9780199679393-e-148

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