Objectives After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Understand the kinds of research questions that can be answered through explanatory case study designs;
  
• Identify inappropriate or inadequate uses of the case study designs, including studies labeled "case study" that fail to meet the requirements for the design;
• Take steps to reduce the threats to internal and external validity inherent in case study designs, particularly the threats that result from limited ability to anticipate unanticipated or accounted for differences among groups that threaten the validity of results;
• Assess the explanatory power, and internal and external validity of case study designs;
• Evaluate the quality of sampling strategies used in these designs and develop sampling strategies to help ensure that samples are adequate and that the samples for comparison groups are reasonable;
  
• Create explanatory case study designs to answer research and evaluation questions.
  

Assigned Materials

Assigned Topic 1: What is a case study DESIGN (not method, not sampling approach, but design)?

Learning Guide: Case Study Designs -- Based on Yin

Yin, R.K. (2009) Case Study Research. 4th Edition. Chapter 2, Designing Case Studies: Identifying Your Cases and Establishing the Logic of Your Case Study, pp. 24-65. E-reserve

Baxter, P. & Jack, S. (2008) Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report 13(4), 544-559. Baxter & Jack build on Yin and largely the three authors agree on most of the critical aspects of case study research designs. However, the Baxter & Jack article also exposes some of the problems in discussing case study designs. One example is Table 2 on p. 547. This table includes a long list of types of case studies, whereas Yin uses an approach based on embedded versus holistic units and number of comparison groups. I find the Baxter & Jack approach both helpful and confusing. In some ways it does more to distinguish between explanatory, exploratory and descriptive case study designs than does Yin, but it also introduces some confusion -- at least to me. For example, they say that one type of case study is "descriptive" meaning that the case study "...is used to describe an intervention or phenomenon and the ral-life context in which it occurred," a definition they attribute to Yin. However, later in the same table they refer to the "intrinsic type" of case study. Their description is lengthy, but basically -- it seems to me -- they are saying a descriptive case study that consists of a single case. Table 3 is excellent and will help you develop propositions (kind of like hypotheses, but the qualitative version) for a case study if you decide to use qualitative data analysis. The article is easier to read than Yin -- you might want to read it first.

Slide show about Case Study Designs

For the last time (??) please consult Comparative Characteristics of Design Groups.

Additional Materials -- including good information on sampling and data analysis for case studies

Almutairi, A.F., Gardner, G.E. & McCarthy, A. (2014) Practical guidance for the use of pattern-matching technique in case-study research: A case presentation. Nursing & Health Sciences 16(2), 239-244. DOI: 10.1111/nhs.12096.

Barratt, M.J. & Lenton, S. (2015) Representativeness of online purposive sampling with Australian cannabis cultivators. International Journal of Drug Policy 26(3), 323-326. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.10.007. DOI: 10.1177/1525822X14526838.

Barratt, M.J., Ferris, J.A. & Lenton, S. (2015) Hidden populations, online purposive sampling, and external validity: Taking off the blindfold. Field Methods 27(1), 3-21.

Benoot, C., Hannes, K. & Bilsen, J. (2016) The use of purposeful sampling in qualitative evidence synthesis: A worked example on sexual adjustment to a cancer trajectory. BMC Medical Research Methodology 16, 1-12. DOI: 10.1186/s12874-016-0114-6.

Cronin, C. (2014) Using case study research as a rigorous form of inquiry. Nurse Researcher 21(5), 19-27.

Elman, C., Gerring, J. & Mahoney, J. (2016) Case study research: Putting the quant into the qual. Sociological Methods & Research. 45(3), 375-391. DOI: 10.1177/0049124116644273.

Freeman Herreid, C., Prod'homme-Genereaux, A., Schiller, A. et al. (2016) What makaes a good case, revisited: The Survey Monkey tells all. Journal of College Science Teaching 45(1), 60-65.

Houghton, C., Casey, D., Shaw, D. & Murphy, K. (2013). Rigour in qualitative case-study research. Nurse Researcher 20(4), 12-17.

Kamholz, B.W., Gulliver, S.B., Helstrom, A. et al. (2009) Implications of participant self-selection for generalizability: Who participates in smoking laboratory research. Substance Use and Misuse 44(3), 343-356. DOI: 10.1080/10826080802345051.

Killingback, C., Tsofliou, F. & Clark, C. (2017) Older people's adherence to community-based group exercise programmes: A multiple-case study. BMC Public Health 17 (January 25):12. DOI 10.1186/s12889-017-4049-6

McInroy, L.B. (2016) Pitfalls, potentials and ethics of online survey research: LGBTQ and other marginalized and hard-to-access youths. Social Work Research 40(2), 83-93. DOI: 10.1093/swr/svw005

Perakla, A. (2004) Reliability and validity in research based on naturally occurring social interaction. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice (pp. 283-304). London: Sage Publications. E-reserve

Rubaie, T. (2002) The rehabilitation of the case-study method. European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Health 5(1), 31-47.

Rule, P., John, V.M. (2015) A necessary dialogue: Theory in case study research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 14(4), 1-11. DOI: 10.1177/1609406915611575.

Topp, L., Barker, B. & Degenhardt, L. (2004) The external validity of results derived from ecstasy users recruited usingn purposive sampling strategies. Drug & Alcohol Dependence 73(1), 33-41. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2003.09.001.

Unicomb, R., Colyvas, K., Harrison, E. & Hewat, S. (2015) Assessment of reliable change using 95% credible intervals for the differences in proportions: A statistical analysis for case-study methodology. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research 58(3), 728-739. DOI: 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-S-14-0158.

van Hoeven, L.R., Janssen, M.P., Roes, K.C.B. & Koffijberg, H. (2015) Aiming for a representative sample: Simulating random versus purposive strategies for hospital selection. BMC Medical Research Methodology 15, 1-9. DOI: 10.1186/s12874-015-0089-8.

Walia, R., Bhansali, A. Ravikiran, M. et al. (2014) Self weighing and non-probability samples. Indian Journal of Medical Research 140(1), 150-151.