Case Theory in Business and Management

Reinventing Case Study Research

Evert Gummesson

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781473926820
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

?This meticulous book submits research and the research process to deep scrutiny. It debunks the unhelpful dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research and highlights the great value of multi-method and interactive research, approaches that have greatly deepened our thinking.?

– Professor Adrian Payne, University of New South Wales, Australia / Professor Pennie Frow, University of Sydney

Setting out to dispel the argument that case study research lacks the science, theory and therefore validity of other forms of research, Evert Gummesson combines many decades of experience as both a renowned scholar and a reflective practitioner to effectively bridge the divide between case theory and how it is applied in practice.

Bringing the fundamental strengths of cases to the fore, Gummesson introduces the ?Case Theory? concept as an expanded version of case study research which includes both methodology and the types of results that emerge by:

• Guiding the reader in the theoretical and philosophical underpinning
• Demonstrating how to translate theory to pertinent research practice that address the real and consequential issues in business and management today.

This book will appeal to students, academics and researchers who are interested in the science and philosophy behind case study research as well as the methodology and a thought-provoking read for anyone who wants to be challenged about their belief of case study theory.

Part I Think Right

We can only do useful research in business and management if we think right.

The philosophy and theory of science offer guidance.

This book started out as a methods book on case study research in business and management. During the long journey of writing, my conviction grew stronger and stronger that cases are much more powerful than their reputation says. It ended up with the discovery of case theory. Analogous to network theory, systems theory and grounded theory among others, ‘theory’ then includes both the methodology of doing research and the types of results that come out of it.

There are philosophical as well as technical and practical aspects of doing research, and we need them all. Most methodology in the social sciences is in practice technique-oriented, assuming that if we follow a set of prescribed steps the outcome is by default valid and useful. This is not so.

By convention and less by reflection, research is divided into quantitative and qualitative, and case study research is classified as qualitative. Quantitative research presents itself as royalty and treats qualitative research as the underdog. I consider the quantitative/qualitative divide misleading. Quantitative and qualitative are only 2 of many characteristics of a research approach and they do not earn the status of overriding categories. The increasingly used concept of mixed methods research allows each specific research project to draw on the most suitable and combined methodologies.

When academic texts are the object of a critical review, the reviewer is usually looking for faults and deficiencies. Please, look for strengths and improvements in the first place! This book keeps an open code, which means that constructive ideas on how to improve case theory and its applications are welcomed.

Part I introduces my perception of research and science. It is an effort to encourage you to THINK RIGHT. Although philosophy may sound impractical to many in business and management, its original meaning was ‘love of wisdom’. It was the only discipline at university. Today’s philosophy of science deals with the fundamental principles of acquiring knowledge and making our existence more liveable and meaningful. Part II is about transforming case theory into research practice. It is hands-on and technical: DO RIGHT.

‘Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.’ (Thomas Jefferson, US president, 1801–1809)

1 From Case Study Research to Case Theory

This chapter is an introduction to my efforts to give case study research a proper place in science, explaining how, when and where it can be used and doing away with misconceptions, condescending characterizations and sloppy applications. Above all, I stress its capacity to address business and management complexity, and offer better solutions to a particular problem as well as to develop better general theory for decision-making and action.

Science and research are about understanding the riddles of life. Even with the riddles unsolved, human beings have a genetic drive to survive and sometimes to develop themselves. For lack of complete knowledge, we ‘muddle through’ as best we can. One of the ways to muddle smarter is to apply scientific methodology.

My scientific credo has developed over many decades. An important milestone was my book Qualitative Methods in Management Research, first written in the early 1980s and then published and revised several times, the last time in 2000. It is my most cited publication. My credo is further reflected in several articles on methodology and theory from the 2000s.¹ This book is yet another stop on my journey through Methodologyland. It is also about how I experience today’s research and education in business and management and what I would like to change. Going through methodology books and reflecting on my own research experience, I get the weird feeling that we are drowning in a whirlpool of methodologies, techniques and advice in our efforts to discover true knowledge and be accepted as ‘scientific’.

1. Among them Gummesson 2001, 2002b, 2003, 2006, 2007.

For decades I have experienced quantitative research as being highly overrated and inefficient. Yet it is given priority in most business schools and journals. Qualitative research is equally underrated, not least case study research. In writing this book I found it urgent to explain how cases could be more productively used in research. Gradually I realized that the 2 taken-for-granted categories – quantitative and qualitative – are delusive. They are focused on language – numbers versus words – and the ritual of doing research, not on the results and their usefulness. That it took me so long to acquire this insight shows how indoctrinated I was and how naively I had accepted received categories.

Throughout the book I strive to be outspoken rather than opportunistic and diplomatic. I have long asked myself whether researchers and practitioners are addressing real and consequential issues or if they are creating a pseudo-reality. And are they using research methods that really help them understand today’s business and management? This book is an effort to come closer to the real world.

The book is meant for all those doing research in business and management. A book is mass-produced but readers can customize it to fit their individual needs and interests; a book is also what the reader perceives it to be. You read it differently if you are an undergraduate student, a master’s student or a PhD student, and faculty reads it from the perspective of researchers and educators. Those who do research for organizations – in-house researchers, external research institutes and management consultants – have more practical reasons for reading it. The business press and investigative reporters can have a plethora of drives and address wide audiences. And consumers of research – those who read scientific journal articles, research reports, business and management books, the business press and consultant reports – could learn to better assess what they are exposed to.

A goal was to write a book of 250 pages, thus making it reasonably accessible to the reader. To a degree it is possible to condense a message without reducing its actual content. This is also educational for the author: Do I express myself distinctly? Am I repeating myself or using too many words – academics swim in a verbal ocean! Or is it too brief to be clear? I managed to cut out 200 pages but the book still came out much bigger than planned – and I could not find a way to reduce it more!

You can read the book in several ways:

• The whole book, if it is part of a course and you have to take a test. It is commendable that you read the whole book anyway but time pressure often provides a hindrance.
• If you are impatient, read this chapter and then go to Part II where the theory and philosophy of Part I transcend into research practice. You can look up concepts and philosophy in the earlier chapters during your research if you feel it called for.
• As an encyclopaedia – the index is extensive so you can easily find an issue.

After you have read the book, you should be able to start doing case studies for research purposes. But it takes time to become a seasoned ‘case chef’ and the best way of learning is to start practising. You have to cook the food, serve it and let others taste it: ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating.’ If I can get you on track, I have done my job. Then it is up to you. If you are lucky, you are also supported by mentors and colleagues.

We have already met the word research several times. But what is it? It is a systematic process of acquiring knowledge and learning about life and society. The word comes from the Latin circare, meaning to ‘go about, wander’, and it is related to both circle and circus. The original meaning goes very well with my perception of research as a never-ending and iterative process of search, re-search and re-search, meaning search, search again and again and again.

Science is another word that will appear frequently in the book. It originates from the Latin scientia, which meant knowledge in a generic sense but later became synonymous with the natural sciences. Even today many just say science when they mean natural sciences, especially physics, which leads to misunderstandings. It indicates that physics is superior to other types of science and that the social sciences and the humanities should imitate them. This issue will be brought up later. Scientific research is primarily associated with academic institutions but is also carried out by business firms and other organizations as well as by individuals. Scientific research should fulfil certain criteria but what these are is not necessarily evident.

A third word associated with research and science is theory. In a very general sense, theory strives to get fragments of knowledge together to see connections and patterns. In this way we can better overview the world and what we are doing.

What research, science and theory are and should be will be scrutinized throughout the book. The central theme of the book is how I consider that cases should be used in research. It is a condensation of my methodology-in-use and philosophical issues that have influenced me. The ambition is to take the case study beyond the current mainstream and to boost its scientific status.

Time and again I find that researchers hesitate to benefit from their everyday and personal experiences. Most writings on methodology make reference to iconic philosophers of science and designers of established research methods, techniques and strategies, but also to scientists and philosophers in vogue – yes, there is not only fashion in clothes but also in science. Although studies of what others have said and comparisons between them are essential, the goal here is not to discuss the differences between what Foucault said and how that agrees or disagrees with what Wittgenstein said. That is another discourse.

It is mandatory in academic publications to give ample references. With the swiftly growing number of publications, long rows of references increasingly interrupt the flow of the reading. I am more restrictive. Germane references are given in the text, in footnotes and in the reference list. For articles and books, it is redundant to load a text with sources that can easily be found in electronic databases and on Google and similar sites. Note, however, that Internet sources such as Wikipedia have to be double-checked to make sure the information is correct and up to date.² Complete references can be found at the end of the book followed by an index.

2. The evaluation of sources is treated in Chapter 9.

What Does ‘Case’ Mean?

In business and management disciplines, cases are used in different ways and for different purposes:

• Case study research is the traditional name of a methodology for studying the complexity of the ‘real’ world. It can include any issue which the researcher finds worth studying, for example the efficiency of an organization, the behaviour of financial markets or the success or failure of a merger. It can also be about a single consumer or citizen or a community of consumers and citizens. Case study research can lead to extensive descriptions but the real contribution appears when data is analysed and interpreted as the ground for conceptualization and theory generation, conclusions, reporting and practical application. Case theory is a broadened version of case study research and the topic of this book.

Cases are also used for other purposes – as:

• Examples and illustrations – to make abstract concepts, models and theories easier to grasp. By relating to everyday events such as shopping, it is easier to understand theories of consumer behaviour. Throughout this book there will be plenty of examples of applications of methods and excerpts from actual cases.
• Practitioner cases – presented by CEOs and others at conferences, in the media or in books to offer the audience accounts of how, for example, a company makes decisions, encourages innovation and plans for the future. This can be inspirational both to academics and practitioners. The presentations are often part of public relations and may be hyped and seductive; they are usually success stories, even ‘feel-good anecdotes’. The cases are rarely about failures, although these should be equally interesting. Practitioner cases do not qualify as the sole source for research but can provide elements of useful input.
• Educational tools – Harvard Business School introduced cases in classrooms to give students with little or no business and management experience a taste of the real world. Students were asked to analyse cases, compare them to what theory said, comment on what happened in the cases and make recommendations. This use of cases is common in business and management training today. Such cases are often, but not always, based on research and have been edited for teaching rather than for scientific purposes. Topical cases reported in the media can also be used in classroom discussions.

Cases are often dismissed by orthodox researchers as ‘anecdotal evidence’ and not generalizable. A case cannot be both anecdotal and evidence at the same time, s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Sidebar List
• Illustration List
• Table List
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Part I Think Right
• 1 From Case Study Research to Case Theory
• 2 The Business and Management Context
• 3 The Complexity Paradigm
• 4 Knowledge – or Noledge?
• 5 What should Research and Science be?
• 6 Theory Generation – and Testing
• 7 Interactive Research
• Part II Do Right
• 8 First Focus: The Research Plan
• 9 Second Focus: Access To Case Theory Data
• 10 Third Focus: Analysis and Interpretation – Linking Data To Theory and Conclusions
• 11 Fourth Focus: Research Quality and Productivity
• 12 Fifth Focus: Report, Communicate and Defend
• References
• Index