Methods of Case Study in Practice - Essay Example

Case study method Muteb Alkhaldi 3419498 Section Individual assignment 2 of New Brunswick Saint John MBA 7605 applied business Research Methods and Statistics D. Kim Lemky November, 5th2012 Case study method Conducting research has become part and parcel of the modern century. On all fronts, business in this century depends on researching for planning and execution. According to Nusser (2011) all institutions need research to enable them to remain significant in the corporate world. Educational institutions have also invested much in research ensuring their institutions are exposed to the best research methodology. The methods developed for research are also implemented when it comes to learning and passing information to scholars. All research methods should be developed in a way that they could be easily incorporated in learning. In learning, the best appropriate methodologies involve applicable examples depending on the topic or subject. In academic learning, application of real events has the largest impact on the students. In business and management, application of real events has been proven to bear the best results. Exworth, Peckham, Powell & Hann (2010) argue that real events give accurate assumptions that could be applicable in an organization. However, analysts argue that applying already existing events may be fatal to an organization if the assumption applied fails to work. It is however, advisable to plan ones operation through already existing events instead of taking unpredictable risk. The art of assessing real life happenings is referred to as a case study. The art of case study involves the analyzing of existing events, learning from pros and cons of the event, reviewing the results of the event and the recommendations given from the event. Case study method has been one of the oldest methodologies used to pass information and knowledge from the administration to the lower departments. Case study method is made appropriate by the fact that organizations tend to prepare notes from past events. In an argument by Green (2011) case study method is known for accuracy, reliability and applicable statistics. According to Simons (2009), a case study is very crucial if related companies compare notes and events. The case study method is best in business oriented institutions. Business and management rely greatly on case study. Almost 90 percent of all companies in existence base their operations and planning from past events. It is not by chance that even major companies in the globe use case studies to base their operations. A good example is the digital electronic companies. Major electronic companies like Samsung and Nokia base their planning of operation on already existing and successful electronic companies like Apple. In this case, Apple has enjoyed much success in the electronic industry. For any up and coming company, Apple would provide an important case study to emulate. This may help the company avoid mistakes apple did during its orientation times, and they could use the strategies used by Apple to achieve their success. Another advantage is that the strategies used by Apple could be improved further. Apart from the corporate world this paper will focus on the implementation of the case study method in the academic literature. In the academic literature, case study method is used to create a real situation picture for scholars. According to Swanborn (2010) academic literature based on case studies do not become insignificant with time. The author further argues that case studies show the existence of proof that the theories taught in schools is applicable in real life situations. Conducting academic lectures or writing academic literature without applying the theories in real life makes no sense to scholar. By application of the case study method, academic literature prepares scholars on what to expect as challenges in real life. Research highlighted by Mallin (2009) states that students between the ages of 15 and 18 were interviewed on the mode of learning they prefer. The research was also based on performance. The total number of students used for the research was 20. The 20 students included 10 students who had above average performance while the other 10 has a below average performance. Students who had a below average performance claimed that if the mode of teaching was changed, they would have improved performances. Eight out of 10 of these students suggested that if teaching methods would be more practical, and real their performance will improve. Students who recorded above average performances also attributed their success to the use of the case study method of teaching (Mallin, 2009). This is evidence that the relation of students to case study method of teaching is more than any other method of teaching. In realizing the importance of case study method, tutors have been using event stories to guide their students towards success. Gagnon (2010) also argues that academic literature based on case study is used more in international schools than any other method. For instance, Harvard University is one of the best institutions in the globe. The learning material used in this institution is mainly based on case studies (Woodside, 2010). Additionally, the institution often posts their students from which they could analyze specific cases and events. By scholars analyzing events they get firsthand information and skills that they may find useful in both of their career and scholarly life (Dul & Hak, 2012) Case study has become the leading method of academic literature in business and management learning. In business and management, learning and literature are based on case studies. Because of the depth of this method in business, most case studies examples are effectively analyzed by a number of experts. This enables the provision of research on recommendations on a particular case. In the field of business, one case study that has been of significance to many organizations and scholars was the case study on Honda Motor Company (Cameron & Gani, 2011). The case Study on Honda Motor Company has been used by companies in the motor industries and other upcoming companies. The depth of this particular case study has made it easier that even scholars could easily and apply the operations in the case study. In this particular case study, Honda Motor Company was developed from a small business arrangement to a global giant motor company. To date, the company has continued to inspire the creation of entrepreneurs and promotion of the entrepreneurial culture (Carducci, 2009). Analysts have come up with notes to explain the Honda case study even deeper. In the modern day, research on Honda Motor Company would provide a scholar or an organization with a wide range of options of success to choose from. Regardless of the age of Honda Motor Company, its success story continues to be an inspiration to many other motor companies in the industry. A top manager of Toyota Motor Company attributed the success the company enjoys to the success story of Honda Motor Company (Bent, 2011). From this, it is evident that the success of a company can be easily replicated by another company through the simple method of case study. Case study involves the use of narration in both business and academic literature. The narration in case studying involves a calculated explanation of each and every event that occurred in the case study. Each step in the narration is aimed at bringing out the steps and the events of the particular juncture. Humans are made in a way that they relate to storytelling and narration with ease. Case studying can be used as a story telling method where the audience is focused on obtaining the scholarly content of the narration. The narration in case studying is also aimed at creating interest in a topic to a particular audience. In the academic literatures, the creation of interest is important since the aim of academic literatures is to get many scholars exposed to the material. Case studying provides both narration and interest that scholars may find interesting and practical (Robinson, 2010). Apart from existing events, case studies are also created to suit a particular academic literature. This is evidence that case studies could be easily incorporated in any academic literature. However, created case studies borrow heavily from real life situations. This is done to maintain the originality in which the cases study was created. The creation of nonexistent case studies can only be done on academic literature. Different from business oriented case studies; academic literatures are aimed at providing ideas to scholars (Gone & Alcantara, 2010). In business and management on the other hand, case study aim at providing organizations with executable ideas. Additionally, these ideas should contain proof of success and should be measurable and presented at a certain probability. In business the case study methodology is used in many areas in an organization setting. In marketing, the methodology is used to predict the success of a marketing strategy. For instance, Apple used online marketing strategy in maximizing their sales (Mallin, 2009). After their success in this strategy, many electronic companies emulated their strategies to maximize their sales. In finance and human resource case study methodology is used to determine the best strategies used by successful companies to run internal operations in an organization. One significant example is the case study on Levi Strauss Ltd. This particular jeans making company used the grouping strategy to maximize their production in the organization (Green, 2011). However, the strategy lead to the death of Levi Strauss (Green, 2011). From this case study many organizations have avoided the application on the group arrangement in human resource. It is evident that the case study method is efficient in both business and academic literature. With its feature of narration, case study method makes it easier for scholars and trainees to comprehend specific requirements and operations (Thomas, Nelson & Silverman, 2010). It rich and lengthy history has also made the method accurate and highly dependable. Garger (2010) argues that the relationship that is created between literature and a scholar in case study cannot be created through any other method of writing literature. References Bent, F. (2011). Case study. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 4th Ed. CA: Thousand Oaks Cameron, I. & Gani, R. (2011). Product and Process Modeling: A Case Study Approach. CA: Elsevier Carducci, B. (2009). The Psychology of Personality: Viewpoints, Research, and Applications. New York: John Wiley & Sons Dr. Nusser, H. (2011). Outcomes of Faith during Hospitalization: A Case Study Method. Boston: AuthorHouse Dul, J. & Hak, T. (2012). Case Study Methodology in Business Research. London: Rout ledge. Exworthy,M., Peckham, S., Powell,M. & Hann, A. (2011). Shaping Health Policy: Case Study Methods and Analysis. New York: The Policy Press. Gagnon, Y. (2010). The Case Study as Research Method: A Practical Handbook. New York: PUQ Garger, J. (2010). Using the case study method in PhD research. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/postgraduate/articles/77789.aspx Gone, P. & Alcantara, C. (2010). The ethnographically contextualized case study method: exploring ambitious achievement in an American Indian community. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20438154 Green, R. 2011. Case Study Research: A Program Evaluation Guide for Librarians: A Program Evaluation Guide for Librarians. Boston: ABC-CLIO Mallin, C. (2009). Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Approach. New York: Edward Elgar Publishing. Robinson, M. (2010). How to write a case study. William David stone Institute note Simons, H. (2009). Case Study Research in Practice. CA: SAGE. Swanborn, P. (2010). Case Study Research: What, Why and How? CA: SAGE Thomas, J., Nelson, J. & Silverman, S. (2010). Research Methods in Physical Activity. Illinois: Human Kinetics Woodside, A. (2010). Case Study Research: Theory, Methods, Practice. New York: Emerald Group Publishing Read More