Qualitative design principles and methods

Qualitative Business Case Study: A Discussion
Business case studies are valuable educational tools used by educators, institutions, students and corporations within continuing education programs. Creating a case study or analyzing one written by a professor or executive, forces one to examine the strengths and weaknesses, successes and pitfalls of a particular business by analyzing precise situations, formulating one’s own conclusions and then making recommendations or other such inferences based on the data or predictions drawn from the data.
Case Study Design
The case study will manifest in a narrative or story-centric structure. The “main character” will be introduced early on in the case study as someone with a necessary objective or a specific but perhaps somewhat confounding choice that needs to be addressed (Schweitzer, 2015). The story of the main character remains interwoven throughout the case study design, offering necessary information about the company in question, the overall situation, and the major stakeholders (Schweitzer, 2015). The important part of this particular case study design is that it needs to give the reader enough data so that the reader can actually make a nuanced analysis about the questions that the case provokes. This type of case study is beneficial to use when a particular stakeholder needs to make a judgment, evaluation or course of action, or if a company is at a particular crossroads, and unsure of which direction to take (Schweitzer, 2015). Case studies of this design are beneficial as they take the perspective of a main character that is forced to engage in a particular decision. In this manner, the reader is forced to take their perspective, viewing the challenges from their eyes. This type of case study design is hence very useful as the type of learning that occurs is forced. The student or businessperson can’t help but constantly assess and evaluate—this is particularly true if the case study’s main character possesses a great deal of relatable humanity.
Furthermore, the storyline of a qualitative case study is one that allows the reader to get to know the main character, understand the type of obligations, burdens, and roles this person faces. The case study design provides rich detail about the obstacles and responsibilities this “hero” of the story is up against, as well as any inherent predispositions the character faces. This particular narrative case study design then provides crucial background information about the company, its history, business model and most salient competitors. This section of the case study might even show relevant internal documents—all designed to force the reader to make the best assessment about the most relevant course of action. Generally, with this type of case study design, the end part redirects the reader’s attention to the core challenge that the main character faces (Zott & Amit, 2010). At this point, the reader should be well ensconced in the perspective of the protagonist and should have several definitive answers or solutions about how to answer this question.
As useful as this case study design is, some of the issues that it can create for the reader are that it can be narrowing. This type of case study design does such an effective job at showcasing the protagonist’s perspective that it can sometimes be too challenging for the reader to think outside of the “box” of this viewpoint (Yin, 2017). This usually happens when case studies of this nature are written in such an engaging manner that it can be challenging to see past the protagonist’s views.
Another issue that can arise with this type of case study is that sometimes the main character has explored all viable solutions and still come up short, and the reader truly draws a blank when it comes to suggesting a viable solution.
A relevant problem statement pertaining to the doctoral persistence of business students might be something to the effect of: “How valuable is doctoral study to business students who have entrepreneurial goals when compared with real world entrepreneurial experience?” In a similar fashion, two qualitative research questions that are appropriate for case study design are:
What strategies are being used by Business X that helps create a healthy corporate culture?
What actions are being taken by Business X to foster more innovation and creativity within their employees?
For the second qualitative research question, a sample purpose statement would be as follows.
The purpose of the study is to determine what strategic actions, if any, are being taken by Business X in order to actively stimulate the creativity and innovation of their members of staff. Creativity and innovation are absolutely vital elements that will ensure both a business’s ability to survive and their ability to thrive. Fostering creativity and innovation within a business is one of the most surefire ways to remain competitive, to outshine one’s competitors and to attract organic attention. However, engaging employees and team leaders to think in a more creative fashion is one of the more nebulous challenges. From a qualitative research standpoint, it is worth digging deep into an organization and determining how they can effectively stimulate this type of innovative thinking from their members of staff. The research study will operate on the assumption that such things all start with inspiration, guidance and leading by example. However, the research design will take an interview format, where participants are asked open-ended questions in order to best determine how they are stimulated and inspired effectively. Since this subject and challenge is so nebulous, it is important to allow participants to answer freely and to readily adapt all methods so that the widest range of data is gathered (Andrade, 2009).
References
Andrade, A. D. (2009). Interpretive research aiming at theory building: Adopting and adapting the case study design. The qualitative report, 14(1), 42.
Schweitzer, K. (2015, August 31). Writing Business Case Studies for Class. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-write-and-format-a-business-case- study-466324
Yin, R. K. (2017). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Sage publications.
Zott, C., & Amit, R. (2010). Business model design: an activity system perspective. Long range planning, 43(2-3), 216-226.