Case Study Methodology in Business Research

Jan Dul & Tony Hak

The aim of the book is to present case study methodology for developing theory in business research. It achieves this by starting with 4 methodological chapters followed by 6 chapters in which the methodology is specifically applied to real life business research. Lessons learned from these case studies (including personal experiences of the researchers) will be emphasized in a final chapter. All editors and authors have extensive experience with conducting case study research and with teaching case study research methodology.

Table of contents  
Foreword (Chris Voss, London Business School);
Aims and overview of this book;
A review of case studies in business research (Raf Jans and Koen Dittrich);
Principles of empirical research;
Theory-testing research;

Part II: Theory-testing in case study research;
Testing sufficient and necessary conditions;
How to test a sufficient or a necessary condition;
Case study 1: Testing a theory of collaboration characteristics of innovation projects (Koen Dittrich);
Methodological reflection on case study 1;
Case study 2: Testing a theory of ideal typical organizational configurations of successful product innovations (Ferdinand Jaspers and Jan van den Ende);
Methodological reflection on case study 2;
Testing a deterministic proportional relationship;
How to test a deterministic proportional relationship;
Case study 3: Testing the influence of urban time access windows on a retailers distribution costs (Hans Quak); Methodological reflection on case study 3;
Testing a probabilistic proportional relationship;
How to test a probabilistic proportional relationship;
Case study 4: Testing the influence of a retailers distribution strategy on a retailers sensitivity to urban time access windows (Hans Quak);
Methodological reflection on case study 4;

Part III: Other types of case study research;
The pilot case study; How to design and conduct a pilot case study;
Case study 5: Testing a theory of conditions of success of new products (Murthy Halemane and Felix Janszen); Methodological reflection on Case study 5;
The theory-building case study;
How to design and conduct a theory-building case study;
Case study 6: Exploring which company representatives are involved in communication with providers of business services (Wendy van der Valk and Finn Wynstra);
Methodological reflection on case study 7;
The practice-oriented case study;
How to design and conduct a practice-oriented case study;
Case study 7: Building a model of best practice of company standardization (Henk de Vries and Florens Slob);
Methodological reflection on case study 7