ABSTRACT
Case studies have the common feature that they all involve intensive study of one instance of some object of study, such as an individual, event, activity, program, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies involve intensive study of a small number of instances of individuals, events, entities, or processes that may use a wide variety of types and sources of information. Explanatory case studies are generally undertaken in relatively well-trodden areas, where we have a pretty good idea of the issues and conceptual ways to think about them based on a well-developed scholarly literature. Case studies can be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory. Designing a case study entails being clear on our unit of analysis, developing theoretical propositions to guide our study, selecting appropriate case design features, checking the validity and reliability of our design, and planning to triangulate our data if we are using multiple data sources.
