Case Studies, continued

Despite the thousands of cases available from major case publishers, there is a shortage of cases that deal with business research problems and cases with substantial data sets. Most published cases deal with management problems rather than research problems. Most cases present results of data analysis rather than original data. Those cases that do provide data include only small data sets.

What is a research case study? A research case study concerns research as well as management issues. It has an information as well as a decision-making focus. Rather than presenting the results of data analysis, a research case study asks students to do data analysis. A substantial data set often accompanies a research case study. The students' task may be to gather, generate, organize, or analyze data and to present those data in a form that management can use for decision making. In other words, a research case study is a differentiated case publication product.

Research case studies are needed for courses in business statistics, quantitative methods, operations management, financial analysis, management information systems, and market research. Research case studies can address as many problems as there are needs for information within organizations.

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