building theories from case study research summary

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Building theories from case study research

1989, The academy of management review

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Case study research though increasingly popular in social sciences for positivist and intrepretivist research, a kind of confusion is prevalent when it is used ignoring its philosophical position. Arguably, the case study research is considered more appropriate for qualitative research because of its foremost strength ˗ the in-depth study of complex issues. This paper, drawing from the literature, discusses the philosophical position of case study research and argues that qualitative case study research is appropriate for theory building. For theory building, this paper follows the inductive approach guided by qualitative research paradigm and argues that it is not appropriate to assess theory building from the perspective of quantitative research. Very similar to other research methods, it is natural that the case study research has certain challenges; however, most of the challenges and misunderstandings overlap causing difficulty to understand the role of case study research. Hence, this paper aims to contribute to the understandings of the challenges and misunderstandings associated with the theory building from case study research. This paper argues that most of the challenges associated with theory building from case study can be addressed employing appropriate research strategies particularly clear understanding of philosophical stance and selection of appropriate case. The misunderstandings, on the other hand, are arisen due to the differences in the researcher's perspectives particularly positivistic thinking of them rather than the shortcomings inherent in the qualitative case study research design.

This paper discusses the importance of theory to research and includes a discussion of how theory is conceptualized. Researchers have debated the definition of theory for many years, with many theorists using typologies and classifications systems to describe the types of theory, in the context of purpose, functions, boundaries, and goals.Theory that is driven by research is directly relevant to practice and beneficial to any field of study. The systematic nature of theory is to provide an explanation of a problem, to describe the distinguishing innovative features of a phenomenon, and to provide predictive utility. Research without theory has no foundation; likewise, theory depends on research to provide proof of the theories correctness.

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Although the advantages of case study design are widely recognised, its original positivist underlying assumptions may mislead interpretive researchers aiming at theory building. The paper discusses the limitations of the case study design for theory building and explains how grounded theory systemic process adds to the case study design. The author reflects upon his experience in conducting research on the articulation of both traditional social networks and new virtual networks in six rural communities in Peru, using both case study design and grounded theory in a combined fashion in order to discover an emergent theory.

This article, together with a companion video, provides a synthesized summary of a Showcase Symposium held at the 2016 Academy of Management Annual Meeting in which prominent scholars—Denny Gioia, Kathy Eisenhardt, Ann Langley, and Kevin Corley—discussed different approaches to theory buil[ding with qualitative research. Our goal for the symposium was to increase management scholars' sensitivity to the importance of theory-method "fit" in qualitative research. We have integrated the panelists' prepared remarks and interactive discussion into three sections: an introduction by each scholar, who articulates their own approach to qualitative research; their personal reflections on the similarities and differences between approaches to qualitative research; and answers to general questions posed by the audience during the symposium. We conclude by summarizing insights gleaned from the symposium about important distinctions among these three qualitative research approaches and their appropriate usages.

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