What is a business case study? Real life or fictitious examples of how an organization handles a given business issue. Case studies will describe the challenge encountered and explain how the business handled it.
Why use case studies? Case studies illustrate concepts and theories in practice, which helps deepen your understanding of the theory or concept. Further, case studies of successful business strategies can act as a model to follow in developing your own strategies.
You can locate case studies in a number of the library's databases. Below are a few that have lots of case studies, as well as information on how to search for case studies within each database.
Business Insights Global: Includes case studies from a wide variety of journals and institutions. After opening the database, navigate to "advanced search"
Enter your keywords into the search box, then scroll down to "search limiters" and select "case studies" under "content type"
ABI/INFORM Complete: A key journal available through ABI/Inform is MIT Sloan LearningEdge, among many others. To search for case studies in this database, use advanced search:
In advanced search, enter your topic keywords AND case study:
Business Source Complete: Includes case studies on topics such as management, economics, finance, accounting, marketing, banking, and international business. To search this database, enter your topic keywords AND case study:
As you search for and analyze case studies, use a critical eye to make sure you're getting the most relevant and useful cases for your research.
Double check dates. Generally a more recently published case study will be more relevant than one from many years ago.
Take note of whether the case study you're looking at is a real life example or a scenario created for educational purposes. Both types of case studies can be useful, but it is important to be aware of whether you're referencing a real life situation or a fictional account.
