Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Applied Social Research Methods) by Robert K. Yin

Author:Robert K. Yin [Yin, Robert K.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781483322247
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2013-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

ABSTRACT

Data analysis consists of examining, categorizing, tabulating, testing, or otherwise recombining evidence, to produce empirically based findings. Analyzing case study evidence is especially difficult because the techniques still have not been well defined. You can start your own analysis by “playing” with the data and searching for promising patterns, insights, or concepts—the goal being to define your priorities for what to analyze and why. Absent your own strategy, four other general strategies are to rely on theoretical propositions, work your data from the “ground up,” develop a case description, and examine rival explanations. Using various computer aids can help to manipulate large amounts of data, but you still will have to define the relevant codes and interpret any observed patterns. In this sense, the computer aids cannot substitute for having a general analytic strategy.

Any of the general strategies then can be used in practicing five specific techniques for analyzing case studies: pattern matching, explanation building, time-series analysis, logic models, and cross-case synthesis. When a case study involves an embedded design and appropriately fine-grained data for the embedded unit of analysis, the analyses can incorporate statistical models for the embedded unit of analysis, but not for the case study as a whole. Throughout, a persistent challenge is to produce high-quality analyses, which require attending to all the evidence collected, displaying and presenting the evidence apart from any interpretation, and considering alternative interpretations.

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