Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research

@article{citeulike:1188022, abstract = {This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies. 10.1177/1077800405284363}, author = {Flyvbjerg, Bent }, citeulike-article-id = {1188022}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363}, journal = {Qualitative Inquiry}, keywords = {case\_study, generalizations, myths, qualitative\_research, theory\_building}, month = {April}, number = {2}, pages = {219--245}, posted-at = {2008-02-29 14:34:36}, priority = {0}, title = {Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363}, volume = {12}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1188022 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1188022 N2 - This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies. 10.1177/1077800405284363 IS - 2 JF - Qualitative Inquiry EP - 245 TI - Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research VL - 12 SP - 219 KW - case_study KW - generalizations KW - myths KW - qualitative_research KW - theory_building AU - Flyvbjerg, Bent PY - 2006/04/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363 ER -