Case Study Method

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Inspired by constructivist epistemology to produce context-specific statements about the participants in focus, the current thesis appeals to case-studies in the single case-study analysis. Case study method enables a researcher to closely examine the data within a specific context. In most cases, a case study method selects a small geographical area or a very limited number of individuals as the subjects of study. Case study method is widely recognised especially when in-depth explanations of a social behaviour is the purpose, as in the case of the current study. Large-n analysis shows that it is difficult to generalize knowledge about think tanks across regions and countries. The same correlated factors may have different effect on the work…show more content…
Exploratory case studies set to explore any phenomenon in the data which serves as a point of interest to the researcher to open up the door for further examination of the phenomenon observed. The goal of the researcher in descriptive case studies is to describe the data, or the phenomena which occur within the data. McDonough and McDonough suggest that descriptive case studies may be in a narrative form. The challenge of a descriptive case study is that the researcher must begin with a descriptive theory to support the description of the phenomenon. If this fails there is the possibility that the description lacks rigour. Explanatory case studies aims at explaining the phenomena in the data by forming a theory and testing it . There are also interpretive and evaluative case studies as suggested by McDonough. The latter aims at interpreting the data by developing conceptual categories, supporting or challenging the assumptions made regarding them; and the former also adds the judgment of the researcher to the phenomena found in the…show more content…
The disadvantage of a single-case design is its dependency on a single case exploration making it difficult to reach a generalising conclusion (Tellis, 1997). One way of overcoming this is by triangulating the study with other methods in order to confirm the validity of the process , if the researcher accepts validity as quality criteria in social science. Another common criticism of case study method is that it often lacks rigidity. Therefore, Yin (1993) argues that parameter establishment and objective setting of the research as more important in case study method than a big sample

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