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Case Study Database
A case study database is a primary method for organizing and warehousing case study data and analyses—including notes, narratives, tabular material, and documents—in a single space. This entry describes the elements of a high-quality case study database as well as the four compartments embedded in most case study databases.
Conceptual Overview and Discussion
Prescribed by case study methodologist Robert K. Yin, a case study database is an increasingly useful analytical tool that strengthens the reliability of case study research. Although most books on field methods have not recognized case study databases as an important methodological technique, the failure to craft a formal database may be deemed a major shortcoming of case study research. Instead of creating a case study database to establish a clear audit trail, many researchers engaged in case study research do show their data separately from the final case study report, it is blended into the narrative of the report. To offer only case study data that is blended with the narrative in the final case study report leaves a critical reader with no opportunity to examine the raw data that led to the case study's conclusions.
Although there is no uniform approach to establishing a case study database, the quality of a database is evaluated by the extent to which other researchers are able to understand how the collected data support claims made in the final case study report through perusal of the database. A formal case study database not only enables researchers who are not involved in the case study project to juxtapose data collected and cited in the database with claims made and conclusions drawn, but such a database also increases the reliability of the overall case study. Thus, to prepare a case study database that is reliable and usable for secondary analysis, a high level of clarity and specificity within the organization of the database is required to ensure accuracy of the data and data analysis.
Compartments Embedded in Case Study Databases
There are four compartments embedded in a case study database: notes, documents, tabular materials, and narratives. Each compartment is described in the subsections below.
Notes
Case study notes, the most common compartment of a case study database, are messages derived from interviews, observations, and/or document analysis completed throughout the case study research process. While notes may be generated in a variety of ways (e.g., handwritten, typed, or audiotape format), the most convenient way to organize and categorize notes is to ensure that they are easily understandable and accessible for later examination by research and nonresearch team members.
While there is no precise, systematic way in which case study notes must be organized, a common technique is to divide notes into the major subjects as outlined in the case study protocol. Aligning notes with sections of a protocol helps the researcher to maintain the level of organization necessary to construct a clear and usable case study database. While organization and clarity are important to achieve for secondary analysis, researchers need not spend excessive amounts of time rewriting case study notes derived from data collected. Rather, case study notes should simply allow readers not involved in the research process to understand how the data support claims and conclusions.
Documents
Similar to case study notes and other compartments embedded in the case study database, the primary objective of case study documents is to make these materials readily retrievable and understandable for subsequent inspection.
As case study documents are collected throughout the research process, one useful way to organize documents is to develop an annotated bibliography. Such annotations would facilitate storage and retrieval so the database can later be inspected and/or shared with other researchers involved and not involved in the original study. To establish further convenience and wider usability of the case study data, converting documents into portable document format (PDF) copies will make for efficient electronic storage. Notwithstanding the efficiency of PDF files, researchers are not required to trouble themselves with the time and storage space associated with the construction of electronic documents.
Tabular Materials
Some case study researchers interested in organizing and storing data for subsequent retrieval use tabular materials either collected from the site being studied or created by the research team, which may represent a third compartment in a case study database. These materials might include survey or other quantitative data and counts of phenomena derived from archival or observational evidence. Similar to other means of storing data in the case study database, it may be most convenient and useful to organize and store tabular materials in an electronic case study database, as opposed to separate documents and data filed in separate places.
Narratives
A final compartment embedded in most case study databases is the construction of narratives—an analytical procedure that involves documenting the answers to the questions in the case study protocol. During the process of writing narratives, the researcher needs to cite or footnote relevant evidence—whether from interviews, documents, observations, or archival evidence—when generating an answer. While developing narratives in response to case study protocol questions facilitates the production of a clear and concise preliminary analytical process, the narratives may or may not need to be included in the final case study report.
In short, case study narratives offer researchers a method to converge data with tentative interpretations. The researcher or research team may then use the narratives embedded in the case study database to compose the case study report, and readers may be able to understand the sources of evidence that directly support the claims and conclusions offered in the final report.
Critical Summary
Establishing a case study database is a helpful technique given the complex and multifaceted nature of case study research. While inordinate amounts of time should not be devoted to making a case study database professionally presentable, the data embedded in each compartment should be understandable to researchers involved and not involved in the case study. The primary characteristic of a quality case study database is that citation of data clearly connects to claims made in the database as well as in the final report. The construction of a case study database also establishes a warehouse for subsequent cross-case analysis. While the inclusion of a case study database in case study research is not widely noted in the literature on field methods, these databases represent a technique that increases the reliability of case study research that merits more attention.
Further Readings
- Case Study Research in Anthropology
- Before-and-After Case Study Design
- Agency
- Abduction
- Action-Based Data Collection
- Activity Theory
- Case Study and Theoretical Science
- Analytic Generalization
- ANTi-History
- Case Study Research in Business and Management
- Blended Research Design
- Alienation
- Bayesian Inference and Boolean Logic
- Analysis of Visual Data
- Actor-Network Theory
- Chicago School
- Audience
- Case Study as a Teaching Tool
- Case Study Research in Business Ethics
- Bounding the Case
- Authenticity and Bad Faith
- Bricoleur
- Anonymity and Confidentiality
- ANTi-History
- Colonialism
- Authenticity
- Case Study in Creativity Research
- Case Study Research in Education
- Case Selection
- Author Intentionality
- Case-to-Case Synthesis
- Anonymizing Data for Secondary Use
- Autoethnography
- Constructivism
- Concatenated Theory
- Case Study Research in Tourism
- Case Study Research in Feminism
- Case-to-Case Synthesis
- Case Study and Theoretical Science
- Causal Case Study: Explanatory Theories
- Archival Records as Evidence
- Base and Superstructure
- Critical Realism
- Conceptual Argument
- Case Study With the Elderly
- Case Study Research in Medicine
- Case Within a Case
- Contentious Issues in Case Study Research
- Chronological Order
- Audiovisual Recording
- Case Study as a Methodological Approach
- Critical Theory
- Conceptual Model: Causal Model
- Collective Case Study
- Case Study Research in Political Science
- Comparative Case Study
- Cultural Sensitivity and Case Study
- Coding: Axial Coding
- Autobiography
- Character
- Dialectical Materialism
- Conceptual Model: Operationalization
- Configurative-Ideographic Case Study
- Case Study Research in Psychology
- Critical Incident Case Study
- Dissertation Proposal
- Coding: Open Coding
- Case Study Database
- Class Analysis
- Epistemology
- Conceptual Model in a Qualitative Research Project
- Critical Pedagogy and Digital Technology
- Case Study Research in Public Policy
- Cross-Sectional Design
- Ecological Perspectives
- Coding: Selective Coding
- Case Study Protocol
- Closure
- Existentialism
- Conceptual Model in a Quantitative Research Project
- Diagnostic Case Study Research
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Ideology
- Cognitive Biases
- Case Study Surveys
- Codifying Social Practices
- Families
- Contribution, Theoretical
- Explanatory Case Study
- Case Study Research in Tourism
- Deductive-Nomological Model of Explanation
- Masculinity and Femininity
- Cognitive Mapping
- Consent, Obtaining Participant
- Communicative Action
- Formative Context
- Credibility
- Exploratory Case Study
- Case Study With the Elderly
- Deviant Case Analysis
- Objectivism
- Communicative Framing Analysis
- Contextualization
- Community of Practice
- Frame Analysis
- Docile Bodies
- Inductivism
- Ecological Perspectives
- Discursive Frame
- Othering
- Complexity
- Critical Pedagogy and Digital Technology
- Comparing the Case Study With Other Methodologies
- Historical Materialism
- Equifinality
- Institutional Ethnography
- Healthcare Practice Guidelines
- Dissertation Proposal
- Patriarchy
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: ATLAS.ti
- Cultural Sensitivity and Case Study
- Consciousness Raising
- Interpretivism
- Experience
- Instrumental Case Study
- Pedagogy and Case Study
- Ethics
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: CAITA (Computer-Assisted Interpretive Textual Analysis)
- Data Resources
- Contradiction
- Liberal Feminism
- Explanation Building
- Intercultural Performance
- Event-Driven Research
- Power
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: Kwalitan
- Depth of Data
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Managerialism
- Extension of Theory
- Intrinsic Case Study
- Exemplary Case Design
- Power/Knowledge
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: MAXQDA 2007
- Diaries and Journals
- Critical Sensemaking
- Modernity
- Falsification
- Limited-Depth Case Study
- Extended Case Method
- Pragmatism
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: NVIVO
- Direct Observation as Evidence
- Dasein
- North American Case Research Association
- Functionalism
- Multimedia Case Studies
- Extreme Cases
- Researcher as Research Tool
- Concept Mapping
- Discourse Analysis
- Decentering Texts
- Ontology
- Generalizability
- Participatory Action Research
- Healthcare Practice Guidelines
- Terroir
- Congruence Analysis
- Documentation as Evidence
- Deconstruction
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Genericization
- Participatory Case Study
- Holistic Designs
- Utilitarianism
- Constant Causal Effects Assumption
- Ethnostatistics
- Dialogic Inquiry
- Philosophy of Science
- Indeterminacy
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Hypothesis
- Verstehen
- Content Analysis
- Fiction Analysis
- Discourse Ethics
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Indexicality
- Pracademics
- Integrating Independent Case Studies
- Conversation Analysis
- Field Notes
- Double Hermeneutic
- Postcolonialism
- Instrumental Case Study
- Processual Case Research
- Juncture
- Cross-Case Synthesis and Analysis
- Field Work
- Dramaturgy
- Postmodernism
- Macrolevel Social Mechanisms
- Program Evaluation and Case Study
- Longitudinal Research
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Going Native
- Ethnographic Memoir
- Postpositivism
- Middle-Range Theory
- Program-Logic Model
- Mental Framework
- Document Analysis
- Informant Bias
- Ethnography
- Poststructuralism
- Naturalistic Generalization
- Prospective Case Study
- Mixed Methods in Case Study Research
- Factor Analysis
- Institutional Ethnography
- Ethnomethodology
- Poststructuralist Feminism
- Overdetermination
- Real-Time Cases
- Most Different Systems Design
- Fiction Analysis
- Interviews
- Eurocentrism
- Radical Empiricism
- Plausibility
- Retrospective Case Study
- Multimedia Case Studies
- High-Quality Analysis
- Iterative Nodes
- Families
- Radical Feminism
- Probabilistic Explanation
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Multiple-Case Designs
- Inductivism
- Language and Cultural Barriers
- Formative Context
- Reality
- Process Tracing
- Single-Case Designs
- Multi-Site Case Study
- Interactive Methodology, Feminist
- Multiple Sources of Evidence
- Frame Analysis
- Scientific Method
- Program Evaluation and Case Study
- Spiral Case Study
- Naturalistic Inquiry
- Interpreting Results
- Narrative Analysis
- Front Stage and Back Stage
- Scientific Realism
- Reporting Case Study Research
- Storyselling
- Natural Science Model
- Iterative
- Narratives
- Gendering
- Socialist Feminism
- Rhetoric in Research Reporting
- Number of Cases
- Iterative Nodes
- Naturalistic Context
- Genealogy
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Statistical Generalization
- Outcome-Driven Research
- Knowledge Production
- Nonparticipant Observation
- Governmentality
- Substantive Theory
- Paradigmatic Cases
- Method of Agreement
- Objectivity
- Grounded Theory
- Theory-Building With Cases
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Method of Difference
- Over-Rapport
- Hermeneutics
- Theory-Testing With Cases
- Participatory Action Research
- Multicollinearity
- Participant Observation
- Hybridity
- Underdetermination
- Participatory Case Study
- Multidimensional Scaling
- Participatory Action Research
- Imperialism
- Polar Types
- Over-Rapport
- Participatory Case Study
- Institutional Theory, Old and New
- Problem Formulation
- Pattern Matching
- Personality Tests
- Intertextuality
- Quantitative Single-Case Research Design
- Re-Analysis of Previous Data
- Problem Formulation
- Isomorphism
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Regulating Group Mind
- Questionnaires
- Langue and Parôle
- Quick Start to Case Study Research
- Relational Analysis
- Reflexivity
- Layered Nature of Texts
- Random Assignment
- Replication
- Regulating Group Mind
- Life History
- Research Framework
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Reliability
- Logocentrism
- Research Objectives
- Rival Explanations
- Repeated Observations
- Management of Impressions
- Research Proposals
- Secondary Data as Primary
- Researcher-Participant Relationship
- Means of Production
- Research Questions, Types of Retrospective Case Study
- Serendipity Pattern
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Metaphor
- Rhetoric in Research Reporting
- Situational Analysis
- Sensitizing Concepts
- Modes of Production
- Sampling
- Standpoint Analysis
- Subjectivism
- Multimethod Research Program
- Socially Distributed Knowledge
- Statistical Analysis
- Subject Rights
- Multiple Selfing
- Spiral Case Study
- Storyselling
- Theoretical Saturation
- Native Points of View
- Statistics, Use of in Case Study
- Temporal Bracketing
- Triangulation
- Negotiated Order
- Storyselling
- Textual Analysis
- Use of Digital Data
- Network Analysis
- Temporal Bracketing
- Thematic Analysis
- Utilization
- One-Dimensional Culture
- Thematic Analysis
- Use of Digital Data
- Visual Research Methods
- Ordinary Troubles
- Theory, Role of
- Utilization
- Organizational Culture
- Theory-Testing With Cases
- Webs of Significance
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Utilization
- Within-Case Analysis
- Performativity
- Validity
- Phenomenology
- Practice-Oriented Research
- Praxis
- Primitivism
- Qualitative Analysis in Case Study
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis
- Quantitative Single-Case Research Design
- Quick Start to Case Study Research
- Self-Confrontation Method
- Self-Presentation
- Sensemaking
- Sexuality
- Signifier and Signified
- Sign System
- Simulacrum
- Social-Interaction Theory
- Storytelling
- Structuration
- Symbolic Value
- Symbolic Violence
- Thick Description
- Writing and Difference
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