Before-and-After Case Study Design

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Case study research has been useful in answering how and why questions from real-life contexts, often in professional practice areas such as education, human services, leadership development, and management. The multiple data sources of the case study from the first period of the research may stand alone, or become the basis for learning about the impact of some pivotal events, and involve a second period of data collection. This second phase of data collection, after some event(s) of interest, is the marker of a before-and-after case study. Before-and-after case studies provide the opportunity to (a) analyze complex case data, (b) see pivotal events or relationships among the factors affecting the dynamics under study, and (c) gather further data to examine those affects or changes.

The protocol for case study research design suggested by Robert Yin includes (a) an overview of case study and the research questions, topics, and issues; (b) nomination screening and data collection procedures in the field; (c) schedule and deadlines for case studies from preparation, through site visits, follow-up, analysis, report preparation, and site review of report draft; (d) update of protocol related to literature, hypothetical logic model update (if used), topics, and data collection; and (e) case study report format. In addition, a before-and-after case study includes the pivotal event, and the components of design in the second part of the case. These second section components may include chronological analysis, continuity or changing of evidence sources, prediction of causal factors and subsequent verification, alternative explanations, new theoretical propositions, new descriptions following the pivotal event, and changing rival explanations.

Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln suggest “conceptual responsibilities” in research design that include (a) the case boundaries around the object of study; (b) research question emphasis on which themes, issues, and phenomenon; (c) developing the issues through the patterns seen in the data; (d) triangulating data for important observations and interpretations; (e) including alternative interpretations; and (f) developing generalizations. Case studies may be strengthened by research designs with multiple sources of evidence such as interviews, real objects, archived documentation, recorded observations, and participant observations. Current technologies add many possible tools and sources. A before-and-after case study design would include the differences in data collection sources in the before time period, during the pivotal event, and in the after-event time period. Similarly, the analysis strategy and analytic techniques used need to be described for each time period. For example, an initial theoretical proposition with rival explanations included may have time series analysis added to the second part of the case study after the pivotal event. The purpose of the chronology could be to increase the relationships between patterns in the initial part of the case study and variables introduced by the pivotal event. The use of chronologies and pattern matching could assist with comparisons when research designs were different in the before and the after case descriptions.

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