Case Study Research in Business Ethics

Types of Research Cases

A common foundation for a business ethics case study is a critical incident with visible outcomes, such as the Union Carbide leak in Bhopal, India; Shell's plan for disposing of the Brent Spar oil storage buoy in the North Sea; or whistle-blowing in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The critical incidence is used to set the boundaries of the research case study, while the visible outcomes emphasize the value of the case study to both practitioners and researchers. Outcomes of these types of case studies include a better understanding of how contextual factors influence judgment, identification of needed changes to practices or policies, impact of individual or group motivation, or evolving stakeholder expectations.

In contrast to focusing on one event, longitudinal case studies track changes over time. These types of research cases are important for the identification of evolving stakeholder expectations and changing ethical standards. For example, Margaret Griesse traces how DuPont's responses to stakeholder expectations led to the transformation of an explosives and chemicals company into a life-science corporation, and how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and community groups shaped this evolution.

Comparative cases are appropriate for exploring potential cause and effect relationships, as well as the influence of operating practices or policies in different settings. It is also an appropriate methodology for examining why differences in judgment or decisions occur in similar settings. This design supports the identification of effective practices or policies, and can illustrate how generic practices can go awry under certain contextual factors. For example Knut Ims and Ove Jakobsen used contrasting cases [Page 97]to examine the consequences of different strategic orientations to stakeholders. They compared the stakeholder strategies of two organizations developed to support the interests of vulnerable farmers, Max Havelaar for coffee growers and TINE for dairy farmers. The paradigmatic case (i.e., coffee growers) adopted a transparent cooperative strategy toward its stakeholders, while the negative case (i.e., dairy farmers) engaged in competitive tactics and collusion. The authors then compared the effectiveness of both approaches in reducing the vulnerabilities of the two groups of farmers.

Ethical issues are often the result of a ripple effect; that is, a decision or action that occurs at one level in an organization, with consequences occurring at unexpected levels in the organization or leading to unanticipated stakeholder reactions. Ripple effects are not often transparent; as a consequence, decision makers and stakeholders react on erroneous reasoning or inappropriate cause-and-effect relationships. A research case study provides the framework for exploring links across “assumed” unrelated decisions, identifying causal relationships across events, and identifying hidden consequences. One example of an adverse ripple effect is when human rights NGOs advocated for changes to children producing soccer balls in their homes in Pakistan, because the production process violated basic tenets of workers' rights. Farzad Khan outlines the history of soccer ball production in Pakistan, the entry of the media and NGOs to uncover the exploitation of “stitching families,” the shift to factory production, and the perverse outcomes of these well-intentioned actions of NGOs.

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