What passes as a rigorous case study?Navjot Sandhu

Carleton Unversity

Ttmg 5004

Dr. Stoyan Tanev

Case Studies and Journals Case studies are used as tools for generating and testing

theories

We look at top 10 leading journals and criteria to define a well done case study

Internal validity External validity Construct Validity Reliability

Criteria Internal Validity- causal relationship between

variables and results (logical reasoning) External Validity- Theories must be shown to

account for phenomena not only in the setting in which they are studied, but also in other settings

Construct Validity- Quality of conceptualization (choosing what variables to analyze)

Reliability- absence of error. This allows other researchers to follow the same steps of the experiment done

What should be valid? Different types of validity build up on each

other and can support one another

Many schools of thought arguing that some types of validity should not be included in research analysis

Sampling Theories were constructed by the authors and an experiment was completed on validity use in

journals

5 Hypothesis are used

Case studies that provide secondary reports on reliability are more likely also to provide secondary reports on construct validity, internal validity, and external validity

Case studies published in the highest-ranked journals are more likely to provide primary reports on internal validity than papers published in lower-ranked journals.

Case studies published in the highest-ranked journals are more likely to provide secondary reports on internal validity than papers published in lower-ranked journals.

Case studies published in the highest-ranked journals are more likely to provide reports on construct validity than papers published in lower-ranked journals.

Case studies published in the highest-ranked journals are more likely to provide secondary reports on construct validity than papers published in lower-ranked journals.

Results In this paper, papers were looked at in the 10 leading

journals Out of 159, only 2 primary reports were on construct

validity and 5 on internal validity For most of the studies, a significant amount of

attention is payed to external validity However, the top 3 management journals pay more

attention to internal validity and construct validity and little on external validity

Results(continued) Seems top 3 journal authors not only know

about the different types of validity, but also the relationships amongst them

References Gibbert, M. and Ruigrok ,W. and Wicki, B. Research Notes and Commentaries: What passes

as a rigorous case study? 2008 Strategic Management Journal: #29