A case study is a systematic description or account of certain results or outcomes in an organization, a program, institution or any other live entity. A case study could be conducted because an entity is typical, effective, or representative. Case study writing responds to the questions: what happened, when, how, to whom and what are the consequences. A case study would be most suitable when you want to improve the quality of quantitative researches previously conducted.
Advantages and disadvantages of writing a case study
Every method of data collection and analysis has its advantages and pitfalls. Below are the benefits and challenges associated with case study writing:
Advantages
- Case study writing allows more comprehensive research because the research can present data gathered from different sources and methods for example observation, interview, review of other documents, surveys, etc.
- Case studies give the researcher an opportunity to present detailed information on the research problem in question.
- Case studies are an effective way of providing solutions to different challenges. The researcher gets an opportunity to interact with the research subjects and allows them an opportunity to give suggestions on how the challenges they are facing can be addressed.
Disadvantages
- The results obtained from the case study may lack authority. This is because some experts argue case studies are not fully scientific research methods as there are no criteria established to test the credibility of methods and procedures of data collection; data collection is purely based on the researcher’s integrity.
- Because of its qualitative nature, it is difficult to generalize information gathered from case studies. On the other hand, case studies stand a risk of overgeneralization because they could be assumed typical or representative.
- Case study writing requires studying the research subject from the natural habitat. As such, it is time-consuming and expensive, especially when using different methods of data collection such as interviews and observation.