A Critique of the Instrumental Case Study Approach Research Proposal

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Particularly Instrumental Case Study) Using Mixed Methods

According to Neuman (2003, p. 33), a case study is a research method in which the researcher "examines in-depth many features of a few cases over a duration of time. Cases can be individuals, groups, organizations, movements, events, or geographical units. The data are usually more detailed, varied and extensive." There are a number of different case study types that social science researchers can use, including exploratory, explanatory, descriptive, intrinsic, instrumental, multiple and collective as defined in Table 1 below.

Definitions of different types of case studies

Definition/Representative Examples

Exploratory

As the name connotes, this type of case study is used to explore situations wherein an intervention or initiative being evaluated does not have a clear, single set of outcomes.

Explanatory

This case study type is typically employed in those instances where researchers are attempting to develop informed and timely answers to questions that seek to explain the presumed causal links in real-life situations that are too complex for experimental or survey methodologies. The explanations that are used in this type of case study link program implementations with corresponding program effects to identify any effect.

Descriptive

This type of case study is used to describe a phenomenon of interest and the real-life context in which takes place in narrative form.

Intrinsic

This type of case study is used to better understand the particular case in question (Hitchcock & Hughes 1995). Researchers who have a genuine interest in the case should use this approach when the intent is to better understand the case. It is not undertaken primarily because the case represents other cases or because it illustrates a particular trait or problem, but because in all its particularity and ordinariness, the case itself is of interest. The purpose is not to come to understand some abstract construct or generic phenomenon. The purpose is not to build theory (although that is an option).

Instrumental

This type of case study is used when the researcher examines a particular case to gain insight into a certain issue or theory (Hitchcock & Hughes 1995). In sum, this approach is used to accomplish something other than understanding a particular situation as well as to provide fresh insights concerning an issue of interest or to refine an existing theory. It is important to note that the case itself is of secondary interest and plays a supportive role only in facilitating the better understanding of something else. The case is often looked at in depth, its contexts scrutinized, and its ordinary activities detailed. The case may or may not be seen as typical of other cases.

Multiple

This case study approach enables the researcher to explore differences within and between cases. The goal is to replicate findings across cases. Because comparisons will be drawn, it is imperative that the cases are chosen carefully so that the researcher can predict similar results across cases, or predict contrasting results based on a theory.

Collective

Collective case studies are similar in nature and description to multiple case studies that draw on several cases (Hitchcock & Hughes 1995).

Source: Adapted from Baxter and Jack 2008, p. 545 unless otherwise indicated

An important strength of the case study approach is the ability of researchers to apply mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies to gain a better overall view of the issue or phenomenon of interest (Neuman 2003). A description of the respective qualitative and quantitative research methods that will be used with different user groups in this study is provided below.

Qualitative Research

Focus Groups. Simply stated, this type of qualitative research involves gathering a number of people together in a physical or virtual environment to collect information from them concerning an issue or phenomenon of interest. For instance, according to Neuman (2003, p. 535), a focus group is "a type of group interview in which an interviewer asks questions to the group and answers are given in an open discussion among the group members." Although focus groups are more expensive and time consuming compared to other qualitative research methods such as surveys, they provide the opportunity for researchers to gather large amounts of primary data in a short amount of time (Neuman 2003).

Semi-Structured Interviews. Generally, interviews are "a short-term, secondary social interaction between two strangers with the explicit purpose of one person's obtaining specific information from the other. The social roles are those of the interviewer and the interviewee or respondent" (Neuman 2003, p. 292). More specifically, semi-structured interviews use a series of structured questions without corresponding response codes that allow researchers to follow-up responses that require clarification or additional information (Bowling 2002).

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The structured questions may or may not be asked in the same order, depending on the direction of the interview (Crocker & Besterman-Dahan 2014). In this regard, semi-structured interviews are more conversational and less rote in nature compared to structured interviews in which researchers ask the same structured questions in the same order (Crocker & Besterman-Dahan 2014). To help ensure the accuracy of transcription, semi-structured interviews should be transcribed within 24 hours of completion and prior to completing the next interview (Crocker & Besterman-Dahan 2014).

Online Surveys. Of all the qualitative research methods available, online surveys represent one of the most cost-effective approaches and have the added benefit of being familiar to most people today. Nevertheless, besides the problems that are associated with any type of survey method (e.g., validity, reliability, respondent confidentiality and informed consent), online surveys also have a number of strengths and weaknesses that are directly associated with the nature of the online environment in which they are administered (Chang 2013).

On the one hand, online surveys provide respondents with the ability to complete a survey at their convenience, and more respondents may therefore be willing to participate in the research (Proctor & Vu 2005). In addition, the anonymity offered by online surveys may encourage respondents to answer questions more honestly and avoid social pressures to respond in a certain fashion (Wood, Nosko, Desmarais, Ross & Irvine 2006). Furthermore, online surveys not only collect and aggregate survey data, many online survey services such as Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey provide researchers with the ability to analyze the survey data as well (Wood et al. 2006).

On the other hand, though, the absence of a researcher means that the potential exists for respondents to misunderstand a question and answer it incorrectly from their perspective or to skip it altogether (Wood et al. 2006). In addition, respondents may not take an online survey as seriously as they would in a face-to-face or telephonic approach, and there is also the potential for the survey being completed by someone other than the intended respondent (Wood et al. 2006). Although many surveys contain strictly quantitative responses such as yes/no, multiple choice and Likert-scaled questions, most authorities recommend including open-ended questions in any type of survey research and these responses are strictly qualitative in nature (Wood et al. 2006). Besides the foregoing qualitative research methods, there are also a number of useful quantitative tools available to social science researchers that can improve the trustworthiness of an instrumental case study and these tools are discussed further below.

Quantitative Research

The proposed study's instrumental case study will collect user data at the organizational level and then compare these data to regional and national data to identify the resulting correlation to determine whether or not this organization can be regarded as being "typical" for its industry and size using the following data analysis tools

Analysis using Regression Analysis (specifically R2 analysis). Regression analysis is a nonexperimental technique that is used by researchers to extract data from a sample (Berry & Sanders 2000). The most straightforward approach to regression analysis is the use of a bivariate (i.e., two-variable) regression wherein a single independent variable is posited to affect a dependent variable (Berry & Sanders 2000). In regression analyses, any change that is identified in the dependent variable that is associated with a given change in an independent variable is estimated when the other independent variables in the regression analysis are held constant (Berry & Sanders 2000). Based on these attributes, researchers typically use regression analyses to test a hypothesis that X affects Y only in those instances in which they have an existing theory that explains why this causal relationship makes sense (Berry & Sanders 2000, p. 6). In this context, R2 represents a measure of the fit of the model (Cohen & Cohen 2003).

Pearson Correlation. The Pearson correlation is "a measure of the similarity of standard scores on the two variables, similarity being measured as the average product of standard scores" (Cliff 1996, p. 29). In other words, the Pearson correlation provides researchers with a measure of the direction and degree of a linear relationship that exists between two variables (Young 2015). The letter "r" is used to denote the Pearson correlation (Young 2015).

Frequency Analyses. Online survey services and many statistical analysis applications such as SPSS provide frequency analyses of aggregated data that indicate percentages….....

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