The Art of Case Study Research

by Robert E. Stake

This book presents a disciplined, qualitative exploration of case study methods by drawing from naturalistic, holistic, ethnographic, phenomenological and biographic research methods. Robert E. Stake uses and annotates an actual case study to answer such questions How is the case selected? How do you select the case which will maximize what can be learned? How can what is learned from one case be applied to another? How can what is learned from a case be interpreted? In addition, the book the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches; data-gathering including document review; coding, sorting and pattern analysis; the roles of the researcher; triangulation; and reporting.

Genres: Research, Qualitative Research, Research Methods, Nonfiction, Grad School, Education, Sociology

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 1995

About the author

Robert Earl Stake

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a qualitative researcher but haven't conducted many case studies - I am doing a couple now. I took out Stake's book from the library as I liked the idea that it took a classic qualitative, constructivist approach to case study research; I was certainly pleased with that.

I expected the research question and report writing chapters would be the most useful to me, but I found the research question chapter to be unexpectedly, slightly befuddling. While he talks a lot about issue-based research questions, he gives very few examples of what that means (Though quite a few of examples of what it does not mean!). The report-writing chapter was solid though, and presented a few things I hadn't thought about - like including a vignette.

I thought that replacing a few key concepts (the case, issue, triangulation) with a Greek letter did nothing to help me read through the book. I would think "what was theta again?" and then have to page around and find that, oh yeah, he just meant "the case".

I was quite pleased with the chapters on the nature of qualitative research and triangulation though! I have done a good deal of qualitative research, but this lays out some of the foundations in some of the clearer way I've seen. I think the most useful chapter personally was in analysis and interpretation, which both followed through on qualitative fundamentals and also described the uniqueness of case study research.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're planning on doing a case study, this seems like a good book to be familiar with, especially the first time.

[Apostolos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads well, and its nice narrative (for the most part) style of writing really gives the reader a good overview of the Case Study method and how to research and write using this approach. It was fairly easy to read through, and it would be good to read this again as you embark on your case study. That said, I wish someone would copy edit a little better, there are some (minor) issues with editing that got in my way of fully enjoying this :-)

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this book for uni but I enjoyed a little bit more than I thought I would. It still was not my cup of tea, but the writer did a good job at explaining at times.

[Errol Orhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid place to start your journey.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by my dissertation advisor. It was a quick and easy ready. Very practical and helpful in developing my case study.

[Cherice Bock]

This is a good introductory book when someone is just starting to figure out how to do a case study. I like that Sake thinks of it as art, rather than communicating it solely as science. He has a helpful perspective that is missing if you only read case study how-tos that have a more scientific bent. Case studies are very artful, in that you're telling people's stories, so I appreciated that about this book. Since I had already read several other books and done a couple case studies, it was a little bit basic for what I needed, but I still got some things out of it in terms of thinking about it as a craft rather than simply analytically

[Paul Rossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. I made use of this reference in doing an intrinsic case study qualitative dissertation for my doctorate.