This is a list of references on case study research (positivist, interpretive and critical). After a brief introduction which suggests those works which are essential reading for newcomers to the field, the list is organized into two parts: the first part lists some important citations related to the approach in other disciplines (including the source disciplines), the second lists citations related to the approach in Information Systems. You can use the Edit Find command in Netscape to look for a specific citation.
Please send additional references and/or short abstracts of items on this page (maximum 50 words) to the Section Editor at: m.myers@auckland.ac.nz
[Introduction]
[Citations in
Other Disciplines] [Citations in
Information Systems]
A standard text for anyone wanting to do case study research is the book by Yin (1994). Two important methodological articles on the case study method in the IS field are those by Benbasat et al. (1987) and Lee (1989). One of the most cited empirical examples of case study research in Information Systems is the article by Markus (1983).
For interpretive case studies, Walsham's (1993) book is excellent. Two good empirical examples of the interpretive case study method in IS are the articles by Myers (1994) and Walsham and Waema (1994).
Campbell, D. "'Degrees of Freedom' and the Case Study," Comparative Political Studies, Volume 8, Number 2, 1975, pp. 178-193.
Dukes, W. "N=1," Psychological Bulletin, Volume 64, 1965, pp. 74-79.
Dyer, W.G. Jr. and Wilkins, A.L. "Better Stories, Not Better Constructs, to Generate Better Theory: A Rejoinder to Eisenhardt," Academy of Management Review (16:3), 1991, pp. 613-619.
Eisenhardt, K.M. "Building Theories from Case Study Research," Academy of Management Review (14:4), 1989, pp. 532-550.
Eisenhardt, K.M. "Better Stories and Better Constructs: The Case for Rigor and Comparative Logic," Academy of Management Review (16:3), 1991, pp. 620-627.
Hamel, J. Case study method, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1993.
Luthans, F. and Davis, T.R.V. "An Idiographic Approach to Organizational Behavior Research: The Use of Single Case Experimental Designs and Direct Measures," Academy of Management Review (7:3), July 1982, pp. 380-391.
McCutcheon, D. and Meredith, J., "Conducting Case Study Research in Operations Management," Journal of Operations Management, Volume 11, 1993, pp. 239-256.
Nardulli, P.F. The Courtroom Elite: An Organizational Perspective on Criminal Justice, Ballinger Press, Cambridge, MA, 1978.
Ragin, Charles C. and Becker, Howard S., What Is a Case?: Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992.
Stake, Robert E. The Art of Case Study Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1995.
Whyte, W.F. Street Corner Society: The social structure of an Italian slum, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1943.
Yin, R., "The Case Study Crisis: Some Answers," Administrative Science Quarterly, Volume 26, 1981, pp. 58-65.
Yin, R., "The Case Study as a Serious Research Strategy," Knowledge, Volume 3, pp. 97-114.
Yin, R.K.Case Study Research, Design and Methods, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, Sage Publications, 1994.
Baskerville, R., Pentland, B.T. and Walsham, G. "A Workshop on Two Techniques for Qualitative Analysis: Interviewing and Evaluation," Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Information Systems, 1994, p. 503-4.
Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D.K. and Mead, M. "The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems," MIS Quarterly (11:3) 1987, pp. 369-386.
Boland, R. "The process and product of system design," Management Science (28:9), 1978, pp. 887-898.
Boland, R. "Control, causality and information system requirements," Accounting, Organizations and Society (4:4), 1979, pp. 259272.
Cavaye, A.L.M. "Case study research: a multi-faceted research approach for IS," Information Systems Journal (6:3) 1996, pp. 227-242.
Davies, L., Newman, M. and Kaplan, B. "A Workshop on Two Techniques for Qualitative Analysis: Interviewing and Evaluation," Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Information Systems, 1993, p. 399.
Gable, G. "Integrating Case Study and Survey Research Methods: An Example in Information Systems," European Journal of Information Systems, Volume 3, Number 2, 1994, pp. 112-126.
Gerson, E.M. and Star, S.L. "Analyzing Due Process in the Workplace," ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems (4:3), July 1986, pp. 257-270.
Hewitt, C. "Offices are Open Systems," Transactions on Office Information Systems (4:3), 1986, pp. 271-287.
Kaplan, B. and Duchon, D. "Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Information Systems Research: A Case Study," MIS Quarterly (12:4) 1988, pp. 571-587.
Lee, A.S. "A Scientific Methodology for MIS Case Studies," MIS Quarterly (13:1), 1989, pp. 33-52.
Lee, A.S. "Case Studies as Natural Experiments," Human Relations, (42:2), 1989, pp. 117-137.
Lee, A. S. "Integrating Positivist and Interpretive Approaches to Organizational Research," Organization Science, (2), 1991, pp. 342-365.
Lee, A.S. "Electronic Mail as a Medium for Rich Communication: An Empirical Investigation Using Hermeneutic Interpretation," MIS Quarterly (18:2), June 1994, pp. 143-157.
Lee, A.S., Baskerville, R.L. and Davies, L. "A Workshop on Two Techniques for Qualitative Data Analysis: Action Research and Ethnography," Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Information Systems, 1992, p. 305-306.
Levine, H.G. and Rossmore, D. "Diagnosing the Human Threats to Information Technology Implementation: A Missing Factor in Systems Analysis Illustrated in a Case Study," Journal of Management Information Systems, (10:2), Fall 1993, pp. 55-73.
Madsen, K.H. "Breakthrough by Breakdown," in Information Systems Development for Human Progress in Organizations, H.K. Klein and K. Kumar (eds.), 1989, pp. 41-53.
Manning, P.K. "Information Technology in the Police Context: The "Sailor" Phone," Information Systems Research (7:1), 1996, pp. 52-62.
Markus, M.L. "Power, Politics and MIS Implementation," Communications of the ACM, 26, 1983, pp. 430-444.
Markus, M.L. "Case Selection in a Disconfirmatory Case Study" in The Information Systems Research Challenge, Harvard Business School Research Colloquium, Boston: Harvard Business School, 1989, pp. 20- 26.
Markus, M.L. "Finding a Happy Medium: Explaining the Negative Effects of Electronic Communication on Social Life at Work", ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 12,2, April 1994, pp. 119-149.
Markus, M.L., "Electronic Mail as the Medium of Managerial Choice," Organization Science, Volume 5, Number 4, 1994, pp. 502-527.
Myers, M.D. "A disaster for everyone to see: an interpretive analysis of a failed IS project," Accounting, Management and Information Technologies (4:4), 1994, pp. 185-201.
Myers, M. D. "Quality in Qualitative Research in Information Systems", Proceedings of the 5th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, 1994, pp. 763-766.
Myers, M.D. "Dialectical hermeneutics: a theoretical framework for the implementation of information systems," Information Systems Journal (5:1), 1995, pp. 51-70.
Orlikowski, W.J. "CASE Tools as Organizational Change: Investigating Incremental and Radical Changes in Systems Development," MIS Quarterly (17:3), September 1993, pp. 309-340.
Orlikowski, W.J. "Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time: A Situated Change Perspective," Information Systems Research (7:1), 1996, pp. 63-92.
Orlikowski, W.J., Markus, M.L. and Lee, A.S. "A Workshop on Two Techniques for Qualitative Data Analysis: Analytic Induction and Hermeneutics," Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Information Systems, 1991, p. 390-1.
Robey, D. and Sahay, S. "Transforming Work through Information Technology: A Comparative Case Study of Geographic Information Systems in County Government," Information Systems Research (7:1), 1996, pp. 93-110.
Sauer, C. Why Information Systems Fail: A Case Study Approach, Alfred Waller Ltd, Henley-on-Thames, 1993.
Walsham, G. Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations, Wiley, Chichester, 1993.
Walsham, G. "Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method," European Journal of Information Systems (4), 1995, pp. 74-81.
Walsham, G. and Waema, T. "Information Systems Strategy and Implementation: A Case Study of a Building Society," ACM Transactions on Information Systems (12:2), April 1994, pp. 150-173.
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This work was published in MISQ Discovery on May 20, 1997. This is the original archival version. It is currently maintained by Michael D. Myers. Corrections, clarifications, and suggested modifications should be directed to him at m.myers@auckland.ac.nz. Serious problems should be referred to the Editor-in-Chief.