Case Study Method: A Step-by-Step Guide for Business Researchers

TLDR

Qualitative case study methodology enables in‑depth exploration of complex phenomena within specific contexts, yet students face challenges in clarity, selection, and operationalization that lead to confusion and wasted time. The article aims to provide a systematic step‑by‑step guide for business researchers to conduct case studies, targeting research students. The guide presents a four‑phase checklist—foundation, prefield, field, and reporting—illustrated with real‑time examples from recent New Zealand case studies.

Abstract

Qualitative case study methodology enables researchers to conduct an in-depth exploration of intricate phenomena within some specific context. By keeping in mind research students, this article presents a systematic step-by-step guide to conduct a case study in the business discipline. Research students belonging to said discipline face issues in terms of clarity, selection, and operationalization of qualitative case study while doing their final dissertation. These issues often lead to confusion, wastage of valuable time, and wrong decisions that affect the overall outcome of the research. This article presents a checklist comprised of four phases, that is, foundation phase, prefield phase, field phase, and reporting phase. The objective of this article is to provide novice researchers with practical application of this checklist by linking all its four phases with the authors’ experiences and learning from recently conducted in-depth multiple case studies in the organizations of New Zealand. Rather than discussing case study in general, a targeted step-by-step plan with real-time research examples to conduct a case study is given.