Embedded Case Study Methods

If you were part of a study team trying to figure out what to do in a complicated (i.e. multi-party multi-issue technically complex) situation you would want to rush out and get a copy of Embedded Case Study Methods by Roland Scholz and Olaf Tietje. Using their own Zurich North case study to explain the proper use of case study methods they demonstrate how eleven different techniques -- including integrated risk assessment multi-attribute utility theory scenario analysis future workshops and a kind of mediation called Area Development Negotiation -- ought to be used to develop collaborative solutions. Along the way they destroy conventional distinctions between quantitative and qualitative methods and offer (finally!) an integrated approach that applies equally well to problem framing option generation and the management of stakeholder encounters. Most of the relevant literature (from more than a dozen disciplines) is reviewed in detail. What more could a study team member want?—LAWRENCE SUSSKIND Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the award-winning Consensus Building Handbook (Sage 1999).Scholz and Olaf have developed an important methodology to integrate complex cases. Their approach combines the best of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to create new insights that would not be available to researchers using more conventional approaches. —MAX H. BAZERMAN Jesse Isador Straus Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School Bridging the gap between quantitative and qualitative approaches this book presents methods for interrelating and integrating the variables findings and evaluations from the facets of the case (i.e. different perspectives of inquiry such as participant observation open-ended interviews etc.) or subunits of case inquiry. Using case examples from five different disciplines (neuropsychology education law business and environmental sciences) the authors show the reader how to use the embedded case design to enhance synthesis and knowledge integration. The authors share their broad knowledge of the philosophy of science to explain the rationale behind each step of embedded case designs and recap each explanation with concept recaps called lessons to be learned. In addition they include a variety of boxes that offer statistical models for doing the analysis. This book offers readers a sophisticated approach to integrating mixed methods in case studies.