Building theories from case study research: the progressive case study

Abstract

Meredith (1998) argues for more case and field research studies in the field of operations\ud management. Based on a literature review, we discuss several existing approaches to case\ud studies and their characteristics. These approaches include; the Grounded Theory approach\ud which proposes no prior literature review in the substantive area under study (Glaser, 1992:\ud 31) versus Eisenhardt (1989) and Yin (1994) who propose a more directed study with a priori\ud constructs. We then propose an alternative approach which we call the progressive case\ud study. This approach combines strengths of both approaches such as the informative aspect of\ud Grounded Theory and a more plan able approach such as Yin and Eisenhardt propose. We\ud also describe that case studies are not simply a set of interviews and provide examples on the\ud amount of data that might be collected in a detailed case study. Furthermore, we provide\ud direction for analyzing qualitative data in cases