shigeo matsubara department of social informatics kyoto university 1/21 copyright (c) 2010 field...

Copyright (C) 2010 Field Informatics Research Group. Kyoto University. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction to Field Informatics

Chapter6: Case Writing

Shigeo MatsubaraDepartment of Social Informatics

Kyoto University

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Outline

1. What are cases?2. An example of a case3. Subjects of case studies and

the case method4. Case study/case method design5. Composing cases6. Case usage7. Cases in field informatics

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Case writing in field informatics

Methodology’s view Target:people’s daily life

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Field: difficult to an analytical/engineering approach, not able to control, brings about a unpredictable and contingent event, required to commit at any time

Describe

Predict

Design

Convey

office

education

meetingCopyright (C) 2010 Field Informatics Research Group. Kyoto University. All Rights Reserved.


Significance of conveying knowledge in the field

Researcher to researcher

Researcher to practitioner

Significance

“Standing on the shoulders of giants”success is always based on the research and works of thinkers of the past

In business cases, • Business scholars provide theories in marketing and accounting, etc.

• Business people make a decision on human resources and financing, etc.

Methods Research papers Lectures

challenge

Often difficult to show why the lessons are significant if they are obtained from the practice in the field

Acquiring the skills of applying the learned theories to the real fields is needed

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１． What are cases?

A description about a real-life event really happened in a specific circumstance

Conveys some knowledge for a research question where the phenomenon and the context are difficult to separate from each other

Q:Can an article in blogs or SNSs be viewed as a case? A:Usually No. Cases are meant to involve the author's clear objective whether it is for research or teaching purposes

Classification of cases conveying academic knowledge (research purpose): case study

conveying practical knowledge (teaching purpose): case method

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Case studies/case methods

• Standing alongside various research methods such as logical proof based on mathematics, simulation, participant experiment, and survey (questionnaire)

• Examining and analyzing particular cases, and verifying hypotheses, and deriving a general truth from the results

Case studies

• Developed during the 1930s at Harvard Business School

• Also applied to the legal field and the medical fields

• Can develop the ability to tie theory to a practical situation by presenting a case as an apparatus for inducing a debate about the "why" and "how" of a specific case

Case methods

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Classification of cases

• it is used to verify the hypothesis• the complete and accurate descriptions of the real event are required

• the conclusions by the author are needed

Research purpose: outcome of the case study

• apparatus for inducing a debate• whether it brings an active debate is important than the completeness and the accurateness of the descriptions

• the conclusions by the author are not needed

Teaching purpose: cases used in the case method

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２． An example of a case

Accounting System Upgrade Kojima is a general advisor for the hardware development department at A Telecommunications. He received an email from the main accounting department asking him to attend an informational meeting about the launch of an operations management system. The Financial Services Agency's Business Accounting Council released a written opinion (1998) and practical guidelines (2000) on software. With the new guidelines, previously unclear software accounting procedures were defined, and tax laws were revised. (snip)To comply with these standards, the company's accounting department decided to develop and implement a system to calculate the number of software developer work hours.

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３． Subjects of case studies and case methods

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Case studies

Case methods Lectures: conveying specialized knowledge Case methods: conveying practical knowledge,

i.e., insight and integration which is difficult to systematize and verbalize

The form of the research questions control of behavioral event

Who What Where How many, How much

How Why

Surveys P P P P No need

Experiments P P Need

Simulations P P Need

Case studies

P P No need


Subjects suitable for the case study approach

Behavioural event Case studies: not control Subject experiments: control (comparing the experiment group with the control group)

Simulations: control (changing parameters) To realize the control of behavioural events,

phenomenon and context have to be separated from each other

If the relations among factors are complicated and separating phenomenon from context is difficult, case studies are a dominant research strategy

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Case studies have an advantage over other methods if the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not

obvious


４． Case study/case method design How to write a good paper?

not limited to how to organize sections or how to select the style of writing but can eventually be reduced to how to select a good research theme

How to compose a good case? you need to select a good research theme

If you collect the data before clarifying the issues, it results in failing to organize and utilize the huge amount of collected data

failing to collect the data necessary to construct a discussion.

Therefore, you should clarify the research issues in advance and look over the whole procedure of case studies. 11/21


Entire process from case study design to case writing

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Clarifying the research

question

Clarifying a unit of analysis

Examining the logic linking the data to

the hypothesis

Gathering the evidence

Analyzing the evidence

Composing a draft

Reviewing by persons involved


Comparing case study to experiments

theoretical sampling(analytical

generalization)

• Case study• Extreme or atypical cases reveal more information and help to clarify the deeper causes

• So, select cases that is likely to support the same theory and verify it.

probabilistic sampling(statistical

generalization)

• Surveys and experiments

• Select samples randomly

• Making prediction based on statistical inference

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５． Composing cases

Get rid of any preconceived ideas and not to bias your thought toward pre-supposed results

If you happen to obtain information from an interview that goes against your hypothesis, you should not think of it as a failure, but rather welcome it as a possible clue to a new discovery.

Methods to prevent your thought from begin biased to develop a case study protocol

Provides the specification of procedures and general rules as well as the methods such as investigating literatures or conducting interviews

to build a case database enables us to easily maintain and access the collected data

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Gathering the evidence

Evidence sources

• documentation: letters, memos, minutes of the meeting, etc.• archival records: organization charts, maps, census data, etc.• interview• direct observation• participant observation: the observer is not a person that plays a passive role but is intensively

involved.• physical artifacts: apparatus, tools, etc.

Principles of data collection

• utilizing multiple sources of evidence: As triangulation in geometry, combining multiple sources of evidence such as documentation, archival records, interview, direct observation, participant observation, and physical artifacts.

• maintaining the chain of evidence 15/21


Other points to be considered in case composition

Anonymity

• Giving out identifying information in cases is most desirable• Makes it easier for the reader to recall related cases,• Makes it easier to present appropriate evidence against a claim

• Keeping anonymous about persons in cases should be considered if persons involved may suffer loss by offering their identity

Review by persons involved

• Although a detailed review makes it easier to detect errors and improves accuracy, the process can delay publication of the case.

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Check list for teaching-purpose cases

Does the case have an educational theme appropriate to its purpose?

Is the case well-written (easy to read and interesting)?

Does the case present a problem to learners, and are learners able to recognize it?

Can the case be analyzed and discussed by learners?

Does the case allow learners to become decision-makers?

Does the case foster discussion?

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A standard organization of casesI. lead sentence of a

several lines giving a feeling of the whole story

II. time line to reach the decision making and key factors

III.decision-making issues

IV. The body of the caseV. Appendix

Accounting System Upgrade Kojima is a general advisor for the hardware development department at A Telecommunications. He received an email from the main accounting department asking him to attend an informational meeting about the launch of an operations management system. The Financial Services Agency's Business Accounting Council released a written opinion (1998) and practical guidelines (2000) on software. With the new guidelines, previously unclear software accounting procedures were defined, and tax laws were revised. (snip) 18/21Copyright (C) 2010 Field Informatics Research Group. Kyoto University. All Rights Reserved.


６　 Case usage

Pros

• The readers can obtain new knowledge.• Cases can mediate between researchers and persons in the field.• Students can obtain the ability of practical decision-making.• Students can know each other by sharing experiences and discussing cases

Cons

• It is difficult to find cases that relate to one's problem.• Understanding one case does not mean that one can easily

understand another.19/21


７　 Cases in field informatics

Enlarging the domain to apply the case study and case methods

• Bridging a gap between theory and practice in information system design• Education of the management of technology (MOT)

Paying more attention to information asymmetry

• Incentive problems in the networked society

Using distance learning systems and other information equipment

• Mitigating the limit on the number of students in case methods

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Summary

Significance of conveying knowledge Classification of cases: Research purpose and teaching

purpose Subjects of case studies and case methods

Case studies have an advantage if the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not obvious

Case studies design: should clarify the research issues Composing cases: protocol and database should be

developed Case usage: can mediate between researchers and persons

in the field Cases in field informatics

Cases to informatics: applying case studies to information system design

Informatics to cases: utilizing IT for gathering the evidences or carrying out the case methods 21/21

shigeo matsubara department of social informatics kyoto university 1/21 copyright (c) 2010 field...

Documents

specific case case methods

case usage

research question

case study apparatus

business cases

results case studies

subjects of case studies

legal field