The Contribution of Case Study Research in Information Science

Abstract

The reputation of case study research has grown as a research strategy for developing theories and as a method for investigating and understanding world complex issues. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how the case study research can add value to a research project. Case study research, although becoming increasingly popular is not adequately utilised in information science research. The chapter draws on the literature on case study research in various fields and uses examples to inform research in information science. Case study research have been used across a number of disciplines, particularly, in the social sciences, education and business to address real world problems. Many researchers tend to use case study research because of the numerous advantages it offers. For instance, the employment of multiple data collection instruments maximises the depth of information, which in turn increases transferability of the findings. Additionally, the use of multiple cases and multiple data collection instruments make generalisation easy and valid. Maximising generalisability of findings is the ultimate goal of research.