Case Method - Teaching Cases

Teaching Cases

Teaching cases are available through clearing repositories such as Ivey Publishing Case place and European Case Clearing House, or through professional writing and publishing centers, such as Globalens at the University of Michigan.

Teaching case studies, and to a lesser extent writing them, is a central function performed at the top business schools worldwide. Some organizations, such as European Case Clearing House and GlobaLens, run competitions to identify the best new teaching cases. Some of the institutions that are the most active at writing teaching cases (as determined by the quantity and quality validated by awards) are: Harvard Business School, IESE, the Darden School at the University of Virginia, University of Michigan Ross School of Business (through Globalens, INSEAD, Richard Ivey School of Business, the Asian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Asian Case Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong.

Although case method was initially introduced in business education in North America and Western Europe, other regions, especially Asia, are starting to catch up in teaching and writing cases. The Middle East and North Africa region has recently seen the launch of the Middle East & North Africa Regional Case Initiative (MENARCCI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB). MENARCCI's goal is to serve as a depository of all necessary knowledge about the case method, sources of cases and publishing outlets, and the links to all cases on the Region available on-line.

A business case is a document that illustrates a business or policy situation to be solved and includes information for classroom discussion and other study. The situation does not have an obvious solution. The case provides information to stimulate an educated conversation concerning possible outcomes. Each case has one central decision point, dilemma, or angle. The nature of the situation is clearly apparent within the first two paragraphs.

The writing in a case is precise and nuanced, yet always clear and concise. It is neither colloquial nor stuffily formal. It is also engaging and interesting to the reader. It is imperative for a case writer to always be objective—a case is not a marketing pamphlet for the featured organization, though the writer may portray biases that the protagonist may have.