Cases as Scholarship Initiative
David Wylie, founder of Babson College Case Publishing and now Executive in Residence, has been named to the WACRA committee on Case Standards Setting with a mandate to promote case method research as scholarship and to develop standards of excellence in case method research and application.
The most important element contributing to the success of institutionalized case writing is a school's commitment to the process. Indeed, nothing can happen without this commitment. Case development must be identified as a valuable contribution to the school, the learning process, and faculty development.
Many academicians think that cases lack the rigor and depth of analysis associated with academic research. Often, however, a well-researched and presented case has the rigor needed to qualify as insightful research. While these tend not to have multi-company or industry data, they often have a depth that may be lacking in more traditional forms of academic research. The analysis is incorporated into the teaching note, which should refer to relevant theories and associated research. Multiple case studies about several companies within an industry can be combined with a broad teaching note, thus over coming many of the drawbacks of "single data-point" research. Indeed, these combined cases may have the depth often missing in much academic research. For this reason, some schools such as the Harvard Business School and the Ivey School count case development as a legitimate form of academic research. WACRA, the preeminent international case writing association, is developing a set of criteria to be used to determine the validity of case development as an academically rigorous form of research.
The AACSB, an influential force in setting criteria for the quality of business education in the United States, included in the accreditation standards in the section on faculty development, promotion, retention and renewal is the statement, "…faculty should interact with people in organizations on subjects related to the phenomena about which they teach, perform research, and publish… Business schools need mechanisms through which faculty observe business practices in action so they may learn the applicability and relevance of the ideas and concepts developed through their intellectual activities. Moreover, this improves the content of instructional development and teaching. Faculty whose primary emphasis is theory development can benefit by efforts to integrate theory and practice."
Furthermore, the report of the AACSB Faculty Leadership Task Force identifies one of the underlying problems for schools of business and their faculties is the lack of real world contact and additionally that most research is high in theory and low in relevance. "Faculty need to lead in converting research into the persistent core body of knowledge that is imparted to students so they can improve the practice of business…If business schools could move faculty skill levels up, build ties to industry…progress can be made in solving the problem of alignment between academia and business needs.
Clearly, case development increases faculty interaction with organizations and allows them to observe business practices in action, thus fostering alignment between theory and practice and enhancing student learning and business improvement.
In addition, internal case development improves the currency and relevancy of cases. As the pace of business evolution accelerates, the need for current cases increases. By the time most cases reach case publishers and clearing houses, however, a year or so may have passed as they are first taught and fine tuned before being released for publication. This may improve their quality, but at a level depreciated by time.
Internal development also encourages cross-functional faculty interaction as cases are developed which cross-disciplinary boundaries. This not only breeds relevance for students as they face problems that are, like in the real world, not confined to a single functional remedy, but fosters close faculty understanding of actual business practices. The AACSB states that one of the problems is that "faculty develop a disciplinary focus...A linear development exists with little interaction between functional units either within the business school or within units outside the business school".
Internally developed cases inhance the credibility of the faculty and school in student eyes. Students are not being taught with others' materials, but with their own teachers' experience. As the brand becomes more prevalent, this credibility can reach beyond the borders of the school to other schools, prospective students, corporate human resource departments, and alumni.
Opportunities are emerging in creating cases for those schools and firms engaged in developing distance learning programs that often contract case and curriculum development.
