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Business Case Studies: Overview

Overview and method

What are business case studies?

Business case studies are usually summaries of real-life business scenarios or fictitious accounts of a business situation or dilemma. Case studies enable students to analyse business issues from a variety of perspectives and apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Business case studies can illustrate business theory and show the application of such theory.

There are publishers, such as Harvard Business School Press, which produce and sell cases for teaching and learning purposes. There are also other sources of case studies, including books, articles, academic research and free internet sources.

The key parts in the write-up of a case are analysis of the situation, identification of the key issues and making of recommendations. For background you may need to undertake company or industry research.

Case study method

"A research design that takes as its subject a single case or a few selected examples of a social entity - such as communities, social groups, employers, events, life-histories, families, work teams, roles, or relationships - and employs a variety of methods to study them." Scott, J., & Marshall, G. (2014). Case-study. In A Dictionary of Sociology.

Business Study and Research Skills Hub

The Business Study and Research Skills Hub is where you can access a suite of resources about how to effectively find scholarly sources, your assignment writing, referencing and more.

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