Two or Three Approaches to Explanatory Case Study Research?

Abstract

This paper substantiates the core message of our book Designing Case Studies: Explanatory Approaches in Small-N Research (Palgrave 2012) that there are three rather than two distinct approaches to explanatory case study research. Distinguishing three approaches is of crucial importance for executing, supervising and reviewing case study research, as each approach has its own affinities with regard to crucial elements of the research process such as appropriate research questions, criteria for case and theory selection, methods of causal inference, modes of generalization and format of presentation.

Keywords: research design, case study, process tracing, small-N,causal inference, case selection