Piec mitow o badaniach typu studium przypadku (Five Misunderstandings about Case Study Research)

Studia Socjologiczne, Vol. 2, No. 177, pp. 41-69

30 Pages Posted: 14 Jun 2013

See all articles by Bent Flyvbjerg

Bent Flyvbjerg

University of Oxford - Said Business School; IT University of Copenhagen; St Anne's College, University of Oxford

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (1) Theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (2) One cannot generalize from a single case, therefore the single case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (3) The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, while other methods aremore suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (4) The case study contains a bias toward verification; and (5) It is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. The article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and that a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of more good case studies.

The English version of this article can be found at: http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2230464

La versión española de este artículo se puede encontrar en: http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2278291

Den danske version af denne artikel kan findes på: http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2278229

Den Svenska versionen av denna artikel finns på: http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2278403

Note: Downloadable document is in Polish.

Suggested Citation

Flyvbjerg, Bent, Piec mitow o badaniach typu studium przypadku (Five Misunderstandings about Case Study Research) (2005). Studia Socjologiczne, Vol. 2, No. 177, pp. 41-69, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2278318

Bent Flyvbjerg (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Said Business School ( email )

Oxford
Great Britain

IT University of Copenhagen ( email )

Copenhagen
Denmark

St Anne's College, University of Oxford ( email )

Oxford
United Kingdom

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