Case Study Research: Design and Methods

Providing a complete portal to the world of case study research, the Fourth Edition of Robert K. Yin’s bestselling text Case Study Research offers comprehensive coverage of the design and use of the case study method as a valid research tool. This thoroughly revised text now covers more than 50 case studies (approximately 25% new), gives fresh attention to quantitative analyses, discusses more fully the use of mixed methods research designs, and includes new methodological insights. The book’s coverage of case study research and how it is applied in practice gives readers access to exemplary case studies drawn from a wide variety of academic and applied fields.

Key Features of the Fourth Edition

• Highlights each specific research feature through 44 boxed vignettes that feature previously published case studies
• Provides methodological insights to show the similarities between case studies and other social science methods
• Suggests a three-stage approach to help readers define the initial questions they will consider in their own case study research
• Covers new material on human subjects protection, the role of Institutional Review Boards, and the interplay between obtaining IRB approval and the final development of the case study protocol and conduct of a pilot case
• Includes an overall graphic of the entire case study research process at the beginning of the book, then highlights the steps in the process through graphics that appear at the outset of all the chapters that follow
• Offers in-text learning aids including “tips” that pose key questions and answers at the beginning of each chapter, practical exercises, endnotes, and a new cross-referencing table

Case Study Research, Fourth Edition is ideal for courses in departments of Education, Business and Management, Nursing and Public Health, Public Administration, Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science.

Robert K. Yin is President of COSMOS Corporation, an applied research and social science firm. Over the years, COSMOS has successfully completed hundreds of projects for federal agencies, state and local agencies, and private foundations, and most of this book’s applications come from these projects.

Outside of COSMOS, Dr. Yin has assisted numerous other research groups, helping to train their field teams or to design research studies. A recent engagement has been with the United Nations Development Programme, and another assignment has been to provide guidance to assist doctoral students at the University of Copenhagen. Currently, Dr. Yin holds the position of distinguished scholar-in-residence at American University’s School of International Service (Washington, DC). Earlier, he served as Visiting Scholar at the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s research methodology division.

Dr. Yin has authored nearly 100 journal articles and books. His first book on the case study method, Case Study Research: Design and Methods (2014) is in its fifth edition. He has edited two case study anthologies (Yin, 2004; and 2005) and has most recently authored a new text on qualitative research methods (Yin, 2011). Dr. Yin received his B.A. in history from Harvard College (magna cum laude) and his Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences from M.I.T.