Ideas for Case Research

Dr. Cara Peters, Associate Editor of Journal for Case Studies, has a long-time friend from graduate school who used to be an active member of the Society for Case Research. This was the kind of guy that everyone liked and when she saw him at past summer workshops he had interesting, well-written cases. Well, after not seeing him at the workshop for quite some time, Peters sent him an email telling him encouraging him to continue his case research. Her friend answered that he had hoped to be back sometime but he just hadn’t any opportunities to work with companies that could lead to a case for awhile.

Well, that conversation created an “a-ha” moment for Peters. There was no particular reason that we in SCR had not seen her friend in awhile, other than he did not have an idea for a case. We, as editors, know that problem can be addressed and that sent us on the search for researchers who have written about how to get ideas for cases. Within our very own SCR newsletter, we found that Ann Hackert shared her thoughts on how to get inspiration for cases in fall issue of 2012. We also found others outside of SCR, such as Management Professor Gina Vega (2013), who discussed in her case writing book where to find case subjects.