Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research

@article{Seawright2008CaseST,
  title={Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research},
  author={Jason Seawright and John Gerring},
  journal={Political Research Quarterly},
  year={2008},
  volume={61},
  pages={294 - 308}
}
How can scholars select cases from a large universe for in-depth case study analysis? Random sampling is not typically a viable approach when the total number of cases to be selected is small. Hence attention to purposive modes of sampling is needed. Yet, while the existing qualitative literature on case selection offers a wide range of suggestions for case selection, most techniques discussed require in-depth familiarity of each case. Seven case selection procedures are considered, each of… 
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This study revisits the task of case selection in case study research, proposing a new typology of strategies that is explicit, disaggregated, and relatively comprehensive, and arguing that medium-n samples occupy an unstable methodological position.
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Qualitative and multimethod scholars face a wide and often confusing array of alternatives for case selection using the results of a prior regression analysis. Methodologists have recommended…
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Case study research requires researchers to purposefully select information-rich cases, as they will allow researchers an in-depth understanding of relevant and critical issues under investigation…
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Case selection is a matter of ongoing debate in comparative and multi-method research that combines large-N analysis with qualitative case studies. The voluminous literature contains a proliferation…
Three Pathways to Case Selection in IB: A Twenty–Year Review, Analysis & Synthesis
With its focus on locational context, International Business (IB) is a prime candidate for the application of Case Study (CS) methodology. Yet many IB scholars still have doubts about CSs, possibly…
Is There a (Viable) Crucial-Case Method?
Case study researchers use diverse methods to select their cases, a matter that has elicited considerable comment and no little consternation. Of all these methods, perhaps the most controversial is…
Three Pathways to Case Selection in International Business: A Twenty–Year Review, Analysis and Synthesis
TLDR
The link between case selection and theorizing in CSs is addressed and greater methodological sophistication and transparency of CS selection reporting in IB research is advocated, to raise the standard and status of CS research.
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ABSTRACT Despite the widespread use of paired comparisons, we lack clear guidance about how to use this research strategy in practice, particularly in case selection. The literature tends to assume…
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TLDR
Through several applications, it is shown that matching methods have advantages over traditional selection in “most similar” case designs: they ensure that most similar cases are in fact most similar; they make scope conditions, assumptions, and measurement explicit; and they make case selection transparent and replicable.
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