Building Theories From Case Study Research - This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.

Building theories from case study research

�Traditional, hierarchical views of leadership are less and less useful given the complexities of our modern world. Leadership theory must transition to new perspectives that account for the complex adaptive needs of organizations. In this paper, we propose that leadership (as opposed to leaders) can be seen as a complex dynamic process that emerges in the interactive “spaces between” people and ideas. That is, leadership is a dynamic that transcends the capabilities of individuals alone; it is the product of interaction, tension, and exchange rules governing changes in perceptions and understanding. We label this a dynamic of adaptive leadership, and we show how this dynamic provides important insights about the nature of leadership and its outcomes in organizational fields. We define a leadership event as a perceived segment of action whose meaning is created by the interactions of actors involved in producing it, and we present a set of innovative methods for capturing and analyzing these contextually driven processes. We provide theoretical and practical implications of these ideas for organizational behavior and organization and management theory.

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Building theories from case study research.

This article discusses the research strategy of theory building from cases, particularly multiple cases. Such a strategy involves using one or more cases to create theoretical constructs, propositions, and/or midrange theory from case-based, empirical evidence. Replication logic means that each case serves as a distinct experiment that stands on its own merits as an analytic unit. The frequent use of case studies as a research strategy has given rise to some challenges that can be mitigated by the use of very precise wording and thoughtful research design.

Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges

This paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and, more generally, the resource-based view of the firm. We argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development, strategic decision making, and alliancing. They are neither vague nor tautological. Although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence, they have significant commonalities across firms (popularly termed ‘best practice’). This suggests that they are more homogeneous, fungible, equifinal, and substitutable than is usually assumed. In moderately dynamic markets, dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines. They are detailed, analytic, stable processes with predictable outcomes. In contrast, in high-velocity markets, they are simple, highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes. Finally, well-known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities. In moderately dynamic markets, the evolutionary emphasis is on variation. In high-velocity markets, it is on selection. At the level of RBV, we conclude that traditional RBV misidentifies the locus of long-term competitive advantage in dynamic markets, overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage, and reaches a boundary condition in high-velocity markets. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Dynamic capabilities, what are they?

This paper combines the concept of weak ties from social network research and the notion of complex knowledge to explain the role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organization subunits in a...

The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits.

This study of the complete life-spans of eight naturally-ocurring teams began with the unexpected finding that several project groups, studied for another purpose, did not accomplish their work by progressing gradually through a universal series of stages, as traditional group development models would predict. Instead, teams progressed in a pattern of “punctuated equilibrium,” through alternating inertia and revolution in the behaviors and themes through which they approached their work. The findings also suggested that groups' progress was triggered more by members' awareness of time and deadlines than by completion of an absolute amount of work in a specific developmental stage. The paper proposes a new model of group development that encompasses the timing and mechanisms of change as well as groups' dynamic relations with their contexts. Implications for theory, research, and practice are drawn.

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Time and Transition in Work Teams: Toward a New Model of Group Development

Research on how organizational systems develop and change is shaped, at every level of analysis, by traditional assumptions about how change works. New theories in several fields are challenging some of the most pervasive of these assumptions, by conceptualizing change as a punctuated equilibrium: an alternation between long periods when stable infrastructures permit only incremental adaptations, and brief periods of revolutionary upheaval. This article compares models from six domains—adult, group, and organizational development, history of science, biological evolution, and physical science—to explicate the punctuated equilibrium paradigm and show its broad applicability for organizational studies. Models are juxtaposed to generate new research questions about revolutionary change in organizational settings: how it is triggered, how systems function during such periods, and how it concludes. The article closes with implications for research and theory.

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Revolutionary change theories: a multilevel exploration of the punctuated equilibrium paradigm

A new model of group development suggests that groups' attention to time and pacing is an important catalyst of their progress through creative projects. In this laboratory study, groups were videotaped as they produced creative products and then interviewed about replays of selected portions of the tapes. Participants' efforts to pace themselves were explored in depth, with special focus on a key feature of the model, a major transition in groups' approach toward their work at the midpoint of their allotted time. The appropriateness of laboratory simulation for studying midpoint transitions was also assessed. The laboratory results mirrored and extended the field-based model; they showed how groups make deliberate attentional shifts at their temporal midpoints, what differences exist between pacing patterns in the first and second halves of groups' life spans, and what happens when transitions fail. Implications are drawn for theory, practice, and research.

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Marking time: predictable transitions in task groups

Theorists debate whether organizations are inertial or adaptable, but mounting evidence shows they are both, provoking questions about how shifts occur between inertia and change. Research shows performance crises can trigger reactive change, but proactive revolutions in organizations are poorly understood. In project groups, temporal pacing triggers proactive change. This longitudinal study of a venture capital–backed start-up company explored whether temporal pacing could regulate momentum and change in an organization's strategy, as it does in groups. Two forms of pacing were discovered, one time-based, with reorientations initiated at temporal milestones, the other event-based, with actions initiated when the right event occurred. The two pacing types fostered systematically different patterns of momentum and change.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/256768.pdf

Pacing Strategic Change: The Case of a New Venture

In-depth interviews with business school faculty members suggest that work relationships are more than strategically chosen means to career mobility. Relationships are career-defining ends as well, and negative relationships may be as consequential as helpful ties. Findings also showed significant gender differences: women, more than men, told stories about harm; men, more than women, told stories about help. Workplace relationships may play different roles for professionals and managers, and men's and women's different relational experiences may foster different career logics, or ways of striving for success.

Connie J. G. Gersick

Papers

Time and Transition in Work Teams: Toward a New Model of Group Development

Revolutionary change theories: a multilevel exploration of the punctuated equilibrium paradigm

Marking time: predictable transitions in task groups

Pacing Strategic Change: The Case of a New Venture

Learning from academia: the importance of relationships in professional life