What is a case?
Case studies take as their starting point issues or challenges facing managers in real life business situations. They are naturally written around actual scenarios in real companies.
Case writing
Case writing is a particular skill that aims to present the business scenario in such a way as to involve the reader/student in the resolution of the issue. Most cases are written by faculty at business schools. Some cases are written by independent authors.
What do cases look like?
Cases are paper documents ranging in length from 5 to 50 pages on average. Some cases include illustrative material such as photos of products or marketing materials. Cases can have accompanying videos relevant to the material (eg interviews with key players in the scenario). Many cases have an accompanying teaching note written by the case author. This is designed to assist the teacher using the case to guide the student(s) through the key issues. Cases sometimes come in several parts (eg A, B & C). Each part takes the business situation up to a certain stage. These cases may be used over a number of sessions. Electronic interactive cases also exist. These are particularly helpful in distance learning.
How many cases are there?
ecch has a current catalogue of in excess of 48,100 cases. The entire catalogue totals over 83,800 items including cases, teaching notes, DVDs, interactive CD-ROMs, supplementary materials and journal article reprints.
Who wrote the first case, when and how did case writing develop?
The case study is part of a teaching method that has its own remarkable history. First developed in various faculties at Harvard University, it was designed to aid the student to gain a grasp of knowledge together with its application, and brought with it a holistic approach to teaching and participative learning. Its transfer across the Atlantic to the early European business schools and subsequent development took place largely from the 1960s onwards and cemented it as a core teaching methodology in business education.
What are the annual ecch Case Awards?
ecch makes annual awards to the writers of the cases, in various categories, based upon the growth in popularity of their case study. From 1991 to 2012 the awards were made for cases authored in Europe only. Now in their 23rd year, the
ecch Case Awards seek to honour the unique contribution of case writers worldwide to management education.
