What is a case?

Case studies recount real life business or management situations that present business executives with a dilemma or uncertain outcome. The case describes the scenario in the context of the events, people and factors that influence it and enables students to identify closely with those involved. Management cases are generally written by business school faculty with particular learning objectives in mind and are refined in the classroom before publication. Relevant documentation or audio-visual items and a carefully crafted teaching note often accompany a case.

Free cases

If you would like to see some examples of cases ecch provides registered educators with access to a variety of free cases.

The case method

Pioneered in the early 20th Century at Harvard University, the case method has become the favoured teaching tool of most of the world's leading business schools. A process of discussion and analysis, guided by a skilled case teacher, leads class participants to deeper insights into management issues and their resolution. Faculty and students familiar with the case method universally regard it as the most effective and enjoyable way to learn. More about why leading business schools use the case method

How ecch supports the case method

The mission of ecch is to support and promote the case method of learning. We provide a range of services and products to support case teachers, case writers and students who learn with cases.

For those wishing to find out more about the case method we distribute a range of books and articles aimed at helping teachers and writers get more out of case learning. We also run regular workshops on case teaching and writing at various venues around the world.

Teaching with cases

Teaching with cases is a skill that develops with practice and insight. Whatever the level of experience you have, ecch aims to provide as many tools as possible to assist you become as effective a case teacher as you can. Foremost among ecch's services for case teachers is the case collection of over 83,800 items and an intuitive search facilty to assist you in finding the very best materials for your particular teaching situation.

More than 20,800 teaching notes are available in the ecch collection to accompany cases. Experienced case teachers testify to the value of a well-constructed teaching note. Teaching notes help the case teacher identify and focus on the key learning outcomes designed in the case and to plan class discussion and dynamics. 95% of the most popular cases have teaching notes. Guidance on writing teaching notes is also available.

Writing cases

Submitting your cases to ecch enables faculty and businesses worldwide to become aware of them and to use them in their educational programmes. ecch accepts cases for distribution from both organisations and individual authors. Royalties are paid to ecch member organisations for sales of cases authored by their staff. Before submitting a case to ecch, authors are responsible for testing it in the classroom and must obtain all necessary permissions and clarify copyright.

Each year ecch provides up to ten Philip Law case development scholarships to research students based at ecch member organisations. The scholarships aim to stimulate new case authors and strengthen the role of original research in student management learning.

Since 1991 ecch has presented annual Case Awards in recognition of outstanding case development. Awards are made to authors of the cases that display the highest and most consistent growth in popularity in management education worldwide.