Case Study Methods in the International Relations Subfield

Abstract

This article reviews the key role that case study methods have played in the study of international relations (IR) in the United States. Case studies in the IR subfield are not the unconnected, atheoretical, and idiographic studies that their critics decry. IR case studies follow an increasingly standardized and rigorous set of prescriptions and have, together with statistical and formal work, contributed to cumulatively improving understandings of world politics. The article discusses and reviews examples of case selection criteria (including least likely, least and most similar, and deviant cases); conceptual innovation; typo-logical theories, explanatory typologies, qualitative comparative analysis, and fuzzy-set analysis; process tracing; and the integration of multiple methods.

Making global markets: Historical institutionalism in international political economy

“…In this special issue, following Bennett and Elman (2007), we seek to address these potential problems by specifying a clear set of causal mechanisms to be investigated across several cases. This allows us to make a cumulative and coherent contribution to the literature.…”

Corporations, Civil Society, and Stakeholders: An Organizational Conceptualization

“…With respect to normative and instrumental stances toward stakeholders, critically, the framework recognizes that, in practice, the normative and instrumental can operate independently of each other, or together, or not at all, yielding four possible combinations of stakeholder orientations. Each combination of these variables, as embodied in a configuration derived from stakeholder theory, then suggests what attributes and behavior one might expect to see (Bennett and Elman, 2007). The normative and instrumental need not be antithetical, as traditionally presented, and the existence of mixed motives is realized (DiNorcia and Tigner, 2000).…”

“…Other related factors, such as organizations' core competencies in partnering, could be included. Bennett and Elman (2007) show how case studies can be used to corroborate typological theories by 'process tracing' (p. 183), which involves the inductive and deductive study of events and sequences to establish complex causation. Indeed, including financial performance in the mix might address the previous inconsistencies in determining the presence of a corporate social and financial performance link, if positive (poor) financial outcomes are related to a match (mismatch) between organizational type and the nature of CSR.…”

framing processes and lobbying in EU foreign policy: case study and process-tracing methods

“…Given that the debate is still ongoing (cf. Bennett and Elman, 2007;Freedman, 2008;George and Bennett, 2005;Yin, 2003), two issues are to be considered when conducting case study research. First, it is crucial to be clear about the approach used, justifying why certain cases have been selected and of which phenomenon they are an instance.…”