Abstract:  

Robert K. Yin’s Case Study Research Design and Methods (2014) is currently in its fifth edition and continues to be a seminal text for researchers and students engaged in case study research. Since the book’s first release 30 years ago (1984), case study research has gained considerable acceptance as a research method, likely a result of Yin’s unyielding position that case study be considered a separate and all-encompassing method with its own research design. Th is current edition of the book is heavily influenced by the advances in case study research and remains a definitive guide on how to design more rigorous and methodologically sound case studies that will stand up to questions of validity and reliability. Importantly, Yin manages to link theory and practice by presenting the breadth of case study research and its historical significance at a practical level. It is Yin’s view that, when “the process has been given careful attention, the potential result is the production of a high-quality case study” (p. 199). Th us, a comprehensive and systematic outline for undertaking the design and conduct of a case study is presented in a very straightforward and readable manner throughout the book’s 282 pages. Ultimately, Yin argues that case study research is a challenging endeavour that hinges upon the researcher’s skills and expertise. As such, this edition includes more difficult concepts to guide researchers and students in the work of carrying out more rigorous case study research, thereby retaining Yin’s ultimate goal “to improve our social science methods and practices over those of previous generations of scholars” (p. xxvi).

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