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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Case-Based Teaching & Learning Initiative
Teaching cases & active learning resources for public health education, the case study handbook, revised edition: a student's guide.
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Many of our cases are available for sale through Harvard Business Publishing in the Harvard T.H. Chan case collection . Others are free to download through this website .
Cases in this collection may be used free of charge by Harvard Chan course instructors in their teaching. Contact Allison Bodznick , Harvard Chan Case Library administrator, for access.
Access to teaching notes
Teaching notes are available as supporting material to many of the cases in the Harvard Chan Case Library. Teaching notes provide an overview of the case and suggested discussion questions, as well as a roadmap for using the case in the classroom.
Access to teaching notes is limited to course instructors only.
- Teaching notes for cases available through Harvard Business Publishing may be downloaded after registering for an Educator account .
- To request teaching notes for cases that are available for free through this website, look for the "Teaching note available for faculty/instructors " link accompanying the abstract for the case you are interested in; you'll be asked to complete a brief survey verifying your affiliation as an instructor.
Using the Harvard Business Publishing site
Faculty and instructors with university affiliations can register for Educator access on the Harvard Business Publishing website, where many of our cases are available . An Educator account provides access to teaching notes, full-text review copies of cases, articles, simulations, course planning tools, and discounted pricing for your students.
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5 Benefits of Learning Through the Case Study Method
- 28 Nov 2023
While several factors make HBS Online unique —including a global Community and real-world outcomes —active learning through the case study method rises to the top.
In a 2023 City Square Associates survey, 74 percent of HBS Online learners who also took a course from another provider said HBS Online’s case method and real-world examples were better by comparison.
Here’s a primer on the case method, five benefits you could gain, and how to experience it for yourself.
Access your free e-book today.
What Is the Harvard Business School Case Study Method?
The case study method , or case method , is a learning technique in which you’re presented with a real-world business challenge and asked how you’d solve it. After working through it yourself and with peers, you’re told how the scenario played out.
HBS pioneered the case method in 1922. Shortly before, in 1921, the first case was written.
“How do you go into an ambiguous situation and get to the bottom of it?” says HBS Professor Jan Rivkin, former senior associate dean and chair of HBS's master of business administration (MBA) program, in a video about the case method . “That skill—the skill of figuring out a course of inquiry to choose a course of action—that skill is as relevant today as it was in 1921.”
Originally developed for the in-person MBA classroom, HBS Online adapted the case method into an engaging, interactive online learning experience in 2014.
In HBS Online courses , you learn about each case from the business professional who experienced it. After reviewing their videos, you’re prompted to take their perspective and explain how you’d handle their situation.
You then get to read peers’ responses, “star” them, and comment to further the discussion. Afterward, you learn how the professional handled it and their key takeaways.
HBS Online’s adaptation of the case method incorporates the famed HBS “cold call,” in which you’re called on at random to make a decision without time to prepare.
“Learning came to life!” said Sheneka Balogun , chief administration officer and chief of staff at LeMoyne-Owen College, of her experience taking the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program . “The videos from the professors, the interactive cold calls where you were randomly selected to participate, and the case studies that enhanced and often captured the essence of objectives and learning goals were all embedded in each module. This made learning fun, engaging, and student-friendly.”
If you’re considering taking a course that leverages the case study method, here are five benefits you could experience.
5 Benefits of Learning Through Case Studies
1. take new perspectives.
The case method prompts you to consider a scenario from another person’s perspective. To work through the situation and come up with a solution, you must consider their circumstances, limitations, risk tolerance, stakeholders, resources, and potential consequences to assess how to respond.
Taking on new perspectives not only can help you navigate your own challenges but also others’. Putting yourself in someone else’s situation to understand their motivations and needs can go a long way when collaborating with stakeholders.
2. Hone Your Decision-Making Skills
Another skill you can build is the ability to make decisions effectively . The case study method forces you to use limited information to decide how to handle a problem—just like in the real world.
Throughout your career, you’ll need to make difficult decisions with incomplete or imperfect information—and sometimes, you won’t feel qualified to do so. Learning through the case method allows you to practice this skill in a low-stakes environment. When facing a real challenge, you’ll be better prepared to think quickly, collaborate with others, and present and defend your solution.
3. Become More Open-Minded
As you collaborate with peers on responses, it becomes clear that not everyone solves problems the same way. Exposing yourself to various approaches and perspectives can help you become a more open-minded professional.
When you’re part of a diverse group of learners from around the world, your experiences, cultures, and backgrounds contribute to a range of opinions on each case.
On the HBS Online course platform, you’re prompted to view and comment on others’ responses, and discussion is encouraged. This practice of considering others’ perspectives can make you more receptive in your career.
“You’d be surprised at how much you can learn from your peers,” said Ratnaditya Jonnalagadda , a software engineer who took CORe.
In addition to interacting with peers in the course platform, Jonnalagadda was part of the HBS Online Community , where he networked with other professionals and continued discussions sparked by course content.
“You get to understand your peers better, and students share examples of businesses implementing a concept from a module you just learned,” Jonnalagadda said. “It’s a very good way to cement the concepts in one's mind.”
4. Enhance Your Curiosity
One byproduct of taking on different perspectives is that it enables you to picture yourself in various roles, industries, and business functions.
“Each case offers an opportunity for students to see what resonates with them, what excites them, what bores them, which role they could imagine inhabiting in their careers,” says former HBS Dean Nitin Nohria in the Harvard Business Review . “Cases stimulate curiosity about the range of opportunities in the world and the many ways that students can make a difference as leaders.”
Through the case method, you can “try on” roles you may not have considered and feel more prepared to change or advance your career .
5. Build Your Self-Confidence
Finally, learning through the case study method can build your confidence. Each time you assume a business leader’s perspective, aim to solve a new challenge, and express and defend your opinions and decisions to peers, you prepare to do the same in your career.
According to a 2022 City Square Associates survey , 84 percent of HBS Online learners report feeling more confident making business decisions after taking a course.
“Self-confidence is difficult to teach or coach, but the case study method seems to instill it in people,” Nohria says in the Harvard Business Review . “There may well be other ways of learning these meta-skills, such as the repeated experience gained through practice or guidance from a gifted coach. However, under the direction of a masterful teacher, the case method can engage students and help them develop powerful meta-skills like no other form of teaching.”
How to Experience the Case Study Method
If the case method seems like a good fit for your learning style, experience it for yourself by taking an HBS Online course. Offerings span seven subject areas, including:
- Business essentials
- Leadership and management
- Entrepreneurship and innovation
- Finance and accounting
- Business in society
No matter which course or credential program you choose, you’ll examine case studies from real business professionals, work through their challenges alongside peers, and gain valuable insights to apply to your career.
Are you interested in discovering how HBS Online can help advance your career? Explore our course catalog and download our free guide —complete with interactive workbook sections—to determine if online learning is right for you and which course to take.
About the Author
What is the Case Study Method?
Overview Dropdown up
Overview dropdown down, celebrating 100 years of the case method at hbs.
The 2021-2022 academic year marks the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the case method at Harvard Business School. Today, the HBS case method is employed in the HBS MBA program, in Executive Education programs, and in dozens of other business schools around the world. As Dean Srikant Datar's says, the case method has withstood the test of time.
Case Discussion Preparation Details Expand All Collapse All
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How Cases Unfold In the Classroom
How cases unfold in the classroom dropdown up, how cases unfold in the classroom dropdown down, preparation guidelines expand all collapse all, read the professor's assignment or discussion questions read the professor's assignment or discussion questions dropdown down, read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case dropdown down, reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes dropdown down, note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again dropdown down, how to prepare for case discussions dropdown up, how to prepare for case discussions dropdown down, read the professor's assignment or discussion questions, read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case, reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes, note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again, case study best practices expand all collapse all, prepare prepare dropdown down, discuss discuss dropdown down, participate participate dropdown down, relate relate dropdown down, apply apply dropdown down, note note dropdown down, understand understand dropdown down, case study best practices dropdown up, case study best practices dropdown down, participate, what can i expect on the first day dropdown down.
Most programs begin with registration, followed by an opening session and a dinner. If your travel plans necessitate late arrival, please be sure to notify us so that alternate registration arrangements can be made for you. Please note the following about registration:
HBS campus programs – Registration takes place in the Chao Center.
India programs – Registration takes place outside the classroom.
Other off-campus programs – Registration takes place in the designated facility.
What happens in class if nobody talks? Dropdown down
Professors are here to push everyone to learn, but not to embarrass anyone. If the class is quiet, they'll often ask a participant with experience in the industry in which the case is set to speak first. This is done well in advance so that person can come to class prepared to share. Trust the process. The more open you are, the more willing you’ll be to engage, and the more alive the classroom will become.
Does everyone take part in "role-playing"? Dropdown down
Professors often encourage participants to take opposing sides and then debate the issues, often taking the perspective of the case protagonists or key decision makers in the case.
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HBS Case Selections
OpenAI: Idealism Meets Capitalism
- Shikhar Ghosh
- Shweta Bagai
Generative AI and the Future of Work
- Christopher Stanton
- Matt Higgins
Copilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub
- Frank Nagle
- Shane Greenstein
- Maria P. Roche
- Nataliya Langburd Wright
- Sarah Mehta
Innovation at Moog Inc.
- Brian J. Hall
- Ashley V. Whillans
- Davis Heniford
- Dominika Randle
- Caroline Witten
Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)
- Linda A. Hill
- Emily Tedards
Juan Valdez: Innovation in Caffeination
- Michael I. Norton
- Jeremy Dann
UGG Steps into the Metaverse
- Shunyuan Zhang
- Sharon Joseph
- Sunil Gupta
- Julia Kelley
Metaverse Wars
- David B. Yoffie
Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse
- Ayelet Israeli
- Nicole Tempest Keller
Timnit Gebru: "SILENCED No More" on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models
- Tsedal Neeley
- Stefani Ruper
Hugging Face: Serving AI on a Platform
- Kerry Herman
- Sarah Gulick
SmartOne: Building an AI Data Business
- Karim R. Lakhani
- Pippa Tubman Armerding
- Gamze Yucaoglu
- Fares Khrais
Honeywell and the Great Recession (A)
- Sandra J. Sucher
- Susan Winterberg
Target: Responding to the Recession
- Ranjay Gulati
- Catherine Ross
- Richard S. Ruback
- Royce Yudkoff
Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation
- Julian De Freitas
- Jeremy Yang
- Das Narayandas
Elon Musk's Big Bets
- Eric Baldwin
Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk
Tesla's ceo compensation plan.
- Krishna G. Palepu
- John R. Wells
- Gabriel Ellsworth
China Rapid Finance: The Collapse of China's P2P Lending Industry
- William C. Kirby
- Bonnie Yining Cao
- John P. McHugh
Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China
- Christopher A. Bartlett
- Carole Carlson
Booking.com
- Stefan Thomke
- Daniela Beyersdorfer
Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL
- Chiara Farronato
- Alan MacCormack
Racial Discrimination on Airbnb (A)
- Michael Luca
- Scott Stern
- Hyunjin Kim
Unilever's Response to the Future of Work
- William R. Kerr
- Emilie Billaud
- Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
- Joseph B. Fuller
- Carl Kreitzberg
Leading Change in Talent at L'Oreal
- Lakshmi Ramarajan
- Vincent Dessain
- Emer Moloney
- William W. George
- Andrew N. McLean
Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee
- Steven S. Rogers
- Alterrell Mills
United Housing - Otis Gates
- Mercer Cook
The Home Depot: Leadership in Crisis Management
- Herman B. Leonard
- Marc J. Epstein
- Melissa Tritter
The Great East Japan Earthquake (B): Fast Retailing Group's Response
- Hirotaka Takeuchi
- Kenichi Nonomura
- Dena Neuenschwander
- Meghan Ricci
- Kate Schoch
- Sergey Vartanov
Insurer of Last Resort?: The Federal Financial Response to September 11
- David A. Moss
- Sarah Brennan
Under Armour
- Rory McDonald
- Clayton M. Christensen
- Daniel West
- Jonathan E. Palmer
- Tonia Junker
Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth
- John A. Quelch
- James T. Kindley
Bitfury: Blockchain for Government
- Mitchell B. Weiss
- Elena Corsi
Deutsche Bank: Pursuing Blockchain Opportunities (A)
- Lynda M. Applegate
- Christoph Muller-Bloch
Maersk: Betting on Blockchain
- Scott Johnson
Yum! Brands
- Jordan Siegel
- Christopher Poliquin
Bharti Airtel in Africa
- Tanya Bijlani
Li & Fung 2012
- F. Warren McFarlan
- Michael Shih-ta Chen
- Keith Chi-ho Wong
Sony and the JK Wedding Dance
- John Deighton
- Leora Kornfeld
United Breaks Guitars
David dao on united airlines.
- Benjamin Edelman
- Jenny Sanford
Marketing Reading: Digital Marketing
- Joseph Davin
Social Strategy at Nike
- Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
- Ryan Johnson
The Tate's Digital Transformation
Social strategy at american express, mellon financial and the bank of new york.
- Carliss Y. Baldwin
- Ryan D. Taliaferro
The Walt Disney Company and Pixar, Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?
- Juan Alcacer
- David J. Collis
Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas
- Benjamin C. Esty
Finance Reading: The Mergers and Acquisitions Process
- John Coates
Apple: Privacy vs. Safety? (A)
- Henry W. McGee
- Nien-he Hsieh
- Sarah McAra
Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up
- Leslie K. John
Data Breach at Equifax
- Suraj Srinivasan
- Quinn Pitcher
- Jonah S. Goldberg
Apple's Core
- Noam Wasserman
Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple
- Barbara Feinberg
Apple Inc. in 2012
- Penelope Rossano
Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization (Abridged)
- Anthony J. Mayo
- Dana M. Teppert
Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit
- Boris Groysberg
- Nitin Nohria
- Deborah Bell
Adobe Systems: Working Towards a "Suite" Release (A)
- David A. Thomas
- Lauren Barley
Home Nursing of North Carolina
Castronics, llc, gemini investors, angie's list: ratings pioneer turns 20.
- Robert J. Dolan
Basecamp: Pricing
- Frank V. Cespedes
- Robb Fitzsimmons
J.C. Penney's "Fair and Square" Pricing Strategy
J.c. penney's 'fair and square' strategy (c): back to the future.
- Jose B. Alvarez
Osaro: Picking the best path
- James Palano
- Bastiane Huang
HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM
- Thomas Steenburgh
GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence
- Ethan S. Bernstein
- Paul D. McKinnon
- Paul Yarabe
Arup: Building the Water Cube
- Robert G. Eccles
- Amy C. Edmondson
- Dilyana Karadzhova
(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek
Managing a global team: greg james at sun microsystems, inc. (a).
- Thomas J. DeLong
Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Global Teams
Ron ventura at mitchell memorial hospital.
- Heide Abelli
Anthony Starks at InSiL Therapeutics (A)
- Gary P. Pisano
- Vicki L. Sato
Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)
- John J. Gabarro
Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital
- Timothy A. Luehrman
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- 11 May 2021
- Working Paper Summaries
Time Dependency, Data Flow, and Competitive Advantage
The perishability of data has strategic implications for businesses that provide data-driven products and services. This paper illustrates how different business areas might differ with respect to the rate of decay in data value and the importance of data flow in their operations.
- 06 Apr 2020
A General Theory of Identification
Statistical inference teaches us how to learn from data, whereas identification analysis explains what we can learn from it. This paper proposes a simple unifying theory of identification, encouraging practitioners to spend more time thinking about what they can estimate from the data and assumptions before trying to estimate it.
- 09 Dec 2019
- Research & Ideas
Identify Great Customers from Their First Purchase
Using data from their very first transaction, companies can identify shoppers who will create the best long-term value, says Eva Ascarza. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Oct 2019
Crowdsourcing Memories: Mixed Methods Research by Cultural Insiders-Epistemological Outsiders
Research on the traumatic 1947 partition of British India has most often been carried out by scholars in the humanities and qualitative social sciences. This article presents mixed methods research and analysis to explore tensions within current scholarship and to inspire new understandings of the Partition, and more generally, mass migrations and displacement.
- 30 Jun 2019
The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training
When sales forces are well managed, firms can induce greater performance from them. For this study, the authors collaborated with a major multinational firm to develop and estimate a dynamic structural model of sales employee responses to various management instruments like compensation, training, and recruiting/termination policies.
- 07 Jan 2019
The Better Way to Forecast the Future
We can forecast hurricane paths with great certainty, yet many businesses can't predict a supply chain snafu just around the corner. Yael Grushka-Cockayne says crowdsourcing can help. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 28 Nov 2018
On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website
Target is one big-brand retailer that seems to have survived and even thrived in the apocalyptic retail landscape. What's its secret? Srikant Datar discusses the company's relentless focus on online data. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Nov 2018
Forecasting Airport Transfer Passenger Flow Using Real-Time Data and Machine Learning
Passengers arriving at international hubs often endure delays, especially at immigration and security. This study of London’s Heathrow Airport develops a system to provide real-time information about transfer passengers’ journeys through the airport to better serve passengers, airlines, and their employees. It shows how advanced machine learning could be accessible to managers.
- 29 Apr 2018
Analyzing the Aftermath of a Compensation Reduction
This study of the effects of compensation cuts in a large sales organization provides a unique lens for analyzing the link between compensation schemes, worker performance, and turnover.
- 11 Dec 2017
The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond
Corporate finance researchers who analyze patent data are at risk of making highly predictable errors. The problem arises from dramatic changes in the direction and location of technological innovation (and patenting practice) over recent decades. This paper explains the pitfalls and suggests practical steps for avoiding them.
- 21 Aug 2017
- Lessons from the Classroom
Companies Love Big Data But Lack the Strategy To Use It Effectively
Big data is a critical competitive advantage for companies that know how to use it. Harvard Business School faculty share insights that they teach to executives. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Jul 2017
Do All Your Detailing Efforts Pay Off? Dynamic Panel Data Methods Revisited
Personal selling in the form of detailing to physicians is the main go-to-market practice in the pharmaceutical industry. This paper provides a practical framework to analyze the effectiveness of detailing efforts. The method and empirical insights can help firms allocate sales-force resources more efficiently and devise optimal routes and call-pattern designs.
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Big Data and Big Cities: The Promises and Limitations of Improved Measures of Urban Life
Michael Luca, Scott Duke Kominers and colleagues describe a number of new urban data sources and illustrate how they can be used to improve the study and function of cities.
- 09 Apr 2014
Visualizing and Measuring Software Portfolio Architectures: A Flexibility Analysis
Contemporary business environments are constantly evolving, requiring continual changes to the software applications that support a business. Moreover, during recent decades, the sheer number of applications has grown significantly, and they have become increasingly interdependent. Many companies find that managing applications and implementing changes to their application portfolio architecture is increasingly difficult and expensive. Firms need a way to visualize and analyze the modularity of their software portfolio architectures and the degree of coupling between components. In this paper, the authors test a method for visualizing and measuring software portfolio architectures using data of a biopharmaceutical firm's enterprise architecture. The authors also use the measures to predict the costs of architectural change. Findings show, first, that the biopharmaceutical firm's enterprise architecture can be classified as core-periphery. This means that 1) there is one cyclic group (the "Core") of components that is substantially larger than the second largest cyclic group, and 2) this group comprises a substantial portion of the entire architecture. In addition, the classification of applications in the architecture (as being in the Core or the Periphery) is significantly correlated with architectural flexibility. In this case the architecture has a propagation cost of 23 percent, meaning almost one-quarter of the system may be affected when a change is made to a randomly selected component. Overall, results suggest that the hidden structure method can reveal new facts about an enterprise architecture. This method can aid the analysis of change costs at the software application portfolio level. Key concepts include: This method for architectural visualization could provide valuable input when planning architectural change projects (in terms of, for example, risk analysis and resource planning). The method reveals a "hidden" core-periphery structure, uncovering new facts about the architecture that could not be gained from other visualization procedures or standard metrics. Compared to other measures of complexity, coupling, and modularity, this method considers not only the direct dependencies between components but also the indirect dependencies. These indirect dependencies provide important input for management decisions. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Jun 2013
How Numbers Talk to People
In their new book Keeping Up with the Quants, Thomas H. Davenport and Jinho Kim offer tools to sharpen quantitative analysis and make better decisions. Read our excerpt. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 Apr 2012
- What Do You Think?
How Will the “Age of Big Data” Affect Management?
Summing up: How do we avoid losing useful knowledge in a seemingly endless flood of data? Jim Heskett's readers offer some wise suggestions. What do you think? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 May 2010
Is Denial Endemic to Management?
Poring over reader responses to his May column, HBS professor Jim Heskett is struck by the fact that they include behavioral, structural, and even mechanical remedies. (Forum now closed. Next forum opens June 3.) Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Apr 2010
The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis
What difference do angel investors make for the success and growth of new ventures? William R. Kerr and Josh Lerner of HBS and Antoinette Schoar of MIT provide fresh evidence to address this crucial question in entrepreneurial finance, quantifying the positive impact that angel investors make to the companies they fund. Angel investors as research subjects have received much less attention than venture capitalists, even though some estimates suggest that these investors are as significant a force for high-potential start-up investments as venture capitalists, and are even more significant as investors elsewhere. This study demonstrates the importance of angel investments to the success and survival of entrepreneurial firms. It also offers an empirical foothold for analyzing many other important questions in entrepreneurial finance. Key concepts include: Angel-funded firms are significantly more likely to survive at least four years (or until 2010) and to raise additional financing outside the angel group. Angel-funded firms are also more likely to show improved venture performance and growth as measured through growth in Web site traffic and Web site rankings. The improvement gains typically range between 30 and 50 percent. Investment success is highly predicated by the interest level of angels during the entrepreneur's initial presentation and by the angels' subsequent due diligence. Access to capital per se may not be the most important value-added that angel groups bring. Some of the "softer" features, such as angels' mentoring or business contacts, may help new ventures the most. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Aug 2005
The Hard Work of Failure Analysis
We all should learn from failure—but it's difficult to do so objectively. In this excerpt from "Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail (Intelligently)" in Long Range Planning Journal, HBS professor Amy Edmondson and coauthor Mark Cannon offer a process for analyzing what went wrong. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Policy Analysis
These teaching cases provide students with a chance to discover or practice analytic tools that will help them sort through the kinds of messy, real-life decisions they are likely to face in public and nonprofit sectors. They are designed to improve learning on a host of topics including strategic alignment, generating alternatives, making trade-offs, decision-making under uncertainty, external actors, game theory, cost-benefit analysis, and political analysis.
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This case concerns the Patient Care Intervention Center (PCIC) a values-based health technology social enterprise in Houston, Texas. This organization was founded to tackle fundamental problems in social and health services in the United...
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On August 16, 2022, President Joseph Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). The wide-ranging law included provisions for lowering prescription drug costs, expanding the Internal Revenue Service, subsidizing the...
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Well-conceived, user-friendly data visualizations have the potential to bring fresh perspectives derived from analyzing, visualizing, and presenting data to inform evidence-based policymaking. This case uses the Metroverse project from the...
Conflict Minerals: Influencing the Supply Chain for Public Purpose (Postscript)
Publication Date: November 2, 2022
This postscript accompanies HKS Case Number 2248.0. Gold, tungsten, tantalum, and tin are essential to a wide array of today's products. Industries ranging from electronics to health care to defense rely on these minerals. A sizable portion of...
Conflict Minerals: Influencing the Supply Chain for Public Purpose
Gold, tungsten, tantalum, and tin are essential to a wide array of today's products. Industries ranging from electronics to health care to defense rely on these minerals. A sizable portion of these minerals are sourced from Democratic Republic...
Work or Exploitation? Debating Whether to Decriminalize the Sex Industry
Publication Date: August 12, 2022
As traditionally written and enforced, laws regulating the sex trade in the United States and abroad have disproportionately penalized the least powerful players in the industry—the people, mostly cis- and transgender women, directly...
Power and Social Change
Publication Date: December 6, 2021
The concept of power has often been viewed very narrowly by public leaders. In this 30-minute video, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Archon Fung lays out a broader vision of how power works in our society. Public leaders need to understand...
Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice Course Bundle
Publication Date: August 10, 2021
The materials in this course are designed to help students understand how lobbying and advocacy impact the making of public policy. In doing so students will explore the power of persuasion, as well as the skills necessary to build an effective...
Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice Podcasts
These 3 podcasts are part of the Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice course and feature Professor Mark Fagan in conversation with leading practitioners in the field of lobbying. In addition, students will be able to watch video guidance...
Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice Video Lectures
These 14 video lectures are part of the Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice course. For the purpose of this course, a range of issues, from the history of lobbying to regulating the industry, and from lobbying in various geographic...
Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice Simulations
Publication Date: August 9, 2021
These two simulations are part of the Lobbying and Advocacy: Theory and Practice course. Materials in this course are designed to help students understand how lobbying and advocacy impact the making of public policy. In doing so students will...
Money & Morals: The Minimum Wage and the American South
Publication Date: December 27, 2017
In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10. To the surprise of no one, Congressional Republicans blocked the move, as they had a similar proposal the year before...
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Harvard Style Guide: Case studies
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Reference : Author/editor Last name, Initials. (Year) 'Title of case study' [Case Study], Journal Title, Volume (Issue), pp. page numbers. Available at: URL [Accessed Day Month Year].
Ofek, E., Avery, J., Rudolph, S., Martins Gomes, V., Saadat, N., Tsui, A., & Shroff, Y. (2014) 'Case study second thoughts about a strategy shift' [Case Study], Harvard Business Review , 92(12), pp. 125-129. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=99621003&site=ehost-live [Accessed 10 December 2014].
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Cataract surgery outcomes in eyes with history of scleral buckling and trauma
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Introduction Ocular trauma can cause anatomical and mechanical changes in the eye and affect subsequent eye procedures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the postoperative outcomes of cataract surgery in eyes that that previously underwent scleral buckling for retinal detachment due to trauma. Methods This is a retrospective consecutive case series of eyes that had a history of trauma and subsequent retinal detachment requiring scleral buckle surgery. These eyes underwent cataract surgery between 2010 and 2022. Predicted postoperative spherical equivalents were calculated with the Barrett Universal II formula for the implanted intraocular lens. Complications occurring within 1 year following cataract surgery were extracted from the patient’s electronic medical record. Results A total of 10 eyes of 10 patients included. The mean age of patients at the time of scleral buckling was 46.4 ± 20.2 years. Postoperative visual acuity ranged from 20/20 −1 to 20/200. Six eyes (60%) achieved a BCDVA of 20/30 or better. The mean predicted spherical equivalent (SE) was −0.88 ± 0.61 D and the actual SE was −1.25 ± 0.55 D. Of the 7 eyes for which postoperative refraction was available, 5 (71%) were within ± 0.5 D of predicted and 6 (86%) were within ±1.0 D of predicted. Following cataract surgery, 8 (80%) eyes required YAG capsulotomy for visually significant posterior capsular opacification (PCO) and 1 (10%) eye had recurrent retinal detachment. The mean time to YAG following cataract surgery was 2.53 ± 1.38 months (range, 1.20-4.99). Conclusions Retinal detachment due to trauma may result in favorable visual and refractive outcomes following cataract surgery but can also cause complications such as YAG. To fully explore the outcomes of retinal detachment due to trauma, the mechanism of injury can be noted, and additional eyes are needed to conduct further analysis.
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- American Medical Association
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How to Write a Great Business Case
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- Case Teaching
C ase studies are powerful teaching tools. “When you have a good case, and students who are well prepared to learn and to teach each other, you get some magical moments that students will never forget,” says James L. Heskett, UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, emeritus, at Harvard Business School (HBS). “They will remember the lessons they learn in that class discussion and apply them 20 years later.”
Yet, for many educators who want to pen their own case, the act of writing a great business case seldom comes easily or naturally. For starters, it’s time consuming. Case writers can spend substantial time visiting companies, securing a willing site, conducting interviews, observing operations, collecting data, reviewing notes, writing the case, revising the narrative, ensuring that teaching points come through, and then getting executives to approve the finished product.
The question, then, becomes: Where do you begin? How do you approach case writing? How do you decide which company to use as the subject of the case? And what distinguishes a well-written case from a mediocre one?
We asked three expert HBS case writers—who collectively have written and supported hundreds of cases—to share their insights on how to write a great business case study that will inspire passionate classroom discussion and transmit key educational concepts.
Insights from James L. Heskett
UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, Emeritus, Harvard Business School
Keep your eyes open for a great business issue.
“I’m always on the prowl for new case material. Whenever I’m reading or consulting, I look for interesting people doing interesting things and facing interesting challenges. For instance, I was reading a magazine and came across a story about how Shouldice Hospital treated patients undergoing surgery to fix inguinal hernias—how patients would get up from the operating table and walk away on the arm of the surgeon.
6 QUALITIES OF GREAT CASE WRITERS
Comfort with ambiguity, since cases may have more than one “right” answer
Command of the topic or subject at hand
Ability to relate to the case protagonists
Enthusiasm for the case teaching method
Capacity for finding the drama in a business situation and making it feel personal to students
Build relationships with executives.
“When writing a case, it’s helpful to start as high in the organization as possible. It helps assure mid-level managers that they can share the information you need with an outsider. It also helps when it comes to getting the case cleared for use. Serving on corporate boards can help in building relationships with senior executives, but there are other ways to make those connections. For instance, you can approach speakers at business conferences if you think their presentations could form the basis for a good business case. If you want to write about a company where you don’t have any personal connections, you can always check with your colleagues to see if any of them have a personal relationship with the CEO or sit on a board where they could introduce you to the right person who would be able to facilitate the case. My colleagues and I make a lot of these introductions for each other.”
“If you make the case into a crossword puzzle that takes five hours to solve, it’s not really fair to the students and will most likely cause them to lose focus.” James L. Heskett
Skip the curveballs and focus on key issues.
“Cases don’t have to be obvious. As a pedagogical objective, you might want students to look beyond a superficial issue to say this is the underlying topic that we need to address, and these are the questions we need to pose. Still, I think it’s unhelpful if cases contain real curveballs where ‘unlocking’ the case depends on finding some small piece of information hidden in an exhibit. Give students a break! They may have to read and digest three cases per day, so they probably won’t be able to devote more than a couple of hours to each one. If you make the case into a crossword puzzle that takes five hours to solve, it’s not really fair to the students and will most likely cause them to lose focus.”
Build a discussion plan while writing the case.
“In case method teaching, the teacher is not in complete control. Students teach each other and learn from each other. On any given day, there will likely be somebody in the room who knows more about the company featured in the case than the professor does. So a professor can’t walk into the classroom and expect to impose a lesson plan that goes in a strict linear way from A to B to C to D. The case ought to be written to allow students to jump from A to D and then come back later to B if that’s how the discussion plays out. At the same time, the case should be structured so that the instructor can collect student comments on a board, organizing them as a coherent set of related ideas, and then deliver a 5-to-10-minute summary that communicates whatever essential concepts the case has covered. This summation can be a very powerful teaching and learning experience.”
Focus on quality over quantity.
“Cases don’t have to be too long. Some good cases are only two or three pages. Students may give more scrutiny to these brief cases than they would a 20-page case.”
Advice from Benson P. Shapiro
Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Emeritus, Harvard Business School
Take out the chaff in advance.
“You don’t want students to spend too much time separating the wheat from the chaff. If a case has 12 pages of text and 10 pages of exhibits, even the smartest MBA students will likely lose interest. Writers who try to capture a situation from every angle and in every detail end up with sprawling narratives that usually do not make a good case. When writing cases, you need to set good, strong boundaries. Avoid superfluous, flowery, or poetic material that may contain interesting anecdotes or factoids, but that could distract readers from the case’s core topics. Include only those important and useful details that can help students make decisions and understand key issues that the case explores.”
Work in layers and metaphors—subtly.
“The best cases work on multiple levels. A case should focus on a specific situation—for example, whether or not to introduce a certain product. But it should also serve as a metaphor for broader issues in the background: How do we think about introducing new products? Are we introducing enough products? Are new product introductions a source of competitive advantage in our industry? How should we organize and manage new product development? You want the case to encourage students to think broadly about the various cultural, financial, and strategic impacts that managerial decisions have on a company.”
“Writers who try to capture a situation from every angle and in every detail end up with sprawling narratives that usually do not make a good case.” Benson P. Shapiro
Encourage emotional engagement.
“Case writing is an interesting literary form—it needs to be very engaging, but also educational. Great cases revolve around points of contention on which intelligent people can hold different points of view: What should you do? Why? How do you get it done? Ideally, students should have to choose between two very attractive alternatives or two terrible alternatives. The best cases involve questions that get students emotionally engaged so that they really care about choices and outcomes. When you see students physically leaning forward and following what their peers are saying, you know that they have a visceral feel for the importance of the subject. When you hear them debating after class— You were out in left field! You missed what was really important here! —that’s how you can tell you succeeded in developing a great case.”
Lessons from Carin-Isabel Knoop
Executive Director of the Case Research & Writing Group, Harvard Business School
Don’t forget the classroom component.
“Cases are deliberately incomplete documents. What a case writer leaves out of a case is often just as important as what he or she puts into it. Cases are designed to be completed through classroom instruction and discussion. While drafting the case, try to develop the classroom process in parallel. Work on the assignment questions and classroom content. Keep in mind that the case should be able to adapt to your classroom and course needs.”
Hone your elevator pitch.
“Before getting started, always have clear, succinct learning objectives in mind. Don’t start developing the case until you are able to summarize these objectives in less than five minutes.”
Case writing is a relationship, not a transaction.
When choosing a case site, be clear with executives that you are developing a teaching tool and that you will require their time and candor—and eventually their data. Put them at ease, and manage the authorization process, right from the start. Indicate that quotes will be cleared before publication and there will be time for individual review. During the creation process, ask their advice. This creates a process of engagement and helps bring home that this is a pedagogical tool, not gotcha journalism. At HBS, we oftentimes invite someone from the company to attend class. Finally, once the case is done, stay in touch with your case protagonists. They will move to other organizations and spread the good word about their experience with case writing.
Invite disagreement in case discussions.
“The case study method is based on participant-centered learning. The students all start from the same base of 11 (or however many) pages in the case, but they bring different knowledge and experiences into the classroom. So they can take the same facts and disagree about what course of action to pursue. We want students to behave like decision makers, and it can be painful to make decisions. Some critics deride the case teaching method as being unrealistic, but someone who just lectures about marketing doesn’t help students realize how difficult it is to choose between two plausible options to meet the same marketing objectives. For students, a big part of the education process is learning from discussions with classmates who think differently and advocate for different solutions. Witnessing a robust case discussion reminds us of the potential for collective learning to emerge from contrasting views.”
“Faculty don’t just write cases for teaching purposes, they write them to learn.” Carin-Isabel Knoop
The Case Writing Process Is a Worthy Effort
Researching, writing, and publishing cases is well worth the time and effort. “The case research and writing process is important for faculty development,” Knoop adds. “While developing field cases, faculty go to site visits and meet with decision makers. The case writing process helps connect scholars to practitioners and practitioners to the academic world. Faculty case writers get to explore and test how their academic theories work in practice. So faculty don’t just write cases for teaching purposes, they write them to learn. The case method is an integral part of faculty development.”
There’s another big bonus to becoming a case writer, especially for younger educators. “Young business instructors face a credibility gap with their students,” says Heskett. “It’s not uncommon to have MBA students in a class who have more experience than the instructor on a particular subject. Once you go into the field and write a case, you will know more about that subject than anyone else in the class. A primary way for professors to establish their credibility on a topic is to have written the case the class is discussing that day.”
James L. Heskett is UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, emeritus, at Harvard Business School. He completed his Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and has been a faculty member at The Ohio State University as well as president of Logistics Systems, Inc. Since 2000, he has authored a blog on Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge website .
Benson P. Shapiro is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, emeritus, at Harvard Business School where he taught full time from 1970 to 1997. Since 1997, Shapiro has concentrated his professional time on consulting, giving speeches, serving on boards, and writing. He continues to teach at Harvard and has taught in many executive programs and has chaired the Sustainable Marketing Leadership for Mid-Sized Firms Program.
Carin-Isabel Knoop is the executive director of the Case Research & Writing Group at Harvard Business School. She is also coauthor of Compassionate Management of Mental Health in the Modern Workplace .
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The Case Analysis Coach is an interactive tutorial on reading and analyzing a case study. The Case Study Handbook covers key skills students need to read, understand, discuss and write about cases. The Case Study Handbook is also available as individual chapters to help your students focus on specific skills.
Read and analyze the case. ... listening, analysis, and leadership skills. It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment. Reflect. The case method prepares you to be in leadership positions where you will face time-sensitive decisions with limited information. ... Harvard Business School Spangler Welcome Center (Spangler 107) Boston ...
It's been 100 years since Harvard Business School began using the case study method. Beyond teaching specific subject matter, the case study method excels in instilling meta-skills in students.
Give students an opportunity to practice the case analysis methodology via an ungraded sample case study. Designate groups of five to seven students to discuss the case and the six steps in breakout sessions (in class or via Zoom). Ensure case analyses are weighted heavily as a grading component. We suggest 30-50 percent of the overall course ...
In The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition, William Ellet presents a potent new approach for efficiently analyzing, discussing, ... Teaching notes are available as supporting material to many of the cases in the Harvard Chan Case Library. Teaching notes provide an overview of the case and suggested discussion questions, as well as a roadmap ...
Through the case method, you can "try on" roles you may not have considered and feel more prepared to change or advance your career. 5. Build Your Self-Confidence. Finally, learning through the case study method can build your confidence. Each time you assume a business leader's perspective, aim to solve a new challenge, and express and ...
Celebrating 100 Years of the Case Method at HBS . The 2021-2022 academic year marks the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the case method at Harvard Business School. Today, the HBS case method is employed in the HBS MBA program, in Executive Education programs, and in dozens of other business schools around the world.
Case Method in Practice. Chris Christensen described case method teaching as "the art of managing uncertainty"—a process in which the instructor serves as "planner, host, moderator, devil's advocate, fellow-student, and judge," all in search of solutions to real-world problems and challenges. Unlike lectures, case method classes unfold ...
HBS Case Selections. Get the perspectives and context you need to solve your toughest work problems with these immersive sets of real-world scenarios from Harvard Business School.
During the 2021-2022 academic year, HBS celebrates 100 years of teaching and learning by the case method at the School. Case Method 100 Years. Harvard Business School. Boston, MA 02163. → Map & Directions.
Learning by the Case Method. 376-241. not to develop a consensus of a "group" position; it is to help members refine, adjust and amplify their own thinking. To maximize the benefit to you of this group process it is extremely important not to skip or skimp on the individual preparation beforehand.
The Harvard Business School case study approach grew out of the Langdellian method. But instead of using established case law, business professors chose real-life examples from the business world to highlight and analyze business principles. HBS-style case studies typically consist of a short narrative (less than 25 pages), told from the point ...
Analyzing the Aftermath of a Compensation Reduction. by Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert, and Christopher Stanton. This study of the effects of compensation cuts in a large sales organization provides a unique lens for analyzing the link between compensation schemes, worker performance, and turnover. 11 Dec 2017.
Policy Analysis. These teaching cases provide students with a chance to discover or practice analytic tools that will help them sort through the kinds of messy, real-life decisions they are likely to face in public and nonprofit sectors. They are designed to improve learning on a host of topics including strategic alignment, generating ...
Strategic Analysis Of Starbucks Corporation 1) Introduction: Starbucks Corporation, an American company founded in 1971 in Seattle, WA, is a premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee around world. Starbucks has about 182,000 employees across 19,767 company operated & licensed stores in 62 countries.
The Case Study Teaching Method; Harvard Law Case Studies A-Z; Free Materials; Blog; Shop By Category; Harvard Law Case Studies A-Z; Free Materials; Program; Role Play; Workshop-Based Case Study; Discussion-Based Case Study; DVD; Subject; Sabrineh Ardalan; Sharon Block; Robert Bordone; Emily M. Broad Leib; Chad Carr; Robert Clark; John Coates ...
Abstract. In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all were happy with Amazon's meteoric rise.
Harvard Style Guide: Case studies. This guide explains how to use the Harvard Style. It includes a short tutorial. Introduction; Harvard Tutorial; Quotation; In-text citations; ... (Year) 'Title of case study' [Case Study], Journal Title, Volume (Issue), pp. page numbers. Available at: URL [Accessed Day Month Year].
The resulting list of case study favorites ranges in topics from operations management and organizational structure to rebel leaders and whodunnit dramas. 1. The Army Crew Team. Emily Michelle David, Assistant Professor of Management, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)
Case Study from Madeira Island Citation Ward, Roseanna. 2024. A Feasibility Analysis of Regenerative Land Practices & Reciprocal ... for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University May 2024 ... My analysis aimed to evaluate the financial feasibility of implementing agroforestry as a
IntroductionOcular trauma can cause anatomical and mechanical changes in the eye and affect subsequent eye procedures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the postoperative outcomes of cataract surgery in eyes that that previously underwent scleral buckling for retinal detachment due to trauma.MethodsThis is a retrospective consecutive case series of eyes that had a history of trauma ...
6 QUALITIES OF GREAT CASE WRITERS. Curiosity. Comfort with ambiguity, since cases may have more than one "right" answer. Command of the topic or subject at hand. Ability to relate to the case protagonists. Enthusiasm for the case teaching method. Capacity for finding the drama in a business situation and making it feel personal to students.
The monitoring and analysis of extreme public opinion are therefore of great interest to government officials seeking to maintain public order and preempt violent actions. ... to achieve a fine-grained and detailed analysis of Twitter extremist content related to the Far-right ideology as a case study. A dataset of over 259,000 tweets collected ...