Case studies are often used in business courses to illustrate management problems. A case study tells what happened to and in a business (or industry) over time. They allow you to learn about real world organisational problems and how they can be addressed. They challenge and develop your problem solving abilities. They are usually written by academic institutions or professional bodies and intended to be used as teaching material. Some are based on real companies; some are entirely fictitious and designed to illustrate a particular situation.
Case Studies can be found across a range of resources including in books, journals, professional magazines, databases, company websites and online.
Excellent guides to analysing and writing case studies are available free online from Cengage Learning and the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland.
Access to over 2,500 full-text business case studies, covering a broad range of topics and industries, as well as leading global brands and companies. Subjects include marketing, operations management, corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship, human resource management, and more.
Case studies also include teaching/instructor notes (only available to teaching staff). Contact your Liaison Librarian to find out more.
This resource includes access to over 2,000 case studies, split across three collections: Emerging Market Case Studies; The CASE Journal; The Case for Women. Licensed partners: Over 800 cases licensed from leading business schools and institutions globally.
Subjects covered include: Accounting and Finance, Built Environment, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Management, Human Resource Management, International Business, Management Science, Marketing, Operations and Logistics, Public Sector Management, Strategy, Tourism and Hospitality.
Case studies also include teaching/instructor notes (only available to teaching staff). Contact your Liaison Librarian to find out more.
Tourism Cases is a growing collection of case studies written by international practitioners and academics.
Many business and marketing books contain case studies within them; search for relevant books on the library catalogue and look out for case studies.
Case studies can also appear within journals and business literature, search using "case study" in your search terms.
You may find useful case studies by using our databases, like Business Source Complete or ProQuest One Business, and including the phrase “case study” in your search terms.
Alternatively click on the advanced search option and look for document type and select case study.
The Financial Times has an extensive collection of management case studies.
The Henry Stewart talks: Marketing and Management Collection offers a range of case studies providing expert opinions from commerce and industry. To explore the case studies only select this filter option.
Many case studies are published commercially so it is worth searching the web to see what's available. Some resources are free, others require payment. For example:
The following is freely searchable, but full-text access is limited (or pay per view).
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0
