Library: Business Case Studies: For Faculty: Teaching with Cases

Harvard Business Publishing -- Case Teaching

The Teaching Center provides timely articles on case teaching. Articles from 2023 include:

Managing a Case Discussion That Goes Awry: 4 Challenging Case Teaching Scenarios—and What to Do
Elevate Your Case Prep with ChatGPT: 5 Ways AI Can Help You Ask Better Questions and Plan More Thoughtful Class Discussions

And here's a great article from 2021:

What the Case Study Method Really Teaches: 7 Meta-Skills That Stick Even If the Cases Fade from Memory
A former Dean of the Harvard Business School, Nitin Nohria, shares perspective on what meta-skills students learn from case study analysis and discussion: Preparation, Discernment , Bias Recognition, Judgement, Collaboration, Curiosity, and Self Confidence
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Nohria, N. (2021, December 12). What the case study method really teaches: 7 meta-skills that stick even If the cases fade from memory. Harvard Business Publishing Education. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/what-the-case-study-method-really-teaches

Using articles written as case studies as teaching tools

Most articles that present case studies (broadly defined) will provide both the case facts and an analysis of the solution chosen by the organization. They generally will not include teaching notes or discussion questions. To help students tie the article to course theory or content, you can create your own discussion prompts. For example: Ask students to generate alternative case solutions or discussion questions. Or, you may offer alternative solutions and have student teams debate their effectiveness.

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) magazine, along with other types of articles, provides short issue-driven cases with a question to which multiple experts offer alternative responses. Here's a link to articles coded as case studies in HBR. To focus the search add additional topical keywords or phrases to the search boxes.

For more suggestions on finding articles, see the Article Databases for Case Studies tab on this guide.

How to write a teaching case

How to Write a Great Business Case
Authors who have written hundreds of cases for Harvard Business School answer these questions and more. "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?"
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Heskett, J.L., Benson, P. S., & Knoop, C. How to write a great business case: HBS pro tips: Build relationships, plan the discussion, think layers, and avoid curveballs.
North American Case Research Association
A collaborative site for research and writing support as well as case study submission. Cases are published in the Case Research Journal (available to members only) and are distributed via third party vendors (e.g. Harvard Business Publishing).
SWIF Learning: A Guide to Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated Case Writing
This manual, written by Paul M. Swiercz of George Washington University, "provides students with a case-preparation roadmap for making the journey from passive case analyst to active case developer ... and assume more of the active behaviors required of practicing organizational leaders."