Craving for Generality and Small-N Studies

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question: “How can findings from case studies and ethnographies be generalized?” It advances an epistemological defence of small-N studies in the context of organization and management theory by drawing on Wittgenstein, and argues that the distinctive theoretical contribution of small-N studies stems from seeing particular cases as opportunities for further refining our conceptualization of general processes. Theorizing is an analogical process: small-N studies researchers notice analogies with processes described in other studies and, in an effort to account for the specificity of the particular case under study, draw new distinctions and thus further refine what is currently known. It is not so much analytical generalization that small-N studies aid as heuristic generalization (or analytical refinement). By doing so, the craving for generality is the craving for a clearer view. They aid generic understanding without annihilating the epistemic significance of the particular.