When the Case Creates a Competitive Advantage

Abstract

When academics talk about the case method of teaching, it sounds great. Most of the leading business schools in the world have adopted the case method of learning and teaching. The rest of the world’s business schools also appreciate the outcome of such a pedagogical approach. In reality, some deeprooted challenges are evident concerning the case method of teaching. For instance, the literature on case method pedagogy and on how to write a robust teaching or business case is limited or outdated. Secondly, many of the business schools that embraced the case method of teaching have few faculty members trained on the use of the case method in teaching or they invest little for faculty capacity building in this regard comparing to the set expectations. Thirdly, most of the available business cases seem to be boring, which fail either to build compelling angel or to get substantial attention to the class. Considering such contextual reality, the paper focuses on the methodological aspects of writing and analyzing a good business case, and justifies the competitive advantage of case method schooling.