The use of case studies in undergraduate Business Administration

Abstract

We develop constructs to evaluate the factors influencing the degree of students’ acceptance of cases. In our proposed framework, student acceptance is affected by the case selection, intensity of faculty use, training, course type and level, level of instructor expertise, teaching atmosphere, and the faculty’s beliefs about the usefulness of the case method. Our sample includes faculty teaching quantitative or qualitative courses across several disciplines in undergraduate business administration. Responses to a survey are analyzed using factor analysis and regression. The quantitative analysis is complemented by interviews with a subset of expert faculty using a two-round modified Delphi technique. This study may be limited by the fact that it measured faculty perceptions of the degree of students’ acceptance of cases, rather than student acceptance directly. Future research might survey students or use students’ courses evaluations to validate or contradict our results.

Keywords

• Case teaching in business
• undergraduate management education
• factor analysis
• quantitative and qualitative research
• modified Delphi technique