How to develop a case

One of CBS’ strategic initiatives is to expand the development and use of quality cases for teaching. As such, The Nordic Case House wishes to build on this initiative by supporting the development of teaching cases through sparring, information, useful guidelines, and links as well as possibilities for student assistant support. We would particularly like to inspire and encourage cases seen through a Nordic lens that is cases with the innovation, tradition, values, and culture common to the Nordic region. This, however, should not imply cases based on Nordic industries and businesses but rather developing cases both locally and globally that embrace a Nordic perspective.

Traditionally case development has been in the form of written cases but, cases, in reality, come in a multitude of forms – desk-top, real-life, multimedia, just to name a few. As the Nordic Case House is a Teaching & Learning initiative, we are able to draw on our talented colleagues for assistance with less traditional case formats such a video cases.

Typical stages of case development are:

  1. Planning – meet with the organization and agree on a theme, deliverable, etc.
  2. Data collection – desktop research, conducting interviews with the main protagonist(s), other relevant stakeholders, desktop research, financial information, etc.
  3. Writing– Prepare the first draft, get feedback from the organization, incorporate feedback in draft two and get further feedback from the organization. Do final edits
  4. Approval – Final organization release, peer feedback

Typically, cases range from 7 to 15 pages.

It is also possible to use one of our team as a co-author or as a source of sparring for content, style, inspiration, and the like.

If you would like further information on case development, please contact Martiina M Srkoc mmms.tl@cbs.dk or 38154278. 

Students sitting in front of the Solbjerg Plads campus and looking at a computer