Shortcomings in case study research design in master's dissertations at South African universities

Abstract

Case study research entails an in-depth study of contemporary phenomena that is bounded within real life contexts. While it has become popular, particularly in the Social Sciences, it has been plagued by criticisms with regards to rigour. Rigour relates to the trustworthiness of findings, which can be enhanced by, firstly, providing evidence of the rationale used for selecting a case study research design and, secondly, by providing a convincing argument for case selection. Master's degree dissertations should be no exception and should entail the same degree of rigour as other scholarly outputs. In this article, quantitative content analysis was used to analyse 86 master's degree dissertations completed by a case study research design at South African universities during the period 2013-2015. It was found that the majority of the dissertations lacked the following: definitions of case study research design; reference to key authors; rationale for selecting a case study research design; and reference to topologies employed for case selection. This study highlights the methodological issues that arise, the need for more rigour to be demonstrated by master's students and a greater degree of guidance to be provided by supervisors about case study research design. It is recommended that faculties develop specific guidelines to address the gaps regarding case study research design.