Case Study General Guidelines
When writing a case study analysis, you must first have a good
understanding of the organization being studied. Before you begin
the steps below, become intimately familiar with the company. It may
be necessary to look at the data and sources several times to fully
grasp the issues facing the company or industry. In some
cases, companies are much larger than their e-commerce components.
In those cases, you will want to focus on the e-commerce components
of the company.
Here are the components of the case study:
- Investigate and Analyze the Company’s History and Growth.
A company’s past can greatly affect the present and future state
of the organization. To begin your case study analysis,
investigate the company’s founding, critical incidents,
structure, and growth.
- Identify Strengths and Weaknesses Within the Company.
Using the information you gathered in step one, continue your
case study analysis by examining and making a list of the value
creation functions of the company. For example, the company may
be weak in product development, but strong in marketing.
This analysis can be in the form of a SWOT analysis (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).
- Gather Information on the External Environment. The
third step in a case study analysis involves identifying
opportunities and threats within the company’s external
environment. Special items to note include competition within
the industry, bargaining powers, and the threat of substitute
products.
- Analyze Your Findings. Using the information in steps
two and three, you will need to create an evaluation for this
portion of your case study analysis. Compare the strengths and
weaknesses within the company to the external threats and
opportunities. Determine if the company is in a strong
competitive position and decide if it can continue at its
current pace successfully.
- Identify Corporate Level Strategy. To identify a
company’s corporate level strategy for your case study analysis,
you will need to identify and evaluate the company’s mission,
goals, and corporate strategy. Analyze the company’s line of
business and its subsidiaries and acquisitions. You will also
want to debate the pros and cons of the company strategy.
- Identify Business Level Strategy. Thus far,
your case study analysis has identified the company’s
corporate level strategy. To perform a complete
analysis, you will need to identify the company’s
business level strategy. (Note: if it is a single
business, the corporate strategy and the business level
strategy will be the same.) For this part of the case
study analysis, you should identify and analyze each
company’s competitive strategy, marketing strategy,
costs, and general focus.
- Analyze Implementations. This portion of the
case study analysis requires that you identify and
analyze the structure and control systems that the
company is using to implement its business strategies.
Evaluate organizational change, levels of hierarchy,
employee rewards, conflicts, and other issues that are
important to the company you are analyzing.
- Make Recommendations. The final part of your
case study analysis should include your recommendations
for the company. Every recommendation you make should be
based on and supported by the context of your case study
analysis.
Tips:
- Know the case backwards and forward before you
begin your case study analysis.
- Give yourself enough time to write the case study
analysis. You don't want to rush through it.
- Be honest in your evaluations. Don't let personal
issues and opinions cloud your judgment.
- Be analytical, not descriptive.
- Proofread your work!
Deliverables
- The paper will need to be developed in a word processor and
uploaded to Turnitin. The chair of the group should be
assigned to submit the paper. Make sure the names of all
group members are included on the cover sheet of the paper.
- The Turnitin assignment you will need to use will be called
"Case Study."
- You may submit your project at any time up to the deadline.
Turnitin is set up such that it will not accept any assignment
submitted after the deadline (11:59 p.m. on the last day of
presentations). You may also
replace your submissions if you find you want to make
corrections. However, the last version submitted as of the
deadline will be the version that is graded.
Presentation
Each group will have a maximum of 15 minutes to present the case.
PowerPoints or other multimedia may be used, but the presentation
will not be allowed to exceed 15 minutes total. An additional
5 minutes for questions will be allowed. There will be three
days to present, and each group will be randomly assigned a day.
Once the date has been established, there will be NO CHANGES.
Grading
This is a group project that is valued at 250 points.
Points will be broken down as follows:
- Presentation (100 points)
- Peer Evaluation (50 points)
- Paper (100 points)
A peer evaluation of group members will be conducted by each of
the members of the group. Each member will be required to rank
the other members of the group as to total participation and
contribution to the group. Members will not rank themselves.