Happy 100th Birthday! Cases then, now and beyond
September 2020 marks the 100th birthday of the publication of the first business casebook. The author was Melvin Thomas Copeland, a noted professor of marketing at Harvard University. Copeland had been developing a book on the emerging field of marketing but was persuaded by Harvard’s Dean, Wallace B. Donham, to develop a “casebook to be used as the basis for instruction in marketing” (Copeland, 1958a). The book included a chapter on “marketing methods” that described the discipline of marketing at the time and approximately 400 “problems” or cases.[1]
Copeland reported that between November 1919 and May 1920, he wrote “problems” for the casebook. His role as Director of the Bureau of Business Research played an important role in the development of the casebook. Copeland explained, “I put the ‘problems’ together from situations that I had encountered in our research work, from situations that had been reported in business publications and other sources, from experiences that had come to my attention during my wartime work in Washington and from a few new business contacts” (Copeland, 1958a).
As a Harvard College Law graduate in 1898, Donham had been introduced to the case method in his legal studies. Donham recognized the need for the “realistic training of students for the work which they were to undertake upon graduation and especially for advancement in their profession” (Copeland, 1958a). One of the most fundamental objectives of the business school was to train students to exercise judgment on business problems. Donham believed that the “case method” of instruction was the best way to achieve this objective. He believed that the business school’s aim was to:
Give “the student training for practice in dealing with business problems. This requires practice in:
Ascertaining facts.
Appraising and sorting facts.
Stating business problems in a business way.
Analyzing business problems.
Reaching definite conclusions.
Presenting such conclusions orally and in writing (Copeland, 1958a).
Cases[2] were to focus on the problems “faced for administrative decision by actual business executives and presented with factual detail sufficient to allow the students to put themselves in the position of those executives and to develop their own decisions” (Copeland, 1958b). Cases did not have single right answers, which proved disconcerting to some of the students. The case method was a “process of instruction in analysis, logical thinking and decision-making, rather than in a ritual of ‘right answers’ (Copeland, 1958b).
The casebook’s external adoptions prompted the development of the first “key” to provide a set of answers to the cases in the book. This forerunner of the Instructor’s Manual or Teaching Note was distributed in mimeographed sheets to the adopting instructors. The “key” provided a brief statement of each case’s main points, the general significance of the case and the author’s conclusions. Copeland asserted that some instructors misunderstood the purpose of the case method by presenting the key as the “right answers” to the case. Copeland found this misapplication of the key to be a “basically unsound procedure.”
The purpose of the case method, as practiced at Harvard, was to develop students’ ability to make sound business decisions using the information in the case and common knowledge. Students analyzed situations, judged trends and weighed diverse influences based on the information provided by the case writer. Cases sometimes contained extraneous information that was less germane to the problem, but this was done to develop students’ discernment. It was considered unfair to use information in the discussion that was not given or available to the students in the case.
With this historical understanding of the origins of the case method in business education, we can compare the past, present and future of cases. The following significant categories have been identified for our analysis:
Pedagogical objective.
Research methodology.
Organization of the case.
Instructor materials.
Pedagogical methodology.
Please see Table 1 for the analysis of these categories as they relate to past, present and future cases.
The case method’s pedagogical objective has not changed much over the past century – cases are still used to provide students with practical training in critical thinking and decision-making. The case method continues to deliver what Professor Emeritus Paul Lawrence described more than 60 years ago – ”A good case is a vehicle by which a chunk of reality is brought into the classroom to be worked over by the class and instructor” (Lawrence, 1953). Cases of the future may expand beyond, “what should the protagonist do?” to prompt students to critically consider the global challenges of the times – sustainability, inclusiveness and ethics from the broader perspective of organizational stakeholders.
Case researchers in 2020 and beyond will undoubtedly have greater access to information in a variety of forms that can be accessed from their home offices. Research methodologies will remain a combination of both field interviews and library sources; however, modern technologies may make it possible to virtually conduct field interviews and company tours. These technologies will make distant research locations accessible by more researchers without the constraints of time and travel.
Emerging technologies will also transform the case organization. Multimedia and technological innovations will bring more of the real world to students to make cases more compelling. Cases will move from a primarily text-based format to a hyperlinked format with a full range of video, dynamic maps and even simulations. New technologies will also allow cases to be easily updated to provide current information to students as the business climate and situations change.
Instructor’s materials in the form of the Instructor’s Manual or Teaching Note will remain relevant for two reasons – first, the IM/TN is considered the scholarly contribution of cases. Case research is slowly gaining the appreciation of other scholars and deans. High-quality teaching materials will continue to be critical in winning recognition of case research as high-quality scholarly contributions. Second, instructors’ materials will remain vital due to continuing trends regarding governmental support for higher education, student financial needs and rising costs. These trends will result in increased pressures to shift teaching from tenure-track professors to professors of practice or adjuncts. Many of these instructors will welcome the support that a well-written Instructor’s Manual can provide.
The Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on higher education has forcefully pushed instructors to adapt the case method to embrace remote learning. The sudden closure of universities and colleges across the globe in March 2020 caused many instructors to rethink case facilitation, thus accelerating the transformation of pedagogical methodologies. Uncertainties about the duration of the current health crisis will promote even more experimentation with new approaches and new technologies.
We may be witnessing the cusp of a transformative renaissance in case writing and teaching. It will be exciting to see the pedagogical shifts that derive from evolving teaching modalities. As with any significant change, it will be important to remember that not all experiments succeed. We will need to be flexible and open-minded to innovations and critically evaluate new pedagogies to ensure that the desired learning objectives are attained. Successes should be shared through pedagogical articles and conference presentations to spur further developments and transformations. Historically, Harvard University led the way in the case method and trained others to both write and teach with cases. Will Harvard continues to lead in the case method going forward or will a new group of scholars “seize the day” and take the case method into new directions? Where will the case renaissance begin?
At 100 years young, the case method remains relevant as an instructional pedagogy for business students. Today, Harvard Business Publishing boasts of a catalog of over 50,000 teaching materials (cases, simulations, articles, books and so forth). The CASE Journal catalog includes over 250 double-blind, peer-reviewed cases with instructor’s manuals. These cases are included in the Emerald eCase Collection of over 2,000 cases. Demand for new cases in an expanding array of academic disciplines continues to be high and new case writers are being developed through case workshops and hackathons. In total,100 years of business cases and thousands upon thousands of students [ …] Cases deserve a standing ovation, an honor, a salute for all the instructional value they have provided over the past century. Happy 100th Birthday, Cases!
In this issue
This issue includes seven cases (Table 2) focused on a wide variety of companies, locations and issues. This issue includes three entrepreneurship cases, two accounting cases and two marketing cases. Each case has a strong IM providing effective teaching strategies, theoretical linkages and complete answers and analysis to all discussion questions. TCJ IMs have been rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure that adopting faculty can teach these cases and the authors. Enjoy!
Notes
A reprint of this historic casebook can be ordered from Amazon.com.
Donham preferred the use of “cases” to “problems.” The “problem method” of teaching became the “case method” under his guidance. The terminology was ratified in a faculty vote in 1921.
