Maximizing Value and Impact from the Case Writing Cycle

Richard McCracken
Director, The Case Centre, Cranfield, United Kindgom. E-mail: richard@thecasecentre.org

The case method is one of the most powerful pedagogies available to business educators and is adopted widely in leading business schools, but the benefits that accrue from writing the teaching cases that are at the heart of the pedagogy are underrecognized and underexploited. Many case authors are unsupported and underresourced. The paper identifies the stakeholders in writing and subsequent teaching of a case: faculty authors, students, schools, businesses and protagonists, and the benefits and impacts deriving to each throughout the lifecycle of a case from initial research through writing, teaching, and then distribution. The findings are based upon many conversations with case authors, students, deans, directors and accreditation bodies as Director of The Case Centre, the independent home of the case method.

The case method is an incredibly powerful teaching tool widely used at leading business schools across the world. In their classrooms, the case method challenges assumptions, overcomes prejudices, tests theories, proposes solutions, develops work and life skills, and improves employability. The engagement and enthusiasm of students are palpable as they discuss and argue towards a deep, shared understanding of the scenario and proposed outcomes. The teaching and learning benefits of the pedagogy are obvious to any observer within only a few minutes of experiencing a case discussion hosted by an accomplished case teacher.
But while the benefits of class discussion are widely acknowledged and understood, the pedagogy in its entirety has potential for a wider impact extending far beyond the classroom. In the case method's fusion of research, writing, teaching and publication, there is a virtuous circle that brings impact and benefits to faculty, students, schools, and case protagonists and their companies.

The paper identifies and illustrates how this largely untapped potential energy is released.
Writing a teaching case begins with research. This may be initiated through personal contact with a business practitioner who has an interesting story to tell or through desk research into a company, issue or sector, or as an additional outlet for research previously undertaken.

The close working knowledge of the scenario required in uncovering the story often establishes a close working relationship between the academic author and the protagonists and their company. This building of trust establishes and strengthens the link between the academic, their school and the protagonist's company that benefits all three. The researcher plugs into current and rapidly evolving business practice and the challenges and opportunities facing practitioners, companies and sectors. The school extends and deepens its networking with businesses and employers in its region. At the same time, the links that the protagonist and their company establish with academics and schools have potential to deliver current theory and best practice directly into company policy and practice.

Of course, the research itself may not be specific to just writing a teaching case. It is useful to see writing a teaching case, alongside writing a journal article, or a text book, as one of a number of possible outputs from the research process. This adds value for the academic author by maximizing the distribution and impact from a single piece of research, reaching other readerships and linking emerging understanding immediately with learning in the classroom.

The testing of theory against practice is an important one for any case author. In writing a teaching case, the author is forced to test, question and align established or emerging theory with the creation of quality teaching materials. Capturing this is an essential part of writing the teaching note (sometimes referred to as the instructor's manual) giving guidance to teachers about salient points of the case, and how to teach the case in class discussion and references relevant to academic theory. Aligning research and teaching in this way is recognized as essential by business schools in engaging students and increasing graduate employability. Importantly, it is also recognized in the accreditation rubrics of the leading accreditation agencies as evidence of impact and supporting faculty qualifications.

There is a special pleasure in teaching a case you have written, and most case authors experience a step change in their relationship with the class. Many students respond well to being taught by an academic who has written the case they are discussing. It shows faculty engagement with current practice. Case authors have an opportunity to introduce the case protagonist into their teaching, often revealed as a coup de theatre, as an important part of the discussion. This has high impact and can stimulate an entirely different level of discussion between students and protagonist. This opportunity to meet and question leading practitioners, in addition to being an educational opportunity, is good networking for students and, again, reinforces the link between academic, school and protagonist that is often reflected in developing opportunities for sponsorship, student internship opportunities and recruitment.

Writing a case also offers the opportunity to develop a case focused on local companies, including corporates and business cultures specific to your region. Localized cases challenge student aspirations by examining the roles and scenarios that are stretching, but obtainable. They also travel well, and are often taught in international classrooms, which brings us to the question of distribution.

Having written and road tested the case in their own teaching, the authors may consider the possibility of distributing their case for use by faculty in other schools. This benefits the authors by enhancing their reputation and raising their profile among peers in classrooms around the world and may bring networking opportunities through faculty asking for insight into the case or opportunities to speak. Distribution also benefits the school. It takes the school brand into other schools and may support opportunities for collaboration or internationalization, provides supporting evidence in submitting for accreditation, enhances the reputation of the school among current and potential students and supports alumni relations (favorite cases have a long afterlife among students, and many authors engage with alumni contacts to develop new cases).

Protagonists find they can make good use of the case in promoting their company, analyzing and improving company performance, and in recruiting and inducting new staff. For schools engaging with accreditation, distribution data can provide evidence of impactful practitioners and school engagement with business. The Case Centre regularly supplies data showing the use and impact of cases in other schools.

Finally, the virtuous cycle begins again. Having established that close working relationship with the practitioner protagonist and the company, the case authors are regularly offered opportunities to engage with them again in drilling deeper into the company infrastructure-often exposing more sensitive activity, data and more current issues of the company and sectoral strategy. Many early career academics develop careers based on the impact of case writing on strengthening and deepening research opportunities in this way. So what is the key to deriving maximum benefit throughout the case writing process? While many individual faculty members know the value to be derived from the complete case writing cycle, the answer must lie in increasing and sustaining the levels of school support and engagement with case authors. Schools have to work to provide increased recognition of case writing as an impactful academic activity-for the reasons outlined above-support the engagement of individual faculty members with the processes of researching and writing teaching cases and their professional development in the skills of writing cases. Too many case authors work alone and feel underrecognized and undersupported by their schools.