Finding business case studies on the web

Information Outlook, Dec, 1998 by Jean Keleher

Additional Dialog files that contain a significant number of articles coded with "case study" or "case studies" as a descriptor include File 75, IAC Management Contents, File 88, [AC Business A.R.T.S., File 139, EconLit, File 484, Periodical Abstracts PlusText, File 553, Wilson Business Abstracts Full Text, and File 624, McGraw-Hill Publications Online.

Case studies provide concrete examples and situations from which business professionals can both glean best practices and witness mistakes. As part of a secondary research or competitive intelligence program, case studies offer a unique supplement to more common information formats and approaches. Although there is still no definitive, single source for case studies, the web hosts a number of sites that, used alongside conventional online sources and old-fashioned textbooks, can yield a bounty of useful information.

Jean Keleher is a practice research specialist at A. T. Kearney, Chicago, IL, and can be e-mailed at jean_keleher@atkearney.com. She earned her M.I.L.S. from The University of Michigan. Jean would like to thank colleagues Lorie Mynda and John Peverley for their suggestions to this piece.