the case study harvard business

What is the Case Study Method?

Overview Dropdown up

Overview dropdown down, celebrating 100 years of the case method at hbs.

The 2021-2022 academic year marks the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the case method at Harvard Business School. Today, the HBS case method is employed in the HBS MBA program, in Executive Education programs, and in dozens of other business schools around the world. As Dean Srikant Datar's says, the case method has withstood the test of time.

Case Discussion Preparation Details Expand All Collapse All

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How Cases Unfold In the Classroom

How cases unfold in the classroom dropdown up, how cases unfold in the classroom dropdown down, preparation guidelines expand all collapse all, read the professor's assignment or discussion questions read the professor's assignment or discussion questions dropdown down, read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case dropdown down, reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes dropdown down, note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again dropdown down, how to prepare for case discussions dropdown up, how to prepare for case discussions dropdown down, read the professor's assignment or discussion questions, read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case, reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes, note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again, case study best practices expand all collapse all, prepare prepare dropdown down, discuss discuss dropdown down, participate participate dropdown down, relate relate dropdown down, apply apply dropdown down, note note dropdown down, understand understand dropdown down, case study best practices dropdown up, case study best practices dropdown down, participate, what can i expect on the first day dropdown down.

Most programs begin with registration, followed by an opening session and a dinner. If your travel plans necessitate late arrival, please be sure to notify us so that alternate registration arrangements can be made for you. Please note the following about registration:

HBS campus programs – Registration takes place in the Chao Center.

India programs – Registration takes place outside the classroom.

Other off-campus programs – Registration takes place in the designated facility.

What happens in class if nobody talks? Dropdown down

Professors are here to push everyone to learn, but not to embarrass anyone. If the class is quiet, they'll often ask a participant with experience in the industry in which the case is set to speak first. This is done well in advance so that person can come to class prepared to share. Trust the process. The more open you are, the more willing you’ll be to engage, and the more alive the classroom will become.

Does everyone take part in "role-playing"? Dropdown down

Professors often encourage participants to take opposing sides and then debate the issues, often taking the perspective of the case protagonists or key decision makers in the case.

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The HBS Case Method

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How the HBS Case Method Works

How the Case Method Works

Student Perspectives

“I’ve been so touched by how dedicated other people have been to my learning and my success.”

Faculty Perspectives

“The world desperately needs better leadership. It’s actually one of the great gifts of teaching here, you can do something about it.”

Alumni Perspectives

“You walk into work every morning and it's like a fire hose of decisions that need to be made, often without enough information. Just like an HBS case.”

Celebrating the Inaugural HBS Case

“How do you go into an ambiguous situation and get to the bottom of it? That skill – the skill of figuring out a course of inquiry, to choose a course of action – that skill is a relevant today as it was in 1921.”

Boston University Libraries

Business Case Studies

Licensing Restrictions

Harvard business review.

Due to licensing restrictions, Harvard Business School Case Studies are limited to classroom use by individual students. The BU Libraries (including Pardee Library) cannot purchase cases for the library’s collections, or obtain cases through Interlibrary Loan. Individuals may purchase copies of cases for their own personal use directly from Harvard Business Publishing .

Instructors that assign Harvard Business School cases to their students can set up course packs directly with Harvard Business Publishing . Students will need to pay a fee to access the course pack and cost will vary depending on number of cases involved.

If you would rather not pay a fee for cases, please review this guide further for cases available through existing library resources or Open Access Cases (free).

A small number of case studies can be found in Harvard Business Review via our Business Source Complete subscription (1922-present) or in print at Pardee Library (1990-present). To limit your search results in Business Source Complete to case studies, select "Case Study" for the Document Type. Another source for business cases is Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (2007-present). You should also select "Case Study" for the Document Type to limit search results to case studies.

In August 2013, HBR designated 500 of their most popular articles as "read-only" and restricted the ability to print or download those articles in Business Source Complete. While it may change over time, the original list of articles is available here: HBR 500 . If you need an article that is part of the HBR 500, you may be able to access it through our Harvard Business Review print subscription at Pardee Library.

*Faculty: Please note that HBR articles from our Business Source Complete subscription may not be linked to course management systems due to licensing restrictions, however, articles can be purchased directly from Harvard Business School Publishing for inclusion in course packs.

Read Rohvi case study (Harvard Business Review) and answer the...

Read Rohvi case study (Harvard Business Review) and answer the question.

Rohvi is a start-up in the retail industry that leverages behavioral science to enrich a business model and structure a marketing campaign. The case illuminates how they tested their innovative process and used persuasion to align business practices with human behavior, and to scale up. It also demonstrates how a minimal tech solution can bring in market data and provide a test platform to larger clients. The founder of Rohvi is Sara Whiffen. She created a platform that allowed shoppers to buy clothing from local retail stores, use them, and after a few weeks, return them for partial store credit.

Currently, Rohvi faces a dilemma around engaging clients on two sides of her business: retailers and consumers.

Q. Outline a strategy to get retailers to try Rohvi that specifies Pre-Suasion and Persuasion approaches you recommend. - How does this work? and what does the process for consumers/retailers look like?

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The History of the Case Study at Harvard Business School

faculty and student engaged in a classroom case discussion

28 Feb 2017

Many first-time HBS Online participants are surprised to learn that, often, the professor is not at the center of their learning experience. Instead of long faculty lectures, the HBS Online learning model centers on smaller, more digestible pieces of content that require participants to interact with each other, test concepts, and learn from real-world examples.

Often, the professor fades into the background and lets the focus shift to interviews with executives, industry leaders, and small business owners. Some students might be left thinking, "Wait, where did that professor go? Why am I learning about a grocery store in Harvard Square?"

In the words of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , “Don’t panic.” These interviews, or cases, feature leaders at companies of all sizes and provide valuable examples of business concepts in action. This case study method forms the backbone of the Harvard Business School curriculum.

Back in the 1920s, HBS professors decided to develop and experiment with innovative and unique business instruction methods. As the first school in the world to design a signature, distinctive program in business, later to be called the MBA, there was a need for a teaching method that would benefit this novel approach.

HBS professors selected and took a few pages to summarize recent events, momentous challenges, strategic planning, and important decisions undertaken by major companies and organizations. The idea was, and remains to this day, that through direct contact with a real-world case, students will think independently about those facts, discuss and compare their perspectives and findings with their peers, and eventually discover a new concept on their own.

Central to the case method is the idea that students are not provided the "answer" or resolution to the problem at hand. Instead, just like a board member, CEO, or manager, the student is forced to analyze a situation and find solutions without full knowledge of all methods and facts. Without excluding more traditional aspects, such as interaction with professors and textbooks, the case method provides the student with the opportunity to think and act like managers.

Since 1924, the case method has been the most widely applied and successful teaching instrument to come out of HBS, and it is used today in almost all MBA and Executive Education courses there, as well as in hundreds of other top business schools around the world. The application of the case method is so extensive that HBS students will often choose to rely on cases, instead of textbooks or other material, for their research. Large corporations use the case method as well to approach their own challenges, while competing universities create their own versions for their students.

This is what the case method does—it puts students straight into the game, and ensures they acquire not just skills and abstract knowledge, but also a solid understanding of the outside world.

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Harvard Case Study and How Does It Work

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Harvard Business School has created a new method and a new definition of case study in education.

A case study is the analysis of the institution or the event, its problems, causes, and consequences. Harvard Business School case studies are intended to be used in classrooms as a part of the discussion, which can help students develop their leadership skills and put themselves in situations that require making decisions.Harvard case study method is rather effective, especially in terms of education. It gives students the opportunity to become decision makers and judge different situations, companies, and organizations, both government and private. Harvard Business Review case study format proves that there are no easy solutions in leadership.

It’s an innovational educational technique, which helps students communicate, share ideas, defend their points of view, and exchange perspectives. HBR case studies are meant to turn students into skillful leaders.

How Does It Work?

Their task is to recognize the main issues, analyze them, study the causes, think of alternative outcomes, and provide some recommendations.Students are usually divided into learning teams. Before the actual case study class, they meet to warm up and discuss their points of view with the other team members. When they’re in class, they are under the guidance of the professor, but students do 85% of talking, while the professor makes observations from time to time, asks questions, and guides the discussion.In class, students have to discuss the problem and analyze it.

They present and compare alternative sides of the situation and suggest different courses of actions, explaining why their decision is the best possible one.Why is this method effective? First of all, thanks to the classroom interaction and live discussion, students learn how to listen to other people’s ideas and compare them to their own points of view. The discussion process is easy and simple but has many benefits. The discussion is enriched by the diversity: different students represent different countries, experiences, and points of view.Participation in class case studies is important.

Nearly 50% of students’ grades is based on how they show they perform there.

How to Prepare for a Case Study

Even though it’s a live conversation, you can prepare yourself for a group discussion. First of all, do your research. In order to present your thoughts on the matter, you need to be familiar with this particular situation or event. Find the most important and relevant information.

Pick the main points, which you are going to present during the discussion. Don’t be shy to ask your team members about the information they have found because this way you will be able to provide some facts that your classmates aren’t going to mention.Next, you need to create a plan, which you are going to follow to during the discussion. You can also write down the notes based on this plan, which will help you keep your thoughts together when analyzing the event in class.Start with the situational analysis.

Ask yourself some questions to understand the event, for example, “Was the superior aware of the possible consequences of his decision? Does it mean that he’s not responsible for his actions? What parties are directly involved in this problem?”.Next, you need to define the problem. You can create the list of potential issues and highlight the most serious ones. That’s when you can start talking about some alternative courses of actions, which could have potentially helped to avoid the problems you’ve presented.And the last point in your plan should be dedicated to recommendations and possible solutions to the problem.

Other students might argue your point of view, so it’s important to write it down beforehand and also explain why you think your decision is the most effective.

How to Behave

Don’t forget that every group discussion, even the Harvard Business Review case studies, is meant to see how students communicate with each other and how they show leadership skills through those communications. So, don’t forget to listen to other people’s points of view. Take every opinion into consideration and make sure that your message is clear and easy to understand by other students.Don’t be shy. Try to contribute to the conversation as much as you can, but think about what you want to say and don’t forget to let other students talk.

It’s important to show your interest, but you need to remember that other people’s opinions matter too.Never be aggressive. Even if someone from the opposite team becomes too excited and tries to provoke you, keep calm and remember: true leaders always control themselves.

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MSU Libraries

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HBR Case Studies

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Gast Business Library Michigan State University Law College Building 648 N. Shaw Lane, Room 50 East Lansing, MI 48824-1300 (517) 355-3380

Harvard Business Review Case Studies

You may find some records in the Business Source Complete Database for Harvard Business Review Case Studies. If the full text of the case study is not available then the library has not purchased the content. Case studies may be purchased from the Harvard Business Review Store .

Example: Apple: Privacy vs. Safety? (2018)

MSU-Accessible Case Studies

Other business case studies.

Case Study Resources for the iSchool: Harvard Business Cases Resources

Harvard Case Studies

Harvard Business Publishing case studies cover all areas of management, business planning, marketing, accounting, finance, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship and more. The case studies range from 10 to 30 pages in length and often include an author provided guide, called a “teaching note,” on how to teach the case in the classroom.

These case studies should not be confused with the short case studies published in the Harvard Business Review and available in full text via SU Libraries' database Business Source Elite.

Access to the Harvard Business Publishing case studies requires individual purchase of cases , including purchase of copyright permission in situations where multiple copies are desired. Harvard does not offer institutional subscriptions that permit an academic library to subscribe to these case studies.

Harvard Business Review Articles and Case Studies in Business Source Elite

Find the Harvard Business Review in Business Source Elite (which indexes HBR content back to 1922 and provides full-text article coverage from 1985 thru the present, including HBR articles and case studies) via the link below:

Harvard Business Review in Business Source Elite

NOTE: The case studies in HBR are short (around four pages each) and should not be confused with the premium Harvard Business Publishing case studies noted on this page under "Harvard Case Studies."

Please note that Harvard Business Review articles provided by EBSCOhost are intended for individual academic use only. The following notice accompanies each Harvard Business Review article in Business Source Elite:

" Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses. Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, persistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the content into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact [email protected] ."

Harvard Business Review 500 At the request of Harvard Business Publishing, EBSCO has made 500 of the most popular Harvard Business Review articles read only by disabling the printing, saving, and persistent linking functionality for these articles in Business Source Elite. All Business Source Elite subscribers (including SU Libraries) were offered the option to restore this basic functionality by paying an additional annual premium fee. When Syracuse University Libraries requested a quote from EBSCO to restore full access to the 500 HBR articles, we were presented with a significant five figure amount. SU Libraries is disinclined to pursue the option to restore full access to the HBR 500 by paying this premium. Not only is the price per article exorbitant, but more importantly, agreeing to such a fee in order to restore access to content for which we have already paid , could set a terrible precedent.

What matters and what we wish to emphasize is that, if HBP’s new model catches on, having to essentially pay twice (or multiple times) for the same online content will erode the Libraries’ ability to provide other resources to the SU research community. In short, it’s a zero-sum game when it comes to Libraries’ acquisitions that support research, and this development further adds to the costs of supporting scholarship. In declining to license with HBP under the proffered terms, the SU Libraries’ goal is to protect our ability to support research at SU to our utmost. While that may sound contradictory, at least in the short-term, in the long-term it most assuredly is not.

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The Harvard Business School case study approach grew out of the Langdellian method. But instead of using established case law, business professors chose real-life examples from the business world to highlight and analyze business principles.
Harvard Business School Cases
A small number of case studies can be found in Harvard Business Review via our Business Source Complete subscription (1922-present) or in print at Pardee Library (1990-present). To limit your search results in Business Source Complete to case studies, select "Case Study" for the Document Type.
Read Rohvi case study (Harvard Business Review) and answer the
Read Rohvi case study (Harvard Business Review) and answer the question. Rohvi is a start-up in the retail industry that leverages behavioral science to enrich a business model and structure a marketing campaign. The case illuminates how they tested their innovative process and used persuasion to align business practices with human behavior ...
The History of the Case Study at Harvard Business School
The application of the case method is so extensive that HBS students will often choose to rely on cases, instead of textbooks or other material, for their research. Large corporations use the case method as well to approach their own challenges, while competing universities create their own versions for their students.
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Harvard Case Study and How Does It Work
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HBR Case Studies
Gast Business Library Michigan State University Law College Building 648 N. Shaw Lane, Room 50 East Lansing, MI 48824-1300 (517) 355-3380
Harvard Business Cases Resources
NOTE: The case studies in HBR are short (around four pages each) and should not be confused with the premium Harvard Business Publishing case studies noted on this page under "Harvard Case Studies." Please note that Harvard Business Review articles provided by EBSCOhost are intended for individual academic use only. The following notice ...
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