Carolyn Luttrell

1. International Issues in Case Studies
Carolyn Luttrell
STC-PMC Annual
Conference
March 28, 2009

2. What is a case study?
 Story about something unique, special, or interesting
 One way of doing research
 One way of marketing a product
 Way to add credibility to sale
 One method of presenting a situation
 One way to relate your needs to someone else’s
needs
 One way to show problem, solution, and results

3. Who does them?
 Corporations
 Non-profits
 Non-governmental organizations
 Educational institutions
 Students (dissertations)

4. Where are they used?
 Professional trade shows
 Professional publications
 Magazines
 Textbooks

5. Advantages
 Documented information
 In scholarly papers, present data from
multiple methods (surveys, interviews,
document review, and observation)
 Thorough, complete story (generally)
 Real-life examples (more memorable/
tangible because they are a story)

6. Disadvantages
 Can be shallow
 Can be biased
 Can lack rigor (academic point of view)
 Overgeneralization (few examples without
evidence that they are representative of the
population)

7. What are the characteristics?
 Focus on one issue!
 Real life situation/study
 Present a picture
 Illustrate theory and application in classroom
setting

8. What formats do they take?
 Brochures
 Articles
 Dissertations/theses

9. Why are they important?
• Present documentation about a particular
subject

10. How are they done?
 Identify the problem
 Identify the steps undertaken to address the problem
 Discuss results
 What were the challenges and how were they met?
 What was learned?
 Are results sustainable (why or why not)?
 Conclusion

11. Data collection
 All data about the case is gathered
 Data is organized into an approach to
highlight the focus of the study
 A case study narrative is developed
 The narrative might be validated by review
from program participants
 Case studies might be cross-compared to
isolate any themes or patterns

12. Who writes them?
 Marketers
 Technical writers
 Sociologists
 Scientists
 Students

13. What makes a good case study?
 Pictures/graphs/charts
 Well-written text (clear, to the point, persuasive, no
jargon)
 Appropriate length (four pages maximum for
commercial case studies)
 Color
 Professional looking
 If from an organization, uniform design
 Good layout

14. What are some international case study
issues?
 Translation
 Cultural taboos
 Cultural relevance
 Cultural concern
 Appropriateness of document for audience
 Might need to localize for audience (get a localization firm to do
this)
– Note: No matter what part of the world you’re in, a client will be
interested in something if he/she can relate to it. For example, a
petrochemical company with a particular problem will be interested
in reading about a petrochemical company with a similar problem
and solution, no matter where in the world it happened.

15. Activity
 Some examples of international case studies
 What makes them good or bad case studies?
 Will they work in another culture?
 Why?
 Why not?

16. Issues
 Consent forms
 Signoffs
 Multiple reviewers – fraught with peril especially if reviewers
are not working in their native language
 Translation
 Localization
 Intellectual property – may require a signoff from the legal
department
 Use of taping
 Confidentiality
 Units of measurement

17. Questions?