BUSINESS: FINDING CASE STUDIES

OBTAINING BUSINESS SCHOOL CASES

Due to copyright restrictions, libraries cannot purchase case studies from business schools or put them on reserve.  Faculty and students can purchase them directly from the publisher.  Faculty also can arrange purchases for an upcoming class through a campus bookstore with sufficient advanced notice.   
 

Harvard Business School Cases

Darden Business School Cases

IDENTIFYING PARTICULAR HARVARD CASE STUDIES

Use this database or the Harvard website above to identify Harvard's cases on a particular company or topic.

• To search for cases by company or topic, enter your keyword on line one in the Advanced Search box. Type "Harvard Business School Cases" in quotations on the second line. From the drop down menu by that line, select SO publication name.
  

• To browse the list of Harvard cases since 1942, use the Publication Search feature. Type "Harvard Business School Cases" as the publication name.

TERMS TO QUALIFY YOUR SEARCH TO CASE STUDIES IN ANY RESOURCE

case*, case studies, best practices, successes, failures, mistakes, example* 
[Note: Truncation symbols (e.g. *) will vary among the databases]


FINDING BOOKS AND VIDEOS WITH CASE STUDIES, OWNED BY THE JHU LIBRARIES

Many books and videos owned by the Milton S. Eisenhower Library profile specific companies entirely or in a chapter or segment.  

Some tips to find books on a company, or books that contain chapters or case studies on a company, within the JHU Libraries' Catalog:

• Advanced Keyword Title or Keyword Subject search on the name of the company.

• Advanced Keyword General or Contents Notes search to search the Table of Contents, if included.

• Alphabetical Subjects Library of Congress search on a company or on a topic. Scroll through the results to scan for subheadings that relate to case studies.

• Alphabetical Subjects Library of Congress search on a broader concept, followed by two dashes and case studies. (e.g. marketing--case studies). This yields records with only these exact subject heading assignments.

• Advanced Keyword General search for marketing case* to search chapters, titles and subjects.
  Marketing case studies refines it more.

• Advanced Keyword general or keyword title search using the related terms above.
  

FINDING ARTICLES WITH CASE STUDIES

Articles provide timely and more focused analyses of companies and industries. Online article databases are able to better target relevant content by searching for your terms in different parts of the bibliographic records, and even the abstract and full-text.   

1. In Emerald Management Xtra, click on link for Teaching Zones, or use the advanced search feature, to search within the case studies collection.
   
   
   
2. Try a business article index database and search by company, industry or topic. 
   
   
3. Choose different search fields from the drop down menus (subject, general keyword, abstract, title, company) and see how your results vary. 
   
   For cases in Harvard Business Review, use the Business Source Premier database, enter the journal's name, and select SO Publication Name from the drop down menu. Enter additional terms on additional lines. 
   
   For the ABI Inform database, consider combining terms with a classification code:
   
   cc(9110) for company-specific
   cc(9120) for product-specific
   cc(9130) for experimental/theoretical
   
   
4. Refine further with search terms from above (e.g. AND case studies).   

FINDING BOOKS WITH CASE STUDIES, NOT OWNED BY JHU 

Use these online databases that list books held by all major US research libraries, and some European libraries. Library holdings are attached. Once you enter the resources below, enter your topic and case studies on your search lines. Borrow the materials through Interlibrary Services.