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Research article
Abstract
This paper focuses on the methodological aspects of case study as a research strategy. In particular, it examines case study research in
tourism. Seventy-six full articles from the recent volumes (20002004) of Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research,
Tourism Analysis, and Tourism Management were selected for a content analysis. The research discusses (1) themes/topics case studies
addressed, (2) case specicity in research purposes, objectives or questions, (3) authorship characteristics, (4) research designs,
(5) methodological procedures, and (6) the presentation of case study reports. It is concluded that the prevalent arguments of case studies
as conceptually and analytically weak is not justied. Stereotypical perceptions as such can be misleading and may consequently exert a
negative impact on the righteous application of case study methodology in tourism research. Limitations of this analysis and future
research issues are also discussed.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Case study; Tourism research; Research methods; Journal analysis; Content analysis
1. Introduction
In the opening article of the inaugural issue of Tourist
Studies, Franklin and Crang (2001) described tourism
research as stale, tired, repetitive and lifeless(p. 5). The
trouble with tourism scholarship seems to lie in the fact
that its research has simply tried to track and record this
staggering expansion [of the industry], producing an
enormous record of instances, case studies, and variations(p. 5). Part of the problem, these authors suggested,
was attributable to its researchers whose disciplinary
origins do not include the tools necessary to analyze and
theorize the complex cultural and social processes that
have unfolded (p. 5). Similarly, in the concluding remarks
to a methodological reection on triangulation, Oppermann (2000) urged that it is time for tourism researchers
to take on new challenges, namely systematically trying to
add knowledge to the eld rather than continue engaging in
producing more and more case studies of limited additional
scientic value (p. 145). Elsewhere, state-of-the-art tourCorresponding author. Tel.: +001 519 888 4567x3894;
fax: +001 519 886 2440.
E-mail address: h2xiao@ahsmail.uwaterloo.ca (H. Xiao).
0261-5177/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2005.11.002
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Construct
validity
Phase of research in
which tactic occurs
Internal
validity
External
validity
Do pattern matching
Do explanation building
Address rival explanations.
Use logic models
Data
Data
Data
Data
analysis
analysis
analysis
analysis
case studies
Reliability
Data collection
Data collection
Open-ended Interviews
Archival Records
FACT
Focus Interviews
Documents
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Table 2
Seventy-six case study articles in four tourism journals (20002004)
Table 3
Themes and/or topics of case study research in tourism
ATR (3)
JTR (15)
TA (10)
Journals
27:611623
30:927941
31:855878
39:426432
39:449460
40:2740
40:316327
40:328336
41:414
41:1522
41:6876
41:177184
41:185196
41:311314
41:400409
42:3647
42:172185
42:297304
6:5360
6:203211
7:259269
8:137141
8:205210
8:253257
9:1522
9:153166
9:269284
9:285298
TM (48)
21:2332
21:323330
21:379393
21:395406
21:417424
21:515524
21:525534
22:8392
22:157165
22:193202
22:259269
22:289303
22:345350
22:403409
22:435443
22:511521
22:551563
22:629635
22:637648
22:649657
23:6779
23:133143
23:145154
23:233244
23:379388
23:557561
23:597607
23:631637
24:7381
24:8395
24:97110
24:217226
24:289308
24:331339
24:371385
24:387399
24:587595
24:687697
24:699712
25:1730
25:267273
25:275283
25:421428
25:559564
25:623636
25:657667
25:751759
25:789800
Themes/topics
ATR (3)
JTR (15)
TA (10)
TM (48)
as economic development*3
Destination marketing/destination image*2
Cultural/heritage tourism
Tourism decision making
(Motivation for) domestic tourism
Visitor satisfaction
Museums as visitor attraction products
ecotourism*5
Tourism profession/job satisfaction/career development*5
Destination image, and destination competitiveness*3
Hotel and accommodation*3
Heritage tourism*2
Tourism impacts and hostguest relations*2
Leisure and outdoor recreation*2
Tourism and terrorism/crime, recovery from crisis or
disaster*2
Tourist shopping and tourism tax*2
Tourism demand forecasting
Tourism policy and administration
Internet-based tourism marketing
SERVQUAL and tourist satisfaction
Airline marketing
Family businesses in tourism
Outbound (international) travel
Knowledge acquisition and organizational learning
4. Results
Results of this analysis are described under the aforementioned categories. First, as can be seen from this set of
articles, case studies are used as a method in the treatment
of a wide range of themes/topics in tourism research, and
often for the fulllment of case specic purposes/objectives.
4.1. Themes and objectives of case study research in tourism
In terms of the frequency of adopting a case study
approach, the results suggest that this methodology is most
often seen in research pertaining to tourism development,
planning, and community perceptions of or reactions to the
impacts of tourism (see Table 3).
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ATR(3)
JTR(15)
TA(10)
TM(48)
Average
743
Table 4
Authorship characteristics of the selected case study articles
Journals
Authorship characteristics
Background of academic authorsc
Academics
vs nonacademicsa
Single vs joint
(two or more)
authorsb
ATR (3)
6:1
0:3
Economics/business/marketing/management (6)
JTR (15)
27:1
5:10
Tourism/hospitality/recreation/leisure (11)
Economics/business/ marketing/ management (9)
Education (2)
Geography/environmental studies (1)
Background unspecied/unknown (4)
TA (10)
22:3
1:9
Tourism/hospitality/recreation/leisure (11)
Economics/business/marketing/management (4)
Geography/environmental studies (3)
Background unspecied/unknown (4)
TM (48)
83:9
16:32
Tourism/hospitality/recreation/leisure (46)
Economics/business/marketing/ management (11)
Geography/environmental studies (11)
Information technology (2)
Public administration (1)
Background unspecied/unknown (12)
a
Academic authors refer to those afliated with colleges, universities, and/or research institutes. Non-academic authors mainly consist of consultants,
government ofcials, and/or industry practitioners. Ratio is based on total number of authors of the selected case study articles.
b
Ratio is based on total number of articles selected for this analysis.
c
Backgrounds of academic authors are derived from bio-sketches or afliated institutions (e.g. faculties, departments, and/or research centers) reported
in the selected articles. Numbers in brackets refer to the number of authors having the same attributes.
d
Distribution is recorded according to authors locations at the time of publication; counting is based on total number of authors of the selected articles.
Numbers in brackets refer to the number of authors from the same country or region.
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economics, business, marketing and/or management. Geography/environmental studies stood in the third place.
Other elds such as education, information technology,
and public administration are also represented. A number
of case study researchers did not provide departmental
divisions in their biosketch information.
Third, in the ratio of single versus joint productions of
case studies, it was found that the instances of co- or jointauthorship have been high for all these journals. Such a
high rate of joint authorship may be a reection of the
extensive time or prolonged efforts needed for case study
research. In addition, inferences can also be made with
respect to situations such as the work team of a research
project, or a mentoring relationship between graduate
students and their supervisors.
Fourth, in terms of geographical distributions of these
authors, it was found that Anglophone countries or regions
dominate as the media selected for this analysis are
exclusively English journals. Nevertheless, it is interesting
to note that there is a substantial proportion of case study
authorship from non-English-speaking communities.
4.3. Research design of case studies in tourism
This analysis also looked at geographical scale, time
points of observations (or time specicity), and the use (or
number) of cases in the research design of tourism case
studies. First, in terms of geographical scale and distributions of the case study sites, the great majority of the
selected research fell into either the small or the large
category; such an approach was less frequently seen at the
medium geographical scale; while a number of instances
were in fact non-place-specic case studies (see Table 5).
Nevertheless, readers are cautioned about the potential
limitations that are inherent in the categorization of
content analysis. In the above analysis, some instances
can be grouped into different categories of geographical
scales, depending on administrative boundaries and the
Table 5
Geographical scale of case study research in tourism
Geographical scale of the Journals
selected case studies
ATR (3)
Small/local
Medium/provincial/state
Large/national/
international
Not place specic
2
1
Total
JTR (15) TA (10)
TM (48)
6
3
5
28
4
13
43
8
21
7
1
2
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Table 6
Time specicity of case study research in tourism
Time specicity in terms of
Journals
data collection or observations
ATR JTR
of the selected case study
(3)
(15)
research
One-time point
Two-time points
Three or multiple time points
Time not described nor
specied
1
0
2
0
Total
11
3
1
0
TA
(10)
TM
(48)
7
3
0
0
36
5
6
1
55
11
9
1
Table 7
Research design of case studies in tourism
Case study research
design
Journals
Total
11
3
1
7
3
0
745
36
4
8
56
10
10
70%, and 75% for ATR, JTR, TA, and TM, respectively.
A small number of research adopted either two/comparative or multiple case designs.
While some methodologists tended to favor multiple case
designs over a single-case study, especially in the sense of a
replication logic (Campbell, 1975), it is equally one-sided to
suggest that one-case designs are without merits. For
example, Yin (2003a) has argued for the importance of
doing unique case studies involving extreme, rare, critical,
and/or revelatory cases. Multiple case designs are not
necessarily free of disadvantages, especially in the requirement of extensive resources and time, which is often
beyond the means of a single or independent researcher. In
addition, it should be noted that the choice of a particular
research design, as demonstrated in this set of case studies,
could be seen as a matter of the research purposes or
research questions of the specic projects. From a
disciplinary perspective, it is not uncommon to consider
multiple case studies as a different methodology from
single-case designs. For example, while the afnity or
relationships of multiple case designs to comparative
studies in anthropology and political science has long been
established, methodological literature noted that these
disciplines or elds tend to develop one set of rationales
for doing single-case studies and a second or separate set
for doing what has been considered comparative (i.e.
multiple-case) studies (Eckstein, 1975; George, 1979;
Lijphart, 1975). Again, the purpose here is to reveal what
is found from this sample of case studies, rather than to
evaluate on which is a/the better design for case study
research in tourism.
This section looks at the implementation and presentation of case study research seen through this sample of
publications. First, from the perspective of data collection
(see Table 8), there is a fairly spread-out usage of single
source, two sources and multiple sources for case study
research in tourism, with a rough average of 46%, 26%,
and 26%, respectively regardless of journals. This evenness
is particularly notable among ATR, JTR and TM. In terms
of the actual ways or methods of data collecting, secondary
data (e.g. archival/statistical documents, government reports, and/or news articles) and survey were most often
used in the reported instances, followed by interviews,
while data collection through focus groups and other
methods such as participant or on-site observations was
less frequently seen from this sample. However, it is
important to note that, very often, a case study may adopt
several collection methods such as a combination of
secondary data with surveys and/or interviews, which is
particularly true for those case studies that rely on two or
multiple sources.
Second, in terms of the description of methodological
procedures, the data and/or method section of the selected
articles was examined. An estimate was made with respect
to the approximate length devoted to the description of
method and/or data collections (see notes to Table 8). The
majorities (or 84%) of the instances were bearing either a
limited or a moderate description of the researchs
methodological procedures. Detailed descriptions of such
procedures were found in about 16% of the studies. As
noted with previous observations, this should not be taken
Table 8
Methodological procedures of case study research in tourism
Methodological
procedures
Sources of data
Single
Two
Multiple
Journals
Total
TM (48)
1
1
1
7
4
4
7
2
1
21
13
14
36
20
20
9
2
5
2
1
4
23
15
2
29
9
38
21
3
41
10
22
20
6
32
32
12
7
1
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Journals
Total
2
2
13
8
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
16
10
3
2
3
2
2
1
1
5
6
1
2
1
10
3
4
2
2
24
12
7
5
4
1
1
4
3
4
2
1
2
1
1
1
15
17
16
25
28
23
8
3
2
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
TM (48)
6
2
2
a
Data coding for the entrydiscussions or theoretical enhancement
was based on the presence or absence of theoretical discussions/generalizations of ndings and an estimate of the approximate length of such
texts, in which limited is less than 500 words, moderate 5001000
words, and elaborated more than 1000 words.
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