Page 67 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Methodology of Research and Statistical Techniques

Notes Applying the Case Study Method to an Electronic Community Network

By way of example, we apply these six steps to an example study of multiple participants in
an electronic community network. All participants are non-profit organizations which have
chosen an electronic community network on the World Wide Web as a method of delivering
information to the public. The case study method is applicable to this set of users because it
can be used to examine the issue of whether or not the electronic community network is
beneficial in some way to the organization and what those benefits might be.
Step 1. Determine and Define the Research Questions
In general, electronic community networks have three distinct types of users, each one a good
candidate for case study research. The three groups of users include people around the world
who use the electronic community network, the non-profit organizations using the electronic
community network to provide information to potential users of their services, and the “community”
that forms as the result of interacting with other participants on the electronic community
network.
In this case, the researcher is primarily interested in determining whether or not the electronic
community network is beneficial in some way to non-profit organization participants. The
researcher begins with a review of the literature to determine what prior studies have determined
about this issue and uses the literature to define the following questions for the study of the
non-profit organizations providing information to the electronic community network:
• Why do non-profit organization participants use the network?
• How do non-profit organization participants determine what to place on the electronic
community network?
• Do the non-profit organization participants believe the community network serves a
useful purpose in furthering their mission? How?
Step 2. Select the Cases and Determine Data Gathering and Analysis Techniques
Many communities have constructed electronic community networks on the World Wide Web.
At the outset of the design phase, the researcher determines that only one of these networks
will be studied and further sets the study boundaries to include only some of the non-profit
organizations represented on that one network. The researcher contacts the Board of Directors
of the community network, who are open to the idea of the case study. The researcher also
gathers computer generated log data from the network and, using this data, determines that
an in-depth study of representative organizations from four categories — health care, environmental,
education, and religious — is feasible. The investigator applies additional selection criteria so
that an urban-based and a rural-based non-profit are represented in the study in order to
examine whether urban non-profits perceive more benefits from community networks than
rural organizations.
The researcher considers multiple sources of data for this study and selects document examination,
the gathering and study of organizational documents such as administrative reports, agendas,
letters, minutes, and news clippings for each of the organizations. In this case, the investigator
decides to also conduct open-ended interviews with key members of each organization
using a check-list to guide interviewers during the interview process so that uniformity
and consistency can be assured in the data, which could include facts, opinions, and
unexpected insights.
In this case study, the researcher cannot employ direct observation as a tool because some of
the organizations involved have no office and meet infrequently to conduct business directly
related to the electronic community network. The researcher instead decides to survey all

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