The Qualitative Case Study Research Strategy as Applied on a Rural Enterprise Development Doctoral Research Project

The purpose of this literature review-based paper is to share some insights into general methodological issues pertaining to the case study research strategy and how I applied it for purposes of my doctoral study on the design and delivery of rural enterprise business support programmes. I hope that the insights I share here will help novice researchers who have intentions of using the case study research strategy for their studies or those who just want to broaden their knowledge about the research strategy. The paper is largely an excerpt of my methodology chapter from my recently completed and unpublished doctoral thesis, derived mainly from the methodology literature. The paper starts by exploring the definition of case studies and goes on to look at case studies issues to do with the unit of analysis; research questions; types of case studies; sampling, data collection, triangulation and quality issues.