Case Writing

Abstract

This chapter describes case writing as a method of conveying knowledge in the field. Standing on the shoulders of giants is a famous utterance by Sir Isaac Newton. It has also been adapted as a phrase that appears at the top of the page on Google Scholar, which provides a search service for scholarly literature. This quote expresses the idea that no matter how great ones achievements, success is always based on the research and work of thinkers from the past. As it is vital in research to accumulate past work, researchers need to make their findings accessible to others. This can be done by publishing papers in scholarly journals. However, if researchers want to publish various lessons obtained from practice in the field, they are often faced with difficulties in explaining why the lessons are significant. Thus, developing methods of conveying knowledge in the field remains a challenge. Further, knowledge is not always communicated from one researcher to another; it can also be passed from researchers to practitioners. There have recently been increasingly more areas e.g., the design of information systems that have required coordination between theoretical studies and activities in the field. This means that researchers are faced with the challenges of how to communicate research findings to others and how to develop practitioners. Here, the important thing is not simply knowing information, but also acquiring knowledge that can actually be applied. Be it as a designer or a user, one must confront the field and face these issues when handling information. To help resolve these two problems, this chapter focuses on cases and outlines the methodology for case writing, using the introduction of a new system in the workplace as an example.