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Chapter 5 - The Natural Experiment, a.k.a. the Single Embedded Design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2023

Lakshmi Balachandran Nair ,
Michael Gibbert  and
Bareerah Hafeez Hoorani
Lakshmi Balachandran Nair
Affiliation:
Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, Italy
Michael Gibbert
Affiliation:
Università della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland
Bareerah Hafeez Hoorani
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Management Research, The Netherlands
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Summary

We discuss the single embedded case study design in this chapter. We deliberate how this design is different from multiple and single holistic designs in terms of the levels of analysis and the nature of replication. The selection rationale and sampling are discussed next. Afterwards, we move on to the longitudinal and/or cross-sectional single embedded designs. The strengths and the weaknesses of the design in terms of internal validity, external validity, and the number of variables are discussed subsequently. This chapter also discusses the (mis)conception regarding longitudinal designs and temporal embedded units.

Keywords

Single embeddedSamplingPurposeful samplingLevel of analysisReplicationLongitudinalCross-sectionalInternal validityExternal validityEmbedded units
Type
Chapter
Information
Combining Case Study Designs for Theory Building
A New Sourcebook for Rigorous Social Science Researchers
 , pp. 78 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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