Driving a Social Enterprise

Toot One’s Own Horn? January 19, 2009

After a year of closely working with one of my favorite clients, I have been asked to present my experience in a public forum – Twin Cities SharePoint Conference.

As I began preparing over this weekend, I wondered - is a case study a case of tooting one’s own horn or a genuine attempt at sharing knowledge? Is it a true record of how things progressed or a utopic combination of our vision and afterthought? I started digging in more and find out what really a case study means and how much can you toot?

Robert K. Yin in Case Study Research. Design and Methods defines “case studyis one of several ways of doing research whether it be social science related or even socially related”. Typically, we do not think an implementation as a case of academic research but if you look deeply, it might be true. According to wikipedia, Business case studies recount real life business situations that present to business executives a dilemma. The case puts the scenario into the context of the factors that influence it.

I do not think such definitions answer my dilemma but I will try my best to follow Yin’s vision of socially related research.

See you at the conference!