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Explanation Building

In case study research, an explanation—a good, successful, satisfactory, adequate, or acceptable explanation—is intended to act as an answer to a specific research question. What counts as an explanation depends on the interest of the researcher. Contrastive explanation is particularly valuable in case study. It shows why one thing rather than another (which might have been expected) occurred, or why one explanation of a given event is more acceptable than an alternative. One explanation of why a sports team does well over a season might be that it possesses better players than other teams; an alternative might be that the coach is so effective that he or she can get mediocre players to perform consistently at their best. Analysis of successful teams might lead to the conclusion that one explanation was comparatively better than the other.

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

The following examines the major considerations in building an explanation by addressing these questions: What is the relationship between explanation and understanding? In what sense is explanation objective? How do the questions asked influence the explanation? What is the nature of causality? How does a contrastive explanation provide benefit to a case study?

Explanation, Understanding, and Objectivity

To explain something means to contribute to fostering an understanding of it. Someone who can provide an explanation of something demonstrates that he or she understands it, but creating an explanation will also contribute to others' understanding.

Ludwig Wittgenstein's discussion of word games suggests that a major part of understanding something is that a person can accommodate it in his or her worldview, that complex of knowledge, beliefs, and values that is an individual's internal representation of what the world is. We avoid the apparent subjectivity of our individual worldviews because we have ideas in common with other people. Ideas shared with others possess objectivity. Thus we can share understanding through explanations that are related to commonly held ideas about the world. When such commonly held ideas are used explanatorily, they escape from subjectivity.

The Research Question

Posing a specific research question is fundamental to explanation building. An explanation does not exist in and of itself; it explains something. The formulation of the question identifies the interest of the researchers, the aspects of the case they are concerned with, and the direction of the research. It also suggests what would provide a satisfactory explanation.

A research question often concerns an event that occurred and that is not understood. Lack of understanding suggests that some other outcome was expected, so the question often implies an unstated “rather than something else.” For example, Why did the Soviet Union place strategic offensive missiles in Cuba (rather than directly negotiate with the United States for the removal of American missiles in Turkey)?

Causality

The question “why A?” or “how did situation A become situation B?” may invite a causal response. A scientific understanding of causality is “mechanical”: effect irrevocably follows cause. When we explain, for example, how lightning kills people, the outcome is a causal chain that is an inevitable result of the laws of physics. Such a deductive-no-mological explanation is usually not feasible in human affairs because human actions are initiated by ideas and result from free will. As a result, the main mode of reasoning in explanatory case study is inferential and inductive rather than deductive, and causation is construed more broadly. We identify actions or ideas that have a strong causal influence on subsequent events as causes.

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