OVERVIEW OF MIS

Management information systems provide decision-makers information and

feedback on daily operations. Additionally, management information
systems can be used strategically, often incorporating Web technology.

Marketing MIS: Marketing Management Information System (MIS)

supports managerial activities in product development, distribution, pricing
decisions, promotional effectiveness and sales forecasting.

Overview of Marketing Management Information System (MIS)

Inputs to Marketing MIS

• Strategic plan and corporate policies

• The TPS
• External sources:
o The competition
o The market
Marketing MIS Subsystems and Outputs

• Marketing research
o Web based market research
• Product development
• Promotion and advertising
• Product pricing

Human Resources MIS: Human Resource Management Information

System (MIS) is concerned with all of the activities related to employees
and potential employees of the organization.

Overview of Human Resource MIS

 ABOUT CASE STUDY

A case study is one of several ways of doing research whether it is social science
related or even socially related. It is an in-depth investigation/study of a single
individual, group, incident, or community.[1] Other ways include experiments,
surveys, or analysis of archival information [2].

Rather than using samples and following a rigid protocol to examine limited
number of variables, case study methods involve an in-depth, longitudinal
examination of a single instance or event: a case. They provide a systematic way of
looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results.
As a result the researcher may gain a sharpened understanding of why the instance
happened as it did, and what might become important to look at more extensively
in future research. Case studies lend themselves to both generating and testing
hypotheses [3].

Another suggestion is that case study should be defined as a research strategy, an

empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context. Case
study research means single and multiple case studies, can include quantitative
evidence, relies on multiple sources of evidence and benefits from the prior
development of theoretical propositions. Case studies should not be confused with
qualitative research and they can be based on any mix of quantitative and
qualitative evidence. Single-subject research provides the statistical framework for
making inferences from quantitative case-study data. This is also supported and
well-formulated in (Lamnek, 2005): "The case study is a research approach,
situated between concrete data taking techniques and methodologic paradigms."
 CASE SELECTION

When selecting a case for a case study, researchers often use information-oriented
sampling , as opposed to random sampling [3]. This is because an average case is
often not the richest in information. Extreme or atypical cases reveal more
information because they activate more basic mechanisms and more actors in the
situation studied. In addition, from both an understanding-oriented and an action-
oriented perspective, it is often more important to clarify the deeper causes behind
a given problem and its consequences than to describe the symptoms of the
problem and how frequently they occur. Random samples emphasizing
representativeness will seldom be able to produce this kind of insight; it is more
appropriate to select some few cases chosen for their validity. But this isnt always
the case.

Three types of information-oriented cases may be distinguished:

1. Extreme or deviant cases

2. Critical cases
3. Paradigmatic cases.

Critical case

A critical case can be defined as having strategic importance in relation to the

general problem. For example, an occupational medicine clinic wanted to
investigate whether people working with organic solvents suffered brain damage.
Instead of choosing a representative sample among all those enterprises in the
clinic’s area that used organic solvents, the clinic strategically located , ‘If it is
valid for this case, it is valid for all (or many) cases.’ In its negative form, the
generalization would be, ‘If it is not valid for this case, then it is not valid for any
(or only few) cases.’
 HISTORY OF CASE STUDIES

As a distinct approach to research, use of the case study originated only in the early 20th century.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase case study or case-study back as far as 1934,
influenced by the much older concept of a case history in medicine.[citation needed]

The use of case studies for the creation of new theory in social sciences has been further
developed by the sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss who presented their research
method, Grounded theory, in 1967.

The popularity of case studies in testing hypotheses has developed only in recent decades. One of
the areas in which case studies have been gaining popularity is education and in particular
educational evaluation. [5]

Case studies have also been used as a teaching method and as part of professional development,
especially in business and legal education. The problem-based learning (PBL) movement is such
an example. When used in (non-business) education and professional development, case studies
are often referred to as critical incidents.

History of business cases

When the Harvard Business School was started, the faculty quickly realized that there were no
textbooks suitable to a graduate program in business. Their first solution to this problem was to
interview leading practitioners of business and to write detailed accounts of what these managers
were doing. Of course the of the factors that influence it. Cases are generally written by business
school faculty with particular learning objectives in mind and are refined in the classroom before
publication. Additional relevant documentation (such as financial statements, time-lines, and
short biographies, often referred to in the case as "exhibits"), multimedia supplements (such as
video-recordings of interviews with the case protagonist), and a carefully crafted teaching note
often accompany cases.