Business

Locate key business information resources for academic research.

Finding Case Studies

Harvard Business Articles versus Cases 
 


How to Identify and Obtain Business School Cases

Due to publishers' terms and copyright restrictions, business school case studies are unavailable through the library or its course readings (reserve) service.  For alternatives, try the library's database subscription for Sage Business Cases.


Options for Students:
  • Verify whether your professor created a course pack with Harvard Business School Publishing, in order for you to purchase assigned cases at a discounted rate through the designated links.
  • Purchase your individual copy of cases directly from the publishers where necessary.
  • Harvard Business School Cases  (Harvard also provides cases from selected publishers)
  • Darden Business School Cases

Options for Faculty:
  • Consult these business school publishers' inventories to find or acquire case studies.
  • Create your Premium Educator account with Harvard to access a free educator copy and teaching notes for personal use only or to set up course packs to provide links and discounted rates for your assigned cases. 
  • Use the library's course readings service for articles printed in the Harvard Business Review magazine.

 

Business Source Ultimate: An Inventory or Index for Identifying Harvard Business School Cases

 

Search Harvard's website for the most comprehensive, current inventory, or try these strategies in the Business Source Ultimate database to efficiently discover which Harvard cases exist on particular companies or topics. 

  • To identify case studies by company or topic, type your keyword on line one in the Advanced Search box in Business Source Ultimate. Type "Harvard Business School Cases" in quotations on line two. From the drop down menu by that line, select publication name.

  • To browse the list of Harvard cases published since 1942, use the Publication Search feature. Type "Harvard Business School Cases" as the publication name.


Obtain the actual case directly from Harvard.

Only the case studies that are published in the Harvard Business Review magazine will be available in full image within Business Source Ultimate. 

Some tips to find books and films on a topic or company, or books that contain chapters or case studies on it, within the JHU Libraries' Catalog, Catalyst:

  • Click on the Advanced Search option for Catalyst.
  • Do a Title or Subject search on the topic or name of the organization.
  • Use an Any Field search for retrieval from chapter headings, titles, subjects and other fields.
  • Try a Subject search on a topic or broad concept, in combination with the word case, to find your terms in the subject headings assigned to the records.
    Example: Subject search for marketing case
  • Choose Any Field to search for a concept and the word case, in chapter headings, titles, subjects and other fields.
    Example: marketing case
  • Consider adding these keywords to Any Field or title searches:

case, case studies, best practices, successes, failures, mistakes, example

  • Under Format, select DVD or Video Film to limit to films available on DVDs or online (streaming).

Emerald is a publisher-specific package of electronic journals in business and other subjects. 

If you are interested in cases about business and management in emerging market countries, click on the link for the Case Studies Collection once you access Emerald or use the separate link for the Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies Collection.
 

WorldCat

Analyzing and Teaching Cases

Helpful sources on how to analyze and discuss cases include:

  • Framework for Case Analysis
    Freely available, online guide on case analysis from the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Learning by the Case Method
    Harvard Business School Publishing's brief handout for students (available for purchase by individuals) 

Find case teaching resources for instructors, and related options, under the Case Method menu at Harvard Business School Publishing's website.

Harvard Business School Publishing's Case Method Teaching Resources