The definition of a case study varies widely between periodicals. Magazines and trade publications often carry short articles outlining how an organization or individual handled a business or management problem. Journal articles often provide more in-depth studies of an organizational issue by using the case method as a research tool. 

Try a keyword search in a business article database such as Gale Business: Insights, Business Source Complete or ABI/Inform Collection. In the boxes below are some sample searches.

If your search does not find relevant articles when the search includes the phrase case studies, leave it out.  

• Try searching for just the topic -- e.g. “servant leadership”.
• Limit your search results to magazines (e.g. Harvard Business Review) and/or trade publications (e.g. Healthcare Executive) to find practice-oriented articles.
• Scan the article titles for those that study a single organization or individual.

The Gale Business Insights database provides access to over 7,000 business case articles of varying lengths: from less than 500 to over 20,000 words. A search may retrieve case studies and case reports as well as journal, trade publication, magazine, and news articles written as case studies. (See second screenshot, below.)   

Faculty: Please note that these cases usually include an analysis of the topic presented and thus are not typical teaching cases. However, they may provide insight into how a case author approaches an issue and arrives at solutions, which may stimulate student discussion. 

Log in to the database

Search for case studies

1. Log in to the database using the link above.
2. Select Advanced Search from the Search Options menu
3. Type the word case in the Terms box AND change the Field to Document Type
4. You may add search terms in the second and third boxes to focus your search. In the example below, I typed marketing in the second box. Suggestion: Leave the field(s) set to Keyword. 

Screenshots captured from database December 5, 2024.

Caveat about Harvard Business School Cases (No full text available from the Library) 

Records but not the full text of the Harvard Business School Cases are covered in the Business Source Complete database. These commercial cases must be purchased from the publisher, they are not available via Interlibrary Loan. 

Harvard Business Review (Full text of articles included in this database)

This database does search and provide full text of articles from the Harvard Business Review periodical. (See second search example, below.)

Log in to the database

Search for case study articles

Searching for cases in the Harvard Business Review magazine

The Harvard Business Review magazine often contains articles written as case studies. The article will outline the context and issues of a topic and then two "experts" may provide differing opinions about how to solve the case.. 

Here's a link to a sample search

The search might look like this:

To narrow the results, add a topical keyword, e.g. leadership, to the third box on the search form. You may also limit by using the publication date.

Screenshots captured from the database December 6, 2024.

From a library database

When the PDF or HTML full-text is not available in one of our databases, use the "Full Text Finder" button. Full Text Finder will allow you to link to the article in another database. If no full text is available you may request an electronic copy of the article through Interlibrary Loan.

From another online source

Many articles that you find online may require payment (aka paywall) to download the article. In many cases the Library can get the article for you for free to keep you from having to pay out of pocket. For more information, please visit: