Many highly influential papers in top academic journals publish inductive research results using multiple case research methods. Case researchers in Asia find the multiple methods an excellent approach for theory development in this relatively less-explored research environment. With academia’s increasing popularity in the use of these methods, confusion can arise in the application process. Thus, right after the AAPBS Conference, an AAPBS Workshop was conducted, featuring the practicalities participants would need for their professional practice.

This one-and-a-half-day Workshop on “Inductive Research with Multiple Case Methods” was organized by the Case Center of AAPBS, which is led by the Thompson Center of Business Case Studies at HKUST. The Workshop was jointly hosted by the HKUST Business School and the School of Business of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). Under the guidance of a multiple research awards winner, Professor Jason Davis, the participants were engaged in insightful discussion and exchanges of views on topics from identifying research questions, research design for business cases, data collection and analysis across measures and cases, to the generation of writing with genuine theoretical contribution.

In favor of interactive group discussions in a small-class setting, the Workshop was well received with over 30 highly committed academics from various business schools from the Asia-Pacific region. Participants appreciated the valuable experience they had during their visit at the School, and were expecting to join AAPBS case workshops in future.

Currently, seven business schools around the Asia-Pacific region form the committee of the AAPBS Case Center. The HKUST Thompson Center for Business Case Studies, headed by Professor Roger King and Professor Winnie Peng, is the founding and current host for the AAPBS Case Center. The AAPBS Case Center has been organizing case teaching and writing workshops since 2009 and the 2018 case workshop is the first workshop which focused on case research.