Research Resources: History of the Case Method at HBS
Research Resources: History of the Case Method at HBS
Compiled by the HBS Archives, this guide provides links to key sources on the history of teaching with the case method at Harvard Business School and its expansion to business schools around the globe.
Published resources are available online or at Baker Library, HBS and other Harvard Libraries.
- Case Method 100 Years: Timeline, News Articles, Videos
- Core Works on the Case Method
- Researching, Writing, and Distributing Cases
- Teaching with the Case Method
- Learning with the Case Method
- Expansion of the Case Method
- Innovation in Cases
- HBS Archival Collections
Visit the Case Method 100 Years website to see video interviews with faculty and alumni, news articles, and an illustrated timeline of 100 years of the case method at HBS.
Case Method Centennial Celebration: General Shoe Company (April 20, 2022)
At the Case Method Centennial Celebration, Professor Jan Rivkin taught the School's first case to staff, faculty, and students, with opening remarks from Dean Datar.
“Exploring the Relevance and Efficacy of the Case Method 100 Years Later,” Harvard Business Publishing, April 13, 2021.
This is the first in a five-part series celebrating the centennial of the first case. The other four parts are linked on the page.
The HBS Case Method Defined (January 20, 2021)
Take a Seat in the Harvard MBA Case Classroom (May 28, 2020)
“Discover the Case Method,” MBA Voices (May 8, 2019)
In this video, students discuss their experiences learning via the case method.
Celebrating the General Shoe Company, the Inaugural HBS Case (April 12, 2019)
In this video, Professor Jan Rivkin discusses the first case and the history of the case method.
Inside the Case Method (April 10, 2009)
Andrews, Kenneth R., ed., The Case Method of Teaching Human Relations and Administration: An Interim Statement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951.
This book is a collection of chapters by HBS faculty and staff, with sections on Teaching and Learning, Training in Industry, and Research Problems in Human Relations.
Christensen, C. Roland, et al., Education for Judgment. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 1991.
Resources -- The Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning
The Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning maintains its own list of resources for faculty and students.
Copeland, Melvin T., And Mark an Era: The Story of the Harvard Business School. Boston: Little Brown, 1958.
This is a history of Harvard Business School, written by Melvin T. Copeland, professor and Director of the Division of Research, who was instrumental in the early development of the case method and who authored the first published book of cases, Marketing Problems.
Donham, Wallace B., Dean’s Report, “Graduate School of Business Administration,” Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1919-1920, Official Register of Harvard University, vol. xviii, no. 7, March 3, 1921, pp. 111-135.
On pages 119-121 of this report from Dean Donham to Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Harvard University’s twenty-second president, Donham discusses the challenges of gathering cases for business education, as compared to the field of law.
Donham, Wallace B., Dean’s Report, “Graduate School of Business Administration,” Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1922-1923, Official Register of Harvard University, vol. xxi, no. 6, February 29, 1924, pp. 107-138.
On pages 117-122 of this report from Dean Donham to Harvard University President A. Lawrence Lowell, Donham describes efforts to increase the collection and distribution of cases.
Donham, Wallace B., Dean’s Report, “Graduate School of Business Administration,” Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1941-1942, Official Register of Harvard University, vol. xli, no. 23, September 26, 1944, pp. 257-291.
This is Dean Donham’s final report to James B. Conant, Harvard University’s twenty-third president, in which he reflects on the evolution of the school and the case method during his tenure as Dean.
Foster, Esty and Philip B. Hoppin, “The Harvard Business School 1908-1936,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. XII, no. 4, July 1936, pp. 266-278.
This is a history of the school through 1936, which covers the introduction and use of the case method, among other topics.
Garvin, David, “Making the Case: Professional Education for the World of Practice,” Harvard Magazine, September-October 2003.
McNair, Malcolm P., ed., The Case Method at the Harvard Business School: papers by present and past members of the faculty and staff. Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Co.,1954.
This book includes a few cases, some reflections from recent graduates, and chapters on pedagogy and research. A review and the table of contents was printed in the HBS Bulletin in Spring 1954.
Culliton, James W., “Writing Business Cases,” in McNair, Malcolm P., ed., The Case Method at the Harvard Business School: papers by present and past members of the faculty and staff. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1954.
Culliton, James W., Handbook on Case Writing. Makati, Rizal, Philippines: Asian Institute of Management, 1973.
Copeland, Melvin T., And Mark an Era: The Story of the Harvard Business School. Boston: Little Brown, 1958, pp. 227-238.
This section of And Mark an Era describes the formation of the Bureau of Business Research and the methods of case collection.
David, Donald K., Dean’s Report, “Graduate School of Business Administration,” Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1953-1954, Official Register of Harvard University, vol. lii, October 31, 1955, no. 28, pp. 621-651.
On pages 636-641 of this report from Dean David to Harvard University President Nathan Pusey, David describes the creation of the Office of Case Development and efforts to distribute cases more widely.
Fayerweather, John, “The Work of the Case Writer,” in McNair, Malcolm P., ed., The Case Method at the Harvard Business School: papers by present and past members of the faculty and staff. Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1954.
“How Cases Get That Way,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 3, Autumn 1954, pp. 34-35.
This is a description of how cases were written for the Written Analysis of Cases course, which had been introduced a few years earlier and ran until the early 1970s.
Lawrence, Paul R., “The Preparation of Case Material,” in Andrews, Kenneth R., ed., The Case Method of Teaching Human Relations and Administration: An Interim Statement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951.
McNair, Malcolm P., “The Collection of Cases,” in Fraser, Cecil E., ed., The Case Method of Instruction: a Related Series of Articles. Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1931.
“McNair on Cases,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 47, no. 4, July-August 1971, pp. 10-13.
This piece is a collection of remarks by Professor Malcolm McNair on the art of writing cases.
Bailey, Joseph C., “A Classroom Evaluation of the Case Method.” Harvard Educational Review, Summer, 1951.
Barnes, Louis B., et al., Teaching and the Case Method : Text, Cases, and Readings. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 1994.
Berrien, F. K., "Instructor's Appendix," in Comments and Cases on Human Relations, New York: Harper Brothers, 1952.
Cabot, Philip, “The Case System,” Ex Libris, vol. iii, no. 1, January 1928.
Christensen, C. Roland, Teaching by the Case Method: Past Accomplishments, Future Developments. Boston: Division of Research, Harvard Business School, 1981.
Copeland, Melvin T., “The Expansion of the Case Method of Instruction,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. xviii, no. 3, Summer 1942, pp. 225-227.
This article is an overview of the first 20 years of case collection and instruction.
Copeland, Melvin T., And Mark an Era: The Story of the Harvard Business School, Boston: Little Brown, 1958, pp. 254-272.
In this chapter of And Mark an Era, Copeland recounts the introduction of the case method and describes its pedagogy.
Culliton, James W., “The Question that Has Not Been Asked Cannot Be Answered,” Education for Professional Responsibility, Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, 1948, pp. 85-93.
David, Donald K., “Methods of Teaching Business in Schools of Business,” The Ronald Forum, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, 1925.
Donham, Wallace B., “Business Teaching by the Case System,” The American Economic Review, vol. 12, no. 1, March 1922, pp. 53-65.
In this article, Donham compares the pedagogy of business and law through the lens of the case method and describes the use of cases in the classroom.
Fraser, Cecil E., ed. The Case Method of Instruction: a Related Series of Articles. Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1931.
This volume includes some chapters on the case method in general, as well as chapters on the case method in specific fields of business, such as marketing and finance. The chapters are authored by HBS faculty, including Donham, Doriot, and McNair. A brief review was published in the HBS Bulletin.
Parsons, Floyd W., “Harvard Teaching Business the Way it Teaches Law,” World’s Work, June 1923.
Schaub, L. F., “The Case System of Instruction in Business Management,” Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, June 1910, pp. 641-644.
This is one of the earliest published descriptions of the case method at HBS. Lincoln Schaub would later be Assistant Dean and briefly Acting Dean after the departure of Dean Gay.
Taeusch, C. F., “The Logic of the Case Method,” The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 25, no. 10, 1928, pp. 253-263.
This article is focused primarily on the study of law, but examines the case method as a means of teaching good judgement and ethics. In this same year, Taeusch joined the HBS faculty to teach the first full course on business ethics, using the case method.
Turner, Glen, “Teaching Business by the Case Method,” California Journal of Secondary Education, October 1938, p. 338-349.
“The Alumni Forum: The Business School’s Factor Sheet” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. xvi, no. 2, February 1940, pp. 119-124.
This article summarizes the results of a survey of alumni, and includes many quotes from former students on the pros and cons of the case method.
Carson, W. Waller, Jr., “Development of a Student Under the Case Method,” in McNair, Malcolm P., ed. The Case Method at the Harvard Business School: papers by present and past members of the faculty and staff. Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1954.
“Case Method of Instruction,” Course Catalog, Official Register of Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration, vol. lii, no. 10, May 31, 1955, pp. 27-28.
This segment describes the role of cases in the curriculum in 1955.
“General Statement,” Course Catalog, Official Register of Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration, vol. xxii, no. 5, February 20, 1924, pp. 10-29.
Pages 16-18 briefly describe the role of cases in the curriculum in 1924.
Gragg, Charles I., “Because Wisdom Can’t be Told,” in Andrews, Kenneth R., ed., The Case Method of Teaching Human Relations and Administration: An Interim Statement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951.
In this chapter, Gragg describes the impact of the case method on the student experience.
Donham, Wallace B., Dean’s Report, “Graduate School of Business Administration,” Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1938-39, Official Register of Harvard University, vol. xxxvii, no. 12, March 30, 1940, pp. 265-283.
In this report to President Conant, Donham describes the role that case collection and distribution, increasingly to other schools of business, plays in the financial health of the school.
Hunt, Pearson, “Exporting the Case Method,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 1955, pp. 5-10.
This is an abridged printing of a talk that Hunt gave on the use of the case method at European schools of business.
Tagiuri, Renato, “The Foreign Student and the Case Method in Business Administration: Some Remarks Concerning the Learning Process,” The Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 53, no. 1, 1961, pp. 105-111.
Professor Tagiuri taught and represented HBS at business schools in Europe and Central America. In this article he describes his experience teaching to a non-American audience.
Tosdal, Harry, “The Case Method in Teaching Business Executives,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. vi, no. 4, April 1, 1930, pp. 152-154.
This article describes the early stages of executive education at HBS, and the adaptation of the case method to students who are already experienced businessmen.
Campbell, Scott, “Teaching by the Case Method,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 60, no. 6, December 1984, pp. 88-95.
This article describes a symposium for educators who teach by the case method. Participants represented 24 states and six countries.
Blanding, Michael, “The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?,” HBS Working Knowledge, March 2, 2021.
This article describes the context and innovation of the interactive multimedia case, “The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations,” which was made available to the public.
Gibson, George W., “Cases on Film,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 31, no. 3, Autumn 1955, pp. 34-35.
In this article, the director of the audio-visual department announces the introduction of filmed cases.
“While the Cat’s Away: A Case in Pictures,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 33, no. 2, Summer 1957, pp. 15-18.
This Bulletin article shows a sample of images from one of the early cases on film.
“Where Do We Go From Here? HBS Marks its Fiftieth Year by Re-examining its Mission in a New Society,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, vol. 34, no. 2, April 1958, pp. 4-16.
This Bulletin article includes a reflection on improvements to the case method and a look forward at possible changes.
Bureau of Business Research records
The Bureau of Business Research was formed in 1911 and was responsible for all research conducted at the school, including the writing of cases, until the formation of the Office of Case Development in 1953.
Bureau of Business Research instructions to agents on standard practice
These instructions, issued under the guidance of Malcolm P. McNair, were intended to standardize the case writing process.
Christensen was a leader in case method pedagogy; the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning is named in his honor. His papers include case writing materials and research for his books on the subject.
Dean’s Office Correspondence Files (Edwin F. Gay, Dean)
Gay was the first Dean of HBS, from 1908 to 1919. Although the case method was not fully implemented until after his tenure, he oversaw the early discussions of pedagogy and the use of the law school as a model.
Dean’s Office Correspondence Files (Wallace B. Donham, Dean)
Donham was Dean of HBS from 1919 to 1942, during which time he oversaw the formalization and expansion of the case method.
Andrews published extensively on the case method and his papers include the research materials for his book, The Case Method of Teaching Human Relations and Administration, included above.
Copeland was the author of the first published book of cases, Marketing Problems, and was the Director of the Bureau of Business Research from 1916 to 1926.
McNair was the Assistant Director of the Bureau of Business Research from 1922-1929 and Managing Director from 1929-1933. He wrote many articles about the case method and edited a collection of papers on the case method by HBS faculty and staff (included above in the first section of this guide).
Office of the Dean subject files
Spanning from 1908 to 1955, this collection documents the activities of the Office of the Dean, including case collection, distribution, and teaching.
Wallace Brett Donham cases and teaching files
This is a collection of cases that Dean Donham compiled, edited, and taught. It also includes some of Donham's lecture notes.
Visit HBS History to learn more about the HBS Archives and how to access collections.