From Inquiry to Action

Harvard Business School & The Case Method

On the left panel, a lecturer stands smiling in front of a blackboard, gesturing to their students. On the right, students in a lecture hall actively participate and take notes.

Since the 1920s, the case method has been the foundational teaching practice at Harvard Business School (HBS). Based on participant-centered learning, the instructional approach facilitates discussions about real-life problems encountered in business, to prepare students for roles as leaders, managers, and decision makers.

The case method encourages students to plan a course of inquiry—analyze, listen, compare other perspectives—and choose a course of action. For over 100 years, HBS has been an innovative leader in the development and refinement of teaching with the case method, helping to shape business education programs and business leaders around the world.

Students in a classroom

“While cases may look different in the future,” HBS Dean Srikant Datar observes, “the fundamental approach of discussion, debate, and deliberation will undoubtedly last into the next century.”1 Drawing on materials from the HBS Archives, From Inquiry to Action explores the introduction of the case method in the teaching of business administration and highlights the School’s early contributions that have led to the enduring influence of this participant-centered teaching practice.

100 Years of Case Method

Explore an illustrated timeline of 100 years of the Case Method at HBS.

Explore

In the Exhibition

  • Lawrence Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge Campus

    Business Education & The Case Method

    Founded in 1908, HBS was one of the country’s earliest graduate programs in business administration. Management as a profession—and the teaching of management—were new.

  • Women sit in rows at worktables with sewing machines. Some are looking at the camera, while others are looking at their work.

    The General Shoe Company, 1921

    The Bureau of Business Research was founded as the research division of HBS under Dean Gay. The Bureau’s first case study, "The General Shoe Company," examined the shoe industry in Massachusetts, a center of shoe manufacturing.

  • GE Distribution Transformer with a GE logo in the background

    Case Writing & Industry

    Early manuals for writing cases included procedures for undertaking the preliminary study, interviews with the company, preparation of materials, and writing of the case.

  • A classroom of young women sit attentively listening to a lecturer who stands before a table strewn with various papers.

    Expansion of the Case Method

    Reaching across Harvard, the program for women studying business, founded in 1937 as the Radcliffe Training Course in Personnel Administration, adopted case method teaching.

  • An empty lecture hall

    The Case Method Classroom

    Before 1953, the typical HBS classroom was configured as a lecture hall with the instructor standing in front of students who were seated in rows arranged in straight lines.

  • A woman stands and gazes out thoughtfully amidst a lecture hall of sitting students

    Teaching & The Case Method

    HBS cases average 10 to 20 pages of text followed by supporting exhibits of tables and illustrations. Students break into small groups to study cases and practice presenting their analyses.

  • A man stands before large bookshelves. He is reading a book that lies open in his hands.

    Impact on Research & Curriculum

    Over the years, HBS case research has fostered new areas of inquiry in ways that have deepened students’ and faculty understanding of complex business and management issues.

  • International Teachers Program participants on the steps of Baker Library.

    Global Reach

    Efforts by HBS to spread the teaching of case method instruction for the benefit of business education nationally led to the development of many of its international programs.

Resources

Supported by the de Gaspé Beaubien Family Endowment at Harvard Business School

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Researchers working at multiple tables in reading room
Man pointing to book bound in parchment
  1. Dean Srikant Datar in “Dean Datar Introduces the Case Method Centennial,” 2021.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1-K2nECTo. Accessed 2/2/22.back to text ↑