By Matteo Tranchero, Haas School of Business
Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024
Case-based teaching is the primary pedagogical approach used in postgraduate business education. Most classes in the Master of Business Administration (MBA) involve the in-class discussion of case studies based on real-world situations where managers must make complex decisions. One of the primary advantages of case-based learning is that students develop practical experience in dealing with business problems. This approach allows students to exercise critical thinking, which is essential for success in the professional world. However, case-based learning suffers from a major drawback. One of the primary challenges with this approach is that it can be difficult to map abstract theoretical constructs into cases and vice versa, particularly since students might struggle to extrapolate general lessons from specific cases filled with numbers and details. This task is arduous because learning from applied case experience requires students to develop what I call “the ability to make inferences from samples of one.” The instructor’s critical job is to ensure that students never lose the bigger picture, helping them to translate concrete examples into general lessons.
However, relating the concrete details of a case to an abstract framework remains an arduous task in and of itself. Indeed, students who attend business classes based on case teaching often end up developing a shallow understanding of the underlying theories and a limited ability to apply them to new situations. In my experience, these problems tend to emerge in the final exams (to much dismay of both the grader and the students themselves). When faced with a new case, students tend to try to guess which particular theoretical constructs apply to a given context rather than using the frameworks as analytical tools to analyze the situation at hand. This challenge is particularly salient in my class because students learn a set of potential entrepreneurial strategies. I have noticed that students forget that the point is precisely using those strategies as ideal types that function as applied tools, not the contrary – that is, trying to fit the situation into the framework and “guessing correctly” which strategy to use.
To address this challenge, I have started organizing sections where I explicitly spend time teaching students how to apply theoretical constructs to case studies instead of introducing novel content. This is done by solving cases together and showing the class how the emphasis is on the argumentative logic used to analyze the situation rather than guessing the correct answer. I also make explicit in those meetings that the final exam grade will purely depend on the logical application of class concepts: any potential strategy could be the correct answer as long as it is used to illuminate essential aspects of the case that allow informing better decisions. After the section, students become aware that rather than trying to force-fit the situation into any framework, they should use it to structure the complexity of the world without becoming vested in any of them.
The benefits of this approach are numerous. In my evaluations, students reported feeling less anxious and more confident before the exam. I also noticed that they were asking fewer questions during the exam. Not surprisingly, the average quality of the exams has grown – and my ratings have as well! In sum, several qualitative and quantitative indicators suggest that a deeper focus on applying management constructs to business cases can improve the pedagogical experience of MBA students. After this experience, I am even more convinced that a better connection between theoretical frameworks and case-based learning can help educators prepare future business leaders to handle the multifaceted reality of managing organizations.