A note of some practical advices to MBA students doing a secondary research on case study

A note of some practical advices to MBA students doing a secondary research on case study

One of the difficulties faced by some of my Hong Kong part-time MBA students is that they find it difficult to conduct case study research, as they might not know the corporate gatekeepers on client organizations related to their dissertation works. In this regard, they would consider conducting a secondary research method of case studies. Could you offer 4 advices how they could gather useful case study materials from the Internet or other sources. For example, if an MBA student intends to study companies in Hong Kong that offer pet services (case 1) and Hong Kong companies that Chinese restaurants (case 2), could you suggest how they could gather useful information for case study purpose?

Here are four concrete, “teachable” approaches you can pass to your students, using your two examples (HK pet services and Chinese restaurants) to illustrate what secondary case-study research can look like in practice.

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1. Use published business / academic cases and journal articles

Students can treat published cases and empirical articles as their case data (rather than trying to access the company directly). These often contain rich descriptions of strategy, operations, customer segments, governance, and performance.hkpl.gov+1

• Guide them to business databases available via HK universities or the HK Public Libraries (e.g. Business Source Complete) where they can access company profiles, case studies, SWOT analyses, industry and market reports.hkpl.gov
• For Chinese restaurant cases, they can look for Hong Kong restaurant case studies in Asian case clearing houses (e.g. SMU, HKU, CUHK). For example, there is a well‑known case on Yung Kee Restaurant in Hong Kong focusing on governance and family business issues; students can repurpose this as a core or comparative case if relevant to their topics.ink.library.smu.edu

For your pet-services example, they could similarly search for “pet economy” and “pet-friendly shopping centres” in Hong Kong in academic or professional reports (e.g. case-based studies on pet-friendly malls or pet-related brands).hub.hku+1

Question for your students: If you adopt a published case as your core case, which parts of the case (context, decision problem, data tables, quotes) would you systematically code or extract for your own research questions?

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2. Mine industry and regulatory reports, trade bodies, and NGOs

A second stream of secondary case data comes from industry reports, regulators, professional bodies, and consumer councils. These often include mini-cases, complaint narratives, and market overviews.consumer.org+2

• For pet services: students can use Hong Kong Consumer Council complaint summaries on pet-related services (relocation, grooming, pet shops) as rich qualitative episodes of service failure, trust issues, and customer experience. They can combine this with market reports such as the Hong Kong pet food market report to understand the industry context, market size, growth, and key players.consumer.org+1
• For Chinese restaurants: they can use resources from bodies like the Hong Kong Business Ethics Development Centre, which publishes catering-industry case studies linked to ethics, staff conduct, and management practices. These are often structured as narrative cases with background, incident, and lessons learned—ideal for secondary case analysis.hkbedc.icac

Encourage students to treat each report section, vignette, or complaint as a “micro‑case” that can be coded thematically (e.g. service quality, ethics, process design) and then grouped into patterns.

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3. Systematically use company websites, news, and social media as case data

Students often look at websites and news casually, but for dissertation work they need systematic procedures to turn open information into rigorous case material.numberanalytics

• Pet service companies (case 1): identify 3–5 focal firms (e.g. grooming chains, pet relocation firms, veterinary clinic groups, pet-friendly malls). For each, students can systematically collect:
• Website content (value propositions, service menus, pricing logic, brand positioning)
• Social media (Facebook, IG, Xiaohongshu) for posts, customer comments, and campaign examples
• News articles about incidents, expansions, partnerships, or controversies
• Chinese restaurants (case 2): select a portfolio of Chinese restaurants (mid-range chains, high-end icons, local cha chaan teng brands). For each:
• Analyze menu design, positioning, and pricing on websites or delivery apps
• Gather reviews and customer narratives from platforms (e.g. OpenRice, Google Reviews) as qualitative data on perceived service, ambience, and authenticity
• Collect news features, award write-ups, or interviews with founders/chefs as “elite” secondary data

What makes this academic is that students predefine coding categories (e.g. service innovation, customer value proposition, digitalization) and then systematically code the textual and visual data, rather than cherry‑picking interesting pieces.josephho33.blogspot+1

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4. Leverage databases, case portals, and local government or association resources

Students often underuse institutional resources that can anchor very solid secondary case work.hkpl.gov+2

• University / public library databases: in addition to journal and case databases, these often provide access to company profiles, financials, trade news, and industry statistics for Hong Kong SMEs.hkpl.gov+1
• Government and quasi‑government sources: departments or councils sometimes commission research or publish case-like stories on local sectors such as catering and pet-related businesses, or the “pet economy” more broadly, which can be treated as contextual or comparative case material.hkfederation.org+2
• B2B databases and directories: tools and directories that list Hong Kong businesses (even basic ones) can help students define a sampling frame (e.g. all registered pet grooming firms in a district, or all Chinese restaurants of a certain type), from which they can pick focal cases for secondary analysis.syncgtm

For teaching purposes, you might have them design a short “data collection protocol” for one industry (e.g. pet grooming) that specifies which databases and websites they will use, what variables they will extract (e.g. location, service scope, price level, positioning), and how this supports their case-study research questions.josephho33.blogspot+1

A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.