Degrees-of-Freedom Analysis of Case Data in Business Marketing Research

Abstract

A valuable, although little-used, case data analysis technique, Degrees of Freedom Analysis, is the subject of this article. Given the richness of case data and its prevalence in business marketing research, Degrees of Freedom Analysis has the potential to become an important addition to one’s “research workbench.” The technique, first proposed by Donald Campbell (Campbell, Donald, T.: “Degrees of Freedom” and the Case Study. Comparative Political Studies, 8, 178–193 [1975]), is described. Three business marketing applications are presented; the first two involve use of the technique to compare the extent to which four theories of group decision making are manifested in organizations. The third application illustrates how the technique can be used for theory development in the context of manufacturer–distributor relationships. Our contribution is in demonstrating how researchers can link “traditional” (i.e., logical positivistic) hypothesis testing procedures to examine theoretical propositions in case study research. This approach is one way of achieving a critical test (Carlsmith, J. Merrill, Ellsworth, Phoebe C., and Aronson, Elliot: Methods of Research in Social Psychology. Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA, 1976]), that is, testing the relative empirical strengths of competing theories. Our applications highlight the value of generalizing case data to theory versus the inappropriate attempt to generalize such data to a population (Yin, Robert K.: Case Study Research Design and Methods, second edition. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1994). The explication and demonstration of this technique is not available elsewhere to the degree provided here.