Do modern students need traditional business cases?

Abstract

The paper discusses possibilities and problems of using traditional business cases under modern conditions of the information society and a new generation of students. The authors revealed the concepts of the traditional case method and the traditional case, defined the specifics of the algorithm for their development and application to the teaching process. The key directions of the critique of traditional cases are investigated based on their comparative analysis with such a type of cases as ‘live’ cases. The authors presented an analysis of the results of field explanatory research identifying the attitude of bachelor’s, master’s and EMBA programs students of the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University to the use of traditional teaching cases in the learning process. A number of propositions were formulated concerning the readiness of students to approve the format of a traditional case, their ideas about cases of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ quality. The factors contributing to the successful application of traditional cases to the educational process were studied. They include: 1) involvement in the case study process; 2) requirements for skills development of both teachers and case study participants who were part of the study group; 3) the analysis of satisfaction with the case method. Propositions were formulated regarding the characteristics of perception of the traditional case method by bachelor’s, master’s and EMBA programs students, and their expectations from the use of the case method in the educational process were revealed. The authors recognized the reasonable formulation of the propositions that the traditional case fully retains its relevance and its further use makes for a significant increase in the requirements of students for the quality of the cases.