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Business Case Studies

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Free Case Studies

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Many academic and business institutions develop and publish case studies. Some of these organizations provide free access to their case studies:

• Acadia Institute of Case Studies Focuses on entrepreneurship and small business operations.
• Business Case Studies by Company
• Business Ethics Case Analyses
• Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety: Workplace Health Case Studies
• Case Centre Available for a fee.
• Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Case Studies
• Give to Get Marketing. Marketing and Advertising Case Studies
• HR Open Source Case Studies
• MarketingSherpa Choose "Case Studies" as the content type in the filters.
• MaRS Search for "case study" in the top right search box.
• MERLOT Business Cases
• MIT LearningEdge Case Studies Free case studies by MIT Sloan School of Management.
• Penske. Logistics Case Studies
• Society of Human Resources Management.
• Open Case Studies Project by UBC The Open Case Studies project at UBC brings together faculty and students from different disciplines to write, edit, and learn with case studies that are free and open.
• World's Best Case Studies Short video case studies covering topics including consumer goods, services, and technology.
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• Last Updated: Jan 17, 2024 11:02 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ubc.ca/businesscases

• Library Catalogue

Finding case studies

On this page, introduction, finding cases, sample cases, developing and analysing cases.

"Case studies" can mean examples from organizations provided simply to illustrate a point or descriptions of organizational situations designed to be interpreted and analyzed by a learner. The resources below provide a mix of all types of case studies.

This guide also includes some resources that will be of more use to students (e.g., the tips on finding case studies in databases) and other resources that instructors will find useful (e.g., the links to case clearinghouses).

If you don't find what you need here, don't hesitate to ask for help .

  New!  We've recently added another 600+ new cases to our Sage Business Cases resource! 

Try searching the SFU Library catalogue  and include ( case study OR case studies OR cases ) as part of your search. Check out these sample searches:

("case study" OR "case studies" OR cases) AND "organizational behavior"

("case study" OR "case studies" OR cases) AND "strategic management"

("case study" OR "case studies" OR cases) AND "project management"

Also try an Advanced Search  in which you look for case studies in the Subject field, combined with your specific need (entrepreneurship? strategy?) as a Keyword. Add case* in the Title field as well to increase your chance of getting books that contain large numbers of cases. You can also start by  searching for books that have cases in the title AND " case studies" in the subject .

In the SFU Library catalogue, try searching for theses & graduating projects by SFU Business students. Such publications often involve specific case studies. Try searching the catalogue  again, but this time combine the word theses (plural) with your topic. See these sample searches for example theses AND "electronic commerce"  // theses AND "electronic arts" .  Also, try Dissertations and Theses Abstracts and Index  for theses completed elsewhere. See our guide to Finding University Theses and Projects from Simon Fraser and Other Universities for more suggestions.

• In Business Source Complete enter your search terms, then either check off the Document Type Case study or include the Subject Case studies as part of your search.
• CBCA Fulltext Business offers similar ways of finding case studies: either choose the Document Type (click on More Search Options) Case study or include the Subject Case studies as part of your search.
• See the Sample cases area below for some specific journals focusing on business cases.

Websites & databases

Most cases sold by places such as Harvard or the Richard Ivey School of Business are not available via the library. You usually need to pay for the cases if you are not a faculty member, or if you are a faculty member and you want to assign cases in your class. If you are a student and a case has been assigned as a reading in your class, double check with your instructor to see if the case might have been pre-purchased for all members of your class.

Sage Business Cases A global and diverse collection of case studies designed to help students see theoretical business concepts put into practice. This collection is available to all SFU students, instructors, and alumni. See this blog post for further details.

Harvard Business School Cases Harvard's cases are available for direct purchase from the HBR Store .  Qualified and registered instructors  can access Harvard's Educator site to preview cases and access Teaching Notes and other supporting materials. Also see below for a discussion on how to find a small number of HBS cases in the Harvard Business Review.

The Case Centre (formerly the European Case Clearing House) "[T]he largest single source . . . of management case studies in the world. We hold and distribute all cases produced by the world's best-known management teaching establishments, as well as case studies in many languages produced by individual authors from almost every corner of the globe." Search for a case, then click on the link for an "inspection copy" (if available) and follow the links to register as a faculty member.

Richard Ivey School of Business - Cases Faculty can register to preview cases. Note that we have several books in the Ivey Casebook Series .

Cases online via the Harvard Business Review 

Try searching for Harvard Business Review in the Publication Name field in Business Source Complete, then checking the box to limit your search to the Document Type " case study."  Add in other terms to focus your search. 

Note that only a very small subset of all Harvard Business School (HBS) cases are published in the HBR.  The majority of Harvard's business cases are sold only to individuals and classes, not to libraries for use by the entire institution.

Journals that feature case studies

• Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases : provides "suitable, contemporary case materials for teaching topics in the organisation and management of information systems and on the social consequences of information technology." Note that this is a spin-off journal from the Journal of Information Technology which used to publish such cases. 
• International Journal of Case Studies in Management : Cases from 2003-2012 available via our CBCA database.
• International Journal of Management Cases : The IJMC is the official journal of the CIRCLE Research Centre. CIRCLE (Centre for International Research Consumers, Locations and their Environments) is a virtual research group in over 70 universities.
• Allied Academies International Conference: Proceedings of the International Academy for Case Studies (IACS)
• Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies : Presents classroom teaching cases, with instructor's notes, on any subject which might be taught in a Business School.
• Business Case Journal , Journal of Critical Incidents , and Journal of Case Studies : All from the Society for Case Research
• Asian Case Research Journal : Cases on Asian companies & MNCs operating in Asia-Pacific. No access to the most recent 12 months.
• Journal of Case Research in Business & Economics

Other online sources for cases

• CaseBase & CaseBase2: Case Studies in Global Business : Covers business case studies focused on issues in emerging markets and emerging industries across the globe.
• Business Ethics Case Studies : A few cases from Business Ethics Canada - St. Mary's University
• The Case Centre (formerly the European Case Clearinghouse) offers a selection of free cases .
• Business Gateway : Case studies from Scotland on starting and running a small business.
• The Times 100 : Free business case studies on real life companies. 
• Acadia Institute of Case Studies (Acadia University): Most studies are focused on small business and entrepreneurship and include teaching notes. Some of them even include short videos. Permission is granted for educational use. Note that the AICS site appears to be currently inaccessible, so we've linked to the Web Archive version of their site as of late 2019.
• Company-specific case studies: Intended as examples of how customers have used or could use their products: IBM , Intel , and LANSA .
• Advertising Educational Foundation: Case histories : "Case histories give you an inside look at the steps advertising agencies and advertisers take to create a campaign and how effective it can be. Case histories show the preceding issue/problem, the response and the outcome. Creative is included."
• MarketLine cases in Business Source : Mostly strategic analysis cases featuring large, global companies.
• Open Case Studies : An interdisciplinary collection of cases from UBC that are licensed to allow others to revise and reuse them. Very few of the cases are explicitly categorized as "business," but many of the cases on topics such as Conservation may be useful in a business context.

  An example of case analysis that might give you a sense of what's expected/possible: 

In 1989, the journal Interfaces published an HBS case and asked its readers to submit their analyses. Those analyses were then compiled into two subsequent articles, providing a useful example of the many ways business issues could be viewed and resolved.

Initial case : Porteus, E. L. (1989). The Case Analysis Section: National Cranberry Cooperative . Interfaces, 19 (6), 29–39. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1287/inte.19.6.29 (Note: this case has been revised multiple times. If it is assigned in your class, make sure you are using the most current revision, mostly likely only available via HBS.)

Analyses:  #1: Porteus, E. L. (1993). Case Analysis: Analyses of the National Cranberry Cooperative -- 1. Tactical Options . Interfaces, 23 (4), 21–39. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1287/inte.23.4.21

#2: Porteus, E. L. (1993). Case Analysis: Analyses of the National Cranberry Cooperative -- 2. Environmental Changes and Implementation . Interfaces, 23 (6), 81–92. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1287/inte.23.6.81

• Rotterdam School of Management: CDC Case Writing Training Material Valuable advice to aspiring case writers via a 4-part series in our Sage Business Cases database.
• Why teach with cases? : reflections on philosophy and practice (2022 ebook)
• The ultimate guide to compact cases : case research, writing, and teaching   (2022 ebook)
• Writing, Teaching, and Using Cases : A January 2014 presentation by Leyland Pitt and Michael Parent (both of SFU). Michael and Leyland led a full-day workshop with a focus on case teaching.
• The case writing workbook : a guide for faculty and students : "Designed as an individualized workshop to assist case authors to structure their writing..."
• Guide for Contributors: Tips for Writing Cases : From the publishers of our SAGE Business Cases (SBC) database. Also see the SBC's  Author Guidelines .
• Learning Effectively with Case Studies: A Conversation between a Professor and a Former MBA Student
• The case study companion : teaching, learning and writing business case studies : All angles in one recent (2021) ebook!
• The Case Writer's Toolkit :  "... to help writers visualise concepts, signpost ideas, break down complex information and apply techniques in a practical manner."
• A Brief Guide to Case Teaching : A free guide from The Case Centre
• Teaching with Cases : A Practical Guide : "... focuses on practical advice for instructors that can be easily implemented. It covers how to plan a course, how to teach it, and how to evaluate it."
• Teaching & Authoring Tools : Part of the Ivey Cases site, this page offers documents and videos to help you create your own cases, as well as lists of additional resources.
• Application of a Case Study Methodology by Winston Tellis: (The Qualitative Report, Volume 3, Number 3, September, 1997). This academic article covers the social science methodologies involved in designing, conducting and analysing a case study. It also features a detailed bibliography.
• The Art and Craft of Case Writing (3rd ed. 2012): "[A] practical, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary guide that blends an informal, workshop-style with solid theory and practice." Includes a section on video, multimedia, and Internet cases.
• Basics of Developing Case Studies : Part of the Free Management Library , this site has some basic information on how to develop a case study, as well as links to some sample cases.
• A Guide to Case Analysis : Focus is on how to analyse company cases when learning strategic management techniques. (Depending on your browser settings, you may need to right click this link and open it in a new tab or download it.)
• Case Studies: Overview  (from Cengage): Covers both analysing and writing a case study from the perspective of a business student. From the same publisher: A student's guide to analysing case studies .
• Case Analysis Guide : Developed by a publisher to support students using a Strategic Management text, but applicable in many other situations.
• Short videos on how to approach a case study by the author of the Case Study Handbook: A Student's Guide
• Videos: What is the Case Method? : from The Case Centre

Also, try the subject heading " Case method " in the SFU Library catalogue for books on using the case method in your classes. Suggested sample case method books:

• Encyclopedia of case study research ( print )
• Case study research: design and methods (4th edition, 2009; print )
• Case study research: principles and practices ( online or  print )
• Case writing for executive education: a survival guide ( print )

You might also want to try checking an index of education articles such as ERIC : start with the subject heading (or Descriptor) Case Method (Teaching Technique) .  Alternatively, try our Education Source database using Case method (Teaching) as your subject search term. 

• All Headlines

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

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HBS Case Selections

OpenAI: Idealism Meets Capitalism

• Shikhar Ghosh
• Shweta Bagai

Generative AI and the Future of Work

• Christopher Stanton
• Matt Higgins

Copilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub

• Frank Nagle
• Shane Greenstein
• Maria P. Roche
• Nataliya Langburd Wright
• Sarah Mehta

Innovation at Moog Inc.

• Brian J. Hall
• Ashley V. Whillans
• Davis Heniford
• Dominika Randle
• Caroline Witten

Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)

• Linda A. Hill
• Emily Tedards

Juan Valdez: Innovation in Caffeination

• Michael I. Norton
• Jeremy Dann

UGG Steps into the Metaverse

• Shunyuan Zhang
• Sharon Joseph
• Sunil Gupta
• Julia Kelley

Metaverse Wars

• David B. Yoffie

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

• Ayelet Israeli
• Nicole Tempest Keller

Timnit Gebru: "SILENCED No More" on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

• Tsedal Neeley
• Stefani Ruper

Hugging Face: Serving AI on a Platform

• Kerry Herman
• Sarah Gulick

SmartOne: Building an AI Data Business

• Karim R. Lakhani
• Pippa Tubman Armerding
• Gamze Yucaoglu
• Fares Khrais

Honeywell and the Great Recession (A)

• Sandra J. Sucher
• Susan Winterberg

Target: Responding to the Recession

• Ranjay Gulati
• Catherine Ross
• Richard S. Ruback
• Royce Yudkoff

Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation

• Julian De Freitas
• Jeremy Yang
• Das Narayandas

Elon Musk's Big Bets

• Eric Baldwin

Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

Tesla's ceo compensation plan.

• Krishna G. Palepu
• John R. Wells
• Gabriel Ellsworth

China Rapid Finance: The Collapse of China's P2P Lending Industry

• William C. Kirby
• Bonnie Yining Cao
• John P. McHugh

Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China

• Christopher A. Bartlett
• Carole Carlson

Booking.com

• Stefan Thomke
• Daniela Beyersdorfer

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

• Chiara Farronato
• Alan MacCormack

Racial Discrimination on Airbnb (A)

• Michael Luca
• Scott Stern
• Hyunjin Kim

Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

• William R. Kerr
• Emilie Billaud
• Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

• Joseph B. Fuller
• Carl Kreitzberg

Leading Change in Talent at L'Oreal

• Lakshmi Ramarajan
• Vincent Dessain
• Emer Moloney
• William W. George
• Andrew N. McLean

Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee

• Steven S. Rogers
• Alterrell Mills

United Housing - Otis Gates

• Mercer Cook

The Home Depot: Leadership in Crisis Management

• Herman B. Leonard
• Marc J. Epstein
• Melissa Tritter

The Great East Japan Earthquake (B): Fast Retailing Group's Response

• Hirotaka Takeuchi
• Kenichi Nonomura
• Dena Neuenschwander
• Meghan Ricci
• Kate Schoch
• Sergey Vartanov

Insurer of Last Resort?: The Federal Financial Response to September 11

• David A. Moss
• Sarah Brennan

Under Armour

• Rory McDonald
• Clayton M. Christensen
• Daniel West
• Jonathan E. Palmer
• Tonia Junker

Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth

• John A. Quelch
• James T. Kindley

Bitfury: Blockchain for Government

• Mitchell B. Weiss
• Elena Corsi

Deutsche Bank: Pursuing Blockchain Opportunities (A)

• Lynda M. Applegate
• Christoph Muller-Bloch

Maersk: Betting on Blockchain

• Scott Johnson

Yum! Brands

• Jordan Siegel
• Christopher Poliquin

Bharti Airtel in Africa

• Tanya Bijlani

Li & Fung 2012

• F. Warren McFarlan
• Michael Shih-ta Chen
• Keith Chi-ho Wong

Sony and the JK Wedding Dance

• John Deighton
• Leora Kornfeld

United Breaks Guitars

David dao on united airlines.

• Benjamin Edelman
• Jenny Sanford

Marketing Reading: Digital Marketing

• Joseph Davin

Social Strategy at Nike

• Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
• Ryan Johnson

The Tate's Digital Transformation

Social strategy at american express, mellon financial and the bank of new york.

• Carliss Y. Baldwin
• Ryan D. Taliaferro

The Walt Disney Company and Pixar, Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

• Juan Alcacer
• David J. Collis

Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas

• Benjamin C. Esty

Finance Reading: The Mergers and Acquisitions Process

• John Coates

Apple: Privacy vs. Safety? (A)

• Henry W. McGee
• Nien-he Hsieh
• Sarah McAra

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

• Leslie K. John

Data Breach at Equifax

• Suraj Srinivasan
• Quinn Pitcher
• Jonah S. Goldberg

Apple's Core

• Noam Wasserman

Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple

• Barbara Feinberg

Apple Inc. in 2012

• Penelope Rossano

Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization (Abridged)

• Anthony J. Mayo
• Dana M. Teppert

Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit

• Boris Groysberg
• Nitin Nohria
• Deborah Bell

Adobe Systems: Working Towards a "Suite" Release (A)

• David A. Thomas
• Lauren Barley

Home Nursing of North Carolina

Castronics, llc, gemini investors, angie's list: ratings pioneer turns 20.

• Robert J. Dolan

Basecamp: Pricing

• Frank V. Cespedes
• Robb Fitzsimmons

J.C. Penney's "Fair and Square" Pricing Strategy

J.c. penney's 'fair and square' strategy (c): back to the future.

• Jose B. Alvarez

Osaro: Picking the best path

• James Palano
• Bastiane Huang

HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM

• Thomas Steenburgh

GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence

• Ethan S. Bernstein
• Paul D. McKinnon
• Paul Yarabe

Arup: Building the Water Cube

• Robert G. Eccles
• Amy C. Edmondson
• Dilyana Karadzhova

(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek

Managing a global team: greg james at sun microsystems, inc. (a).

• Thomas J. DeLong

Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Global Teams

Ron ventura at mitchell memorial hospital.

• Heide Abelli

Anthony Starks at InSiL Therapeutics (A)

• Gary P. Pisano
• Vicki L. Sato

Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)

• John J. Gabarro

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital

• Timothy A. Luehrman
• Joel L. Heilprin

Globalizing the Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting at AES

• Mihir A. Desai
• Doug Schillinger

Cost of Capital at Ameritrade

• Mark Mitchell
• Erik Stafford

Finance Reading: Cost of Capital

David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (A)

• Matthew D. Breitfelder

Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School

• Scott A. Snook
• Bradley C. Lawrence

Shapiro Global

• Michael Brookshire
• Monica Haugen
• Michelle Kravetz
• Sarah Sommer

Kathryn McNeil (A)

• Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.
• Jerry Useem

Carol Fishman Cohen: Professional Career Reentry (A)

• Myra M. Hart
• Robin J. Ely
• Susan Wojewoda

Alex Montana at ESH Manufacturing Co.

• Michael Kernish

Michelle Levene (A)

• Tiziana Casciaro
• Victoria W. Winston

John and Andrea Rice: Entrepreneurship and Life

• Howard H. Stevenson
• Janet Kraus
• Shirley M. Spence

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Business Case Studies

Open access cases.

• Getting Started
• Harvard Business School Cases
• Diverse Business Cases
• Databases with Cases
• Journals with Cases
• Books with Cases
• Case Analysis
• Case Interviews
• Case Method (Teaching)
• Writing Case Studies
• Citing Business Sources

A number of universities and organizations provide access to free business case studies.  Below are some of the best known sources.

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• Next: Case Analysis >>
• Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 10:02 AM
• URL: https://library.bu.edu/business-case-studies

Prepare your students to navigate business challenges by immersing them in real-world scenarios.

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Bring excitement into your classroom with engaging case discussions and introduce students to the challenge and fun of making important decisions.

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Help students learn by doing with over 50,000+ cases featuring real-world business scenarios spanning across multiple areas of business.

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Student build confidence and critical thinking skills while learning to express their ideas and convince others, setting them up for success in the real world.

Explore Different Types of Cases

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Quickly immerse students in focused and engaging business dilemmas. No student prep time required.

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Case Teaching Seminar

Register now for our Teaching with Cases Seminar at Harvard Business School, held June 21 - 22 . Learn how to lead case discussions like a pro and earn a certificate from Harvard Business Publishing.

Fundamentals of Case Teaching

Our new, self-paced, online course guides you through the fundamentals for leading successful case discussions at any course level.

Case Companion: Build Students’ Confidence in Case Analysis

Case Companion is an engaging and interactive introduction to case study analysis that is ideal for undergraduates or any student new to learning with cases.

Discover Trending Cases

Stay up to date on cases from leading business schools.

Discover new ideas for your courses

Course Explorer lets you browse learning materials by topic, curated by our editors, partners, and faculty from leading business schools. 

Teach with Cases

Explore resources designed to help you bring the case method into your classroom.

Inspiring Minds Articles on Case Teaching

Insights from leading educators about teaching with the case method.

Book: Teaching with Cases: A Practical Guide

A book featuring practical advice for instructors on managing class discussion to maximize learning.

Webinar: How ChatGPT and Other AI Tools Can Maximize the Learning Potential of Your Case-Based Classes

Register now.

Supplements: Inside the Case

Teaching tips and insights from case authors.

Guide: Teaching Cases Online

A guide for experienced educators who are new to online case teaching.

Educator Training: Selecting Cases to Use in Your Classes

Find the right materials to achieve your learning goals.

Educator Training: Teaching with Cases

Key strategies and practical advice for engaging students using the case method.

Frequently Asked Questions

What support can I offer my students around analyzing cases and preparing for discussion?

Case discussions can be a big departure from the norm for students who are used to lecture-based classes. The Case Analysis Coach is an interactive tutorial on reading and analyzing a case study. The Case Study Handbook covers key skills students need to read, understand, discuss and write about cases. The Case Study Handbook is also available as individual chapters to help your students focus on specific skills.

How can I transfer my in-person case teaching plan to an online environment?

The case method can be used in an online environment without sacrificing its benefits. We have compiled a few resources to help you create transformative online learning experiences with the case method. Learn how HBS brought the case method online in this podcast , gather some quick guidance from the article " How to Teach Any Case Online ", review the Teaching Cases Online Guide for a deep dive, and check out our Teaching Online Resources Page for more insights and inspiration.

After 35 years as an academic, I have come to the conclusion that there is a magic in the way Harvard cases are written. Cases go from specific to general, to show students that business situations are amenable to hard headed analysis that then generalize to larger theoretical insights. The students love it! Akshay Rao Professor, General Mills Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota

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Case Studies

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Where Can I find Harvard Business School Case Studies?

How do i find articles with case studies, where can i find free case studies, subject specialists.

Harvard Business Publishing makes a great deal of money selling these for business school course packs and will not make them available to libraries. You can, however, order them directly from HBS, around $8.95 each How to find them:

• Harvard Business Review publishes one case study per issue. These generally deal with fictitious companies but are very good studies of current problems faced by companies.
• Harvard Business School Publishing Search by company name or topic. Abstracts are usually included. Harvard also sells cases from Babson College and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, among others.

Use keyword searches in article databases . For example: "case studies and airlines" or "case  studies and management". Full-text articles and abstracts are available, depending on the journal.

Tip: Use the subject heading "case studies" in ABI/INFORM and Business Source Complete

Article database that indexes academic journals, trade publications, newspapers and magazines in business and economics. Full text is often available. Use the FindIt links to locate full text of articles that are not included in the database.

• Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window & more less... Article database that includes trade publications, academic journals, industry profiles, country information and company profiles, which include SWOT analyses. Full text is often available. Use the FindIt links to locate full text of articles that are not included in the database.
• EconLit with Full Text This link opens in a new window & more less... EconLit indexes articles from economics journals, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers. It is a very good source for empirical studies on economics and finance. Use the FindIt links to locate full text of articles that are not included in the database.

Most cases published for teaching in business schools are not free to use. These are a few resources that do offer free cases, but only LearningEdge offers their entire catalog for free.

• LearningEdge Cases developed at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
• Free cases from Stanford Graduate School of Business More are available for purchase through Harvard Business School Publishing
• Free cases from the Case Centre A selection of cases. Many more available for purchase
• Subjects: Business
• Tags: harvard
• Updated: Sep 6, 2023 3:16 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/case_studies
• Report a problem
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Free cases from The Case Centre

As a useful resource for case teachers, and to encourage the growth in case use, The Case Centre partnered with a group of leading business schools to provide this collection of ten free cases.

Search our full collection of diverse management cases, articles, book chapters and teaching materials from leading authors, schools and publishers worldwide.

Educators and trainers can also access free online preview copies and instructor materials.

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The easiest way to write a case study is to get started with a template. This provides you with a pre-set cover page and table of contents; a variety of page layouts to work with; and a picture of how to organize content, add designs and break up text. A case study is not a technical document that needs to be structured in a specific and formal way. You can get creative but focus on making your content clear and easy to understand.

What's an example of a case study?

Case studies, in business and marketing, are stories of success achieved through a product or service. The product can even be a strategy or framework that was pioneered by an industry thought leader. Many brands publish case studies on their website to share how their clients see tremendous value in using their products. The case study essentially chronicles the entire client journey from having a problem, to finding the solution, and the outcome of that solution.

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Case Studies: Finding Case Studies

• What are Case Studies?
• Finding Case Studies
• In Journal Articles
• How to analyse a case study
• Major Case Study Providers
• Irish companies
• Teaching with Case Studies

Free Case Studies online

• Journal of Business Case Studies
• The New York Times Small Business Case Studies
• Yale School of Management

• MarketLine This link opens in a new window Country, industry and company profiles. Formerly known as Datamonitor.

Search the Library Catalogue

Business ethics.

• Arthur Andersen Business Ethics Case Studies
• << Previous: What are Case Studies?
• Next: In Journal Articles >>
• Last Updated: Mar 1, 2024 2:05 PM
• URL: https://ait.libguides.com/casestudies

Business Case Studies

• Article Databases for Case Studies
• Case Study Database

Commercial sites to purchase cases

Free case study websites.

• For Faculty: Teaching with Cases
• For Students: Writing a Case Analysis

Business & Management Librarian

Commercial cases, like those from Harvard Business School, Ivey and others:

• a copy of the case is to be purchased by/for each student in a class
• like workbooks and other consumables, may not be copied under copyright "fair use"
• the library cannot purchase or get copies on interlibrary loan (ILL)
• Webster University faculty wishing to use commercial cases should check with their College or School on the home campus or with staff at their extended campus about the procedures for student purchasing.  

Case studies used in the classroom, which we at the library call the "case study method" of educational pedagogy, usually present the case facts and, rather than provide the solution, provide alternative solutions and/or questions to lead discussion or challenge students to apply theories learned in their course. Commercial publishers often provide faculty with teaching notes and other resources to facilitate student learning.  Faculty may be required to register for an account that allows them to access the publisher's website to identify and purchase cases for classroom use.

• The Case Centre Established by European higher education institutions as a "reliable facility for sharing case materials among business teachers."
• Darden Business Publishing University of Virginia
• Harvard Business Publishing: Education Harvard also partners with business schools and universities, such as Ivey, Kellogg, Standford, Thunderbird and more, to streamline searching and distribution of their cases.
• Ivey Publishing - Ivey Business School Provides "business case studies with a global perspective."
• Stanford Graduate School of Business: Case Studies:

Some organizations offer "free" case studies and materials for idea generation. These sites provide varying degrees of teaching support. Faculty may need to register for access to teaching notes and materials.

• Case Studies | Teaching Resources Library | MIT Sloan Free case studies from MIT Sloan School of Management in categories such as accounting and finance, leadership, operations management, strategy and more.
• Ethics Cases | Markkula Center for Applied Ethics This site from Santa Clara University provides ethics cases in business, government, leadership, ESG topics, etc.
• Ethics Unwrapped Case studies, curated resources, and videos from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin.
• Knowledge at Wharton Offers free access to over 10,000 articles and podcasts and videos highlighting Wharton faculty research and analysis of current business trends.
• Merlot OER Case Studies Merlot collects Open Educational Resources. This link is a search for business case materials that may be used for free.
• SHRM Teaching Resources "SHRM is committed to empowering HR faculty with the proper tools and resources needed to create better-prepared entry level HR candidates. These case studies and learning modules are available for faculty and educator use only."
• << Previous: Case Study Database
• Next: For Faculty: Teaching with Cases >>
• Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 10:54 AM
• URL: https://library.webster.edu/businesscasestudies

A Guide to Multisite Qualitative Analysis

Affiliations.

• 1 1 The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• 2 2 University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
• PMID: 30024317
• DOI: 10.1177/1049732318786703

The aims of multisite qualitative research, originally developed within the case study tradition, are to produce findings that are reflective of context, while also holding broader applicability across settings. Such knowledge is ideal for informing health and social interventions by overcoming the limitations of research developed through methodological approaches that either "strip" context, or that hold relevance for a site-specific group or population. Yet, despite the potential benefits of multisite qualitative research, there is a paucity of analytical guidance to support researchers in achieving these yields. In this article, we present an analytical approach for conducting multisite qualitative analysis (MSQA) across various methodologies to maximize the potential of qualitative research, enhance rigor, and support the development of interventions that are tailored to the populations that they are intended to serve.

Keywords: Canada; analytical approaches; applicability; data analysis; health interventions; multisite qualitative research; qualitative.

Publication types

• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
• Anthropology, Cultural
• British Columbia
• Health Services Research / methods*
• Multicenter Studies as Topic / methods*
• Qualitative Research*
• Research Design*

Case Studies: Websites

• Getting Started
• Harvard (HBR) Case Studies
• Free Case Studies

Case Depositories

Can't find case studies in the business library resources.

Try these websites. Note, not all case studies are free. Access to case studies may require purchase, creation of an account, or direct contact with the publisher.

Search these journals online:

• International Journal of Case Studies in Management
• Journal of Case Research in Business and Economics
• Journal of Business Case Studies
• InterLibrary Loan (ILL) request Can't access the full-text? Try requesting the title of a case study using Interlibrary Loan.

Search these case depositories:

• Asian Business Case Centre
• The Case Centre A diverse collection of management cases, articles, book chapters and teaching materials. For a complete list of case suppliers (may require payment): https://www.thecasecentre.org/students/ordering/whatsavailable/cases
• Chief Marketer Serves marketing professionals at consumer and business-to-business brands, as well as their agencies, with information on measurable marketing strategies, tactics and techniques
• Darden Business Publishing (Univ. of Virginia)
• Harvard Business Review Cases Harvard's case studies are available for ~$9 each.
• International City Managers' Association Choose document type of "case study" on left; then search within results on right.
• Ivey case studies Ivey Publishing provides over 8,000 business case studies with a global perspective.
• Marketing Sherpa
• MERLOT II The MERLOT collection consists of discipline-specific learning materials, including case studies.
• MIT SLoan Management The teaching business case studies available on LearningEdge, which fall under the headings of entrepreneurship, leadership/ethics, operations management, strategy, sustainability, and system dynamics, are narratives that facilitate class discussion about a particular business or management issue.
• Society for Case Research SCR, founded in 1978, facilitates the exchange of ideas leading to the improvement of case research, writing, and teaching; assists in the publication of written cases or case research and other scholarly work; and provides recognition for excellence in case research, writing and teaching. more... less... SCR publishes three scholarly journals, the Business Case Journal (BCJ), Journal of Case Studies (JCS), and the Journal of Critical Incidents (JCI). Use the Library's JOURNAL FINDER (on the homepage) to connect to the full-text of these journals.
• Society for Human Resource Management To access case studies on the SHRM site you must become a member. SHRM offers a discounted student membership. Come in and speak to a librarian about additional options available to GGU students.
• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• The Times 100 Free case studies written by the Financial Times.
• Vanderbilt Center for Ethics Case Resources Offers a list of links to other sites that have subject specific case studies.
• WARC Search for advertising effectiveness case studies
• WDI Publishing Publishes "cases covering all core business disciplines, including a special collection of cases which address issues relevant to social impact and market-based solutions in emerging economies."
• The Case Center Good source for finding free cases also providing training
• << Previous: Free Case Studies
• Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 2:01 PM
• URL: https://ggu.libguides.com/casestudies

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Case Study in APA, MLA, or Chicago

How to Cite a Case Study in APA, MLA, or Chicago

When citing a case study, the format in MLA and APA is similar to that of a report, and in Chicago style, it is similar to that of a book. For all three citation styles, you will need the name of the author(s), the title of the case study, the year it was published, the publishing organization/publisher, and URL (if applicable). The templates and examples below will demonstrate how to cite a case study in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.

Author Last Name, Author First Name.  Title of Case Study . Edition (if applicable), volume number (if applicable), Publisher, year of publication, URL without http:// or https:// (if applicable).

Hill, Linda A., et al. HCL Technologies (A). Rev. edition, Harvard Business School, 2008, www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=34784.

In-text Citation:

(Author Last Name(s) page #)

(Hill et al. 8)

Author Last Name, Author Initial. (Publication Year). Title of Case Study (Case # if applicable). Publishing Organization. URL

Hill, L., Khanna, T., & Stecker, E. (2008). HCL Technologies (A) (Case 408-004). Harvard Business School. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=34784

(Author Last Name, Publication Year)

(Hill et al., 2008)

Notes-bibliography style

Author Last Name, First Name.  Title of the Case Study . Publishing City: Publishing Organization, Publication Year. URL.

Hill, Linda A., Tarun Khanna, and Emily Stecker. HCL Technologies (A).  Boston: Harvard Business School, 2008. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=34784.

1. Author First Name Last Name, Title of the Case Study (Publishing City: Publishing Organization, Publication Year), URL.

1. Linda A. Hill, Tarun Khanna, and Emily Stecker, HCL Technologies (A) ( Boston: Harvard Business School, 2008), https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=34784.

Author-date style

Author Last Name, First Name. Publication Year. Title of the Case Study . Publishing City: Publishing Organization. URL.

Hill, Linda A., Tarun Khanna, and Emily Stecker. 2008. HCL Technologies (A).  Boston: Harvard Business School. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=34784.

In-text citation: 

(Author Last Name Publication Date)

(Holl, Khanna, and Stecker 2008)

Citation Guides

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• In-text Citations
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• View APA Guide
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How NASA Tracked the Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades

May 2024 has already proven to be a particularly stormy month for our Sun. During the first full week of May, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades — and possibly one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.

We’ll be studying this event for years. It will help us test the limits of our models and understanding of solar storms.

Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla

Acting Director of NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) Space Weather Analysis Office

“We’ll be studying this event for years,” said Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla, acting director of NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) Space Weather Analysis Office. “It will help us test the limits of our models and understanding of solar storms.”

The first signs of the solar storm started late on May 7 with two strong solar flares. From May 7 – 11, multiple strong solar flares and at least seven CMEs stormed toward Earth. Eight of the flares in this period were the most powerful type, known as X-class, with the strongest peaking with a rating of X5.8. (Since then, the same solar region has released many more large flares, including an X8.7 flare — the most powerful flare seen this solar cycle — on May 14.)

Traveling at speeds up to 3 million mph, the CMEs bunched up in waves that reached Earth starting May 10, creating a long-lasting geomagnetic storm that reached a rating of G5 — the highest level on the geomagnetic storm scale, and one that hasn’t been seen since 2003.

“The CMEs all arrived largely at once, and the conditions were just right to create a really historic storm,” said Elizabeth MacDonald, NASA heliophysics citizen science lead and a space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

When the storm reached Earth, it created brilliant auroras seen around the globe. Auroras were even visible at unusually low latitudes, including the southern U.S. and northern India. The strongest auroras were seen the night of May 10, and they continued to illuminate night skies throughout the weekend. Thousands of reports submitted to the NASA-funded Aurorasaurus citizen science site are helping scientists study the event to learn more about auroras.

“Cameras — even standard cell phone cameras — are much more sensitive to the colors of the aurora than they were in the past,” MacDonald said. “By collecting photos from around the world, we have a huge opportunity to learn more about auroras through citizen science.”

By one measure of geomagnetic storm strength, called the disturbance storm time index which dates back to 1957, this storm was similar to historic storms in 1958 and 2003. And with reports of auroras visible to as low as 26 degrees magnetic latitude, this recent storm may compete with some of the lowest-latitude aurora sightings on record over the past five centuries, though scientists are still assessing this ranking.

“It’s a little hard to gauge storms over time because our technology is always changing,” said Delores Knipp, a research professor in the Smead Aerospace Engineering Science Department and a senior research associate at the NCAR High Altitude Observatory, in Boulder, Colorado. “Aurora visibility is not the perfect measure, but it allows us to compare over centuries.”

MacDonald encourages people to continue submitting aurora reports to Aurorasaurus.org , noting that even non-sightings are valuable for helping scientists understand the extent of the event.

Leading up to the storm, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, which is responsible for forecasting solar storm impacts, sent notifications to operators of power grids and commercial satellites to help them mitigate potential impacts.

Warnings helped many NASA missions brace for the storm, with some spacecraft preemptively powering down certain instruments or systems to avoid issues. NASA's ICESat-2 — which studies polar ice sheets — entered safe mode, likely because of increased drag due to the storm.  

Looking Forward

Better data on how solar events influence Earth's upper atmosphere is crucial to understanding space weather's impact on satellites, crewed missions, and Earth- and space-based infrastructure. To date, only a few limited direct measurements exist in this region. But more are coming. Future missions, such as NASA’s Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) and Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (DYNAMIC), will be able to see and measure exactly how Earth’s atmosphere responds to the energy influxes that occur during solar storms like this one. Such measurements will also be valuable as NASA sends astronauts to the Moon with the Artemis missions and, later, to Mars.

The solar region responsible for the recent stormy weather is now turning around the backside of the Sun, where its impacts can’t reach Earth. However, that doesn’t mean the storm is over. NASA’s Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), currently located at about 12 degrees ahead of Earth in its orbit, will continue watching the active region an additional day after it is no longer visible from Earth.

“The active region is just starting to come into view of Mars,” said Jamie Favors, director for the NASA Space Weather Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We’re already starting to capture some data at Mars, so this story only continues.”

By Mara Johnson-Groh NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact: Sarah Frazier NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Related Terms

• Citizen Science
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Heliophysics
• Heliophysics Division
• ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2)
• Science & Research
• Science Mission Directorate
• Skywatching
• Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
• Solar Flares
• Space Weather
• STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory)
• The Solar System
• The Sun & Solar Physics
• Thermosphere

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Aurorasaurus Roars During Historic Solar Storm

The largest geomagnetic storm in 21 years lit up the sky last weekend, and NASA’s volunteers were ready. Between May 10th and 12th 2024, NASA’s Aurorasaurus project received an unprecedented number of reports from around the world. It also helped eager aurora chasers get a better view.

Webb Cracks Case of Inflated Exoplanet

Dr. Lori Glaze to begin six-month Detail as Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for ESDMD

Agency leadership has chosen Dr. Lori Glaze to begin a six-month detail as the Acting Deputy AA for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD).

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Study Suggests Genetics as a Cause, Not Just a Risk, for Some Alzheimer’s

People with two copies of the gene variant APOE4 are almost certain to get Alzheimer’s, say researchers, who proposed a framework under which such patients could be diagnosed years before symptoms.

By Pam Belluck

Scientists are proposing a new way of understanding the genetics of Alzheimer’s that would mean that up to a fifth of patients would be considered to have a genetically caused form of the disease.

Currently, the vast majority of Alzheimer’s cases do not have a clearly identified cause. The new designation, proposed in a study published Monday, could broaden the scope of efforts to develop treatments, including gene therapy, and affect the design of clinical trials.

It could also mean that hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone could, if they chose, receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s before developing any symptoms of cognitive decline, although there currently are no treatments for people at that stage.

The new classification would make this type of Alzheimer’s one of the most common genetic disorders in the world, medical experts said.

“This reconceptualization that we’re proposing affects not a small minority of people,” said Dr. Juan Fortea, an author of the study and the director of the Sant Pau Memory Unit in Barcelona, Spain. “Sometimes we say that we don’t know the cause of Alzheimer’s disease,” but, he said, this would mean that about 15 to 20 percent of cases “can be tracked back to a cause, and the cause is in the genes.”

The idea involves a gene variant called APOE4. Scientists have long known that inheriting one copy of the variant increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and that people with two copies, inherited from each parent, have vastly increased risk.

The new study , published in the journal Nature Medicine, analyzed data from over 500 people with two copies of APOE4, a significantly larger pool than in previous studies. The researchers found that almost all of those patients developed the biological pathology of Alzheimer’s, and the authors say that two copies of APOE4 should now be considered a cause of Alzheimer’s — not simply a risk factor.

The patients also developed Alzheimer’s pathology relatively young, the study found. By age 55, over 95 percent had biological markers associated with the disease. By 65, almost all had abnormal levels of a protein called amyloid that forms plaques in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. And many started developing symptoms of cognitive decline at age 65, younger than most people without the APOE4 variant.

“The critical thing is that these individuals are often symptomatic 10 years earlier than other forms of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Reisa Sperling, a neurologist at Mass General Brigham in Boston and an author of the study.

She added, “By the time they are picked up and clinically diagnosed, because they’re often younger, they have more pathology.”

People with two copies, known as APOE4 homozygotes, make up 2 to 3 percent of the general population, but are an estimated 15 to 20 percent of people with Alzheimer’s dementia, experts said. People with one copy make up about 15 to 25 percent of the general population, and about 50 percent of Alzheimer’s dementia patients.

The most common variant is called APOE3, which seems to have a neutral effect on Alzheimer’s risk. About 75 percent of the general population has one copy of APOE3, and more than half of the general population has two copies.

Alzheimer’s experts not involved in the study said classifying the two-copy condition as genetically determined Alzheimer’s could have significant implications, including encouraging drug development beyond the field’s recent major focus on treatments that target and reduce amyloid.

Dr. Samuel Gandy, an Alzheimer’s researcher at Mount Sinai in New York, who was not involved in the study, said that patients with two copies of APOE4 faced much higher safety risks from anti-amyloid drugs.

When the Food and Drug Administration approved the anti-amyloid drug Leqembi last year, it required a black-box warning on the label saying that the medication can cause “serious and life-threatening events” such as swelling and bleeding in the brain, especially for people with two copies of APOE4. Some treatment centers decided not to offer Leqembi, an intravenous infusion, to such patients.

Dr. Gandy and other experts said that classifying these patients as having a distinct genetic form of Alzheimer’s would galvanize interest in developing drugs that are safe and effective for them and add urgency to current efforts to prevent cognitive decline in people who do not yet have symptoms.

“Rather than say we have nothing for you, let’s look for a trial,” Dr. Gandy said, adding that such patients should be included in trials at younger ages, given how early their pathology starts.

Besides trying to develop drugs, some researchers are exploring gene editing to transform APOE4 into a variant called APOE2, which appears to protect against Alzheimer’s. Another gene-therapy approach being studied involves injecting APOE2 into patients’ brains.

The new study had some limitations, including a lack of diversity that might make the findings less generalizable. Most patients in the study had European ancestry. While two copies of APOE4 also greatly increase Alzheimer’s risk in other ethnicities, the risk levels differ, said Dr. Michael Greicius, a neurologist at Stanford University School of Medicine who was not involved in the research.

“One important argument against their interpretation is that the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in APOE4 homozygotes varies substantially across different genetic ancestries,” said Dr. Greicius, who cowrote a study that found that white people with two copies of APOE4 had 13 times the risk of white people with two copies of APOE3, while Black people with two copies of APOE4 had 6.5 times the risk of Black people with two copies of APOE3.

“This has critical implications when counseling patients about their ancestry-informed genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” he said, “and it also speaks to some yet-to-be-discovered genetics and biology that presumably drive this massive difference in risk.”

Under the current genetic understanding of Alzheimer’s, less than 2 percent of cases are considered genetically caused. Some of those patients inherited a mutation in one of three genes and can develop symptoms as early as their 30s or 40s. Others are people with Down syndrome, who have three copies of a chromosome containing a protein that often leads to what is called Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer’s disease .

Dr. Sperling said the genetic alterations in those cases are believed to fuel buildup of amyloid, while APOE4 is believed to interfere with clearing amyloid buildup.

Under the researchers’ proposal, having one copy of APOE4 would continue to be considered a risk factor, not enough to cause Alzheimer’s, Dr. Fortea said. It is unusual for diseases to follow that genetic pattern, called “semidominance,” with two copies of a variant causing the disease, but one copy only increasing risk, experts said.

The new recommendation will prompt questions about whether people should get tested to determine if they have the APOE4 variant.

Dr. Greicius said that until there were treatments for people with two copies of APOE4 or trials of therapies to prevent them from developing dementia, “My recommendation is if you don’t have symptoms, you should definitely not figure out your APOE status.”

He added, “It will only cause grief at this point.”

Finding ways to help these patients cannot come soon enough, Dr. Sperling said, adding, “These individuals are desperate, they’ve seen it in both of their parents often and really need therapies.”

Pam Belluck is a health and science reporter, covering a range of subjects, including reproductive health, long Covid, brain science, neurological disorders, mental health and genetics. More about Pam Belluck

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Study links talc use to ovarian cancer — a potential boon for thousands suing J&J

New research published this week lends credence to the more than 50,000 lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson that allege its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer.

The analysis , released Wednesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that applying talc powder to the genitals was associated with ovarian cancer — and that the association was greater for people who used the powder frequently or for long periods of time.

The researchers are from the National Institutes of Health, and their findings were based on data from the Sister Study, which enrolled more than 50,000 women in the U.S. from 2003 to 2009. The participants joined when they were between 35 and 74 years old, and each had a sister who’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, which might put them at increased risk for breast or ovarian cancer.

Lawsuits related to J&J’s talc-based baby powder date back to 1999, when a woman alleged that a lifetime of using it led to her mesothelioma, a rare cancer usually caused by exposure to asbestos — a known carcinogen. In 2009, another woman sued the company, alleging that its talc-based products caused her ovarian cancer. Since then, many thousands of others have filed claims over cases of ovarian cancer or mesothelioma that they say were caused by asbestos in J&J baby powder.

J&J has stood by the safety of its talc products and denies that they ever contained asbestos. The company has also argued that studies have not demonstrated a convincing link between ovarian cancer and talc-based products.

The new research could undermine that line of reasoning as the legal battles continue. Most of the lawsuits against J&J have been consolidated into a single federal case in New Jersey, with trial scheduled for December.

“This study is quite timely. We feel like it completely affirms and confirms the position taken by plaintiffs’ experts,” said Leigh O’Dell, a principal at Beasley Allen Law Firm. O’Dell is the co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs’ steering committee, a group of attorneys appointed to act on behalf of the many people with pending cases against J&J.

However, Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said the new analysis doesn’t establish causality or implicate a specific cancer-inducing agent.

“This study does not change the overwhelming evidence that talcum powder does not cause ovarian cancer,” he said.

Earlier this month, J&J proposed a payment of around $6.48 billion to resolve the lawsuits, but the deal would involve moving the cases to bankruptcy court and require 75% of claimants to vote in favor.

J&J has tried and failed twice to resolve talc lawsuits in bankruptcy court . The company created a subsidiary in 2021 that could assume liability for talc-related legal claims — a legal maneuver known as a Texas two-step. But thus far, courts have dismissed the bankruptcy filings on the grounds that the subsidiary is not in financial distress.

O’Dell said her team “would like to see these women offered a reasonable and fair resolution outside of bankruptcy.”

“Any effort to file another bankruptcy, we believe, is just yet another abuse of the bankruptcy system,” she said.

The potential harms of talc products

The new study asked women how often they used talc powder on their genitals from ages 10 to 13 and during the year before they enrolled in the study. NIH researchers followed up with surveys from 2017 to 2019 that asked women about their lifetime use of talc powder.

Based on the responses, the researchers estimated that up to 56% of the women used talc powder on their genitals at some point. These women were more likely to be Black, less educated and live in the South compared with people who didn’t use talc powder.

The analysis can’t prove that talc causes ovarian cancer, nor does it identify a brand or chemical driving the association. Dale Sandler, one of the study’s authors and the chief of the epidemiology branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said there probably isn’t a way to prove causality in human studies.

“You can’t do a clinical trial and randomize people to ‘powder’ and ‘no powder.’ So we’re going to need to look to other types of research,” she said.

At the very least, the findings should prompt women to rethink their use of talc products, said Katie O’Brien, the lead author of the analysis and an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

“We’re not aware of any medically necessary reasons why someone would need to use talcum,” she said.

Current formulations of J&J baby powder use cornstarch, not talc. The company pulled the talc-based versions from the North American market in 2020, citing waning demand and “misinformation around the safety of the product,” and discontinued the product internationally last year.

Talc and asbestos are found in close proximity in nature, so some raw talc collected via mining may be contaminated with asbestos , according to the Food and Drug Administration.

A 2018 Reuters investigation suggested that J&J knew some of its baby powder was contaminated with small amounts of asbestos as early as the 1970s. But J&J denies asbestos was ever present in its products.

O’Brien said asbestos might not be the only reason for an association between talc and cancer. Some talc products may also contain phthalates — chemicals that disrupt hormones in the body and have been linked to ovarian cancer . Plus, talc itself can be abrasive, she added, so it may cause inflammation in the areas where it’s applied. Inflammation is independently associated with the development of cancer.

A debate over the science

Debates over the research linking talc and ovarian cancer will almost certainly be a focus of upcoming litigation in the J&J case.

The New Jersey federal court ruled in March that the company can contest findings that link ovarian cancer to talc.

To support its position, J&J has pointed to research that O’Brien and Sandler published in 2020 , which did not find a statistically significant association between ovarian cancer and the use of talc powder.

But O’Brien said that older study may not have been set up to detect small changes in risk because it did not ask women about their lifetime use or factor in the chance that people might misremember their past habits. Sandler said the new study accounts for those two variables.

“This newer analysis sort of tips the balance by accounting for all these possible ways that reporting could have been incomplete in the prior literature,” she said.

How talc may have played into body shame

J&J started selling talc-based baby powder in 1894.

Although many women have used it to keep their genitals dry, there’s no need to use powder to get rid of moisture in that area, said Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research at Women’s Voices for the Earth, a nonprofit that aims to eliminate chemicals that negatively affect women’s health.

“Moisture in this part of the body is a very healthy thing,” Scranton said. “This part of the body is covered in mucous membranes. It’s supposed to be moist.”

According to O’Brien’s research, some women in the 2000s — often those in their 20s and 30s — also used talc powder on their genitals to feel clean and reduce odor. That application isn’t advised by health experts, either, since the vagina is self-cleaning and good bacteria inside of it naturally produce a slight odor.

Companies like J&J were “basically creating and promoting this myth that this part of your body — your genitals, your vagina — are inherently dirty and that they’re inherently odorous, and therefore inherently shameful,” Scranton said.

J&J said it disagrees with that characterization.

Some women continue to use baby powder on their genitals or have adopted new products like vaginal washes or scented body deodorants.

“It’s so ingrained and so part of the way they take care of their bodies that they can’t imagine not doing it,” Scranton said. “They’ve got their mom’s voice in their head: ‘This is what you do to be a respectable woman.’”

Aria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.

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