Expanding the case study: The narrative thread

A new research framework is described in this paper, termed 'the narrative thread'. It is a development of the case study, but argues that the paradigm of physical boundaries that has been used to define the case, can be shifted so that it is the phenomenon itself that defines the case, not where the case takes place. In addition, this framework has a number of attractive attributes, in that it is highly flexible, supports an inductive then a deductive approach, and gives formal guidance for both the incorporation of knowledge gained in literature reviews and the generation of theory.