Re-thinking case-based assessments in business management education

• Case studies are commonly used in business management learning, teaching and assessment.
• It is suggested that case studies based on local SMEs are used in order to elicit a more in-depth analysis and expose students to a broader range of business scenarios.
• Teaching colleagues are challenged to explore developing their own case-based assessments, based on SMEs.

Despite criticisms of the use of case studies in assessment, especially in examination settings, their use is prevalent in business management education, primarily in order to develop critical thinking skills and highlight the complex business problems faced by managers.However, case studies readily available for business assessments typically comprise multi-national, world-leading corporations, which can result in a number of problems, not least the large volume of material available on the web about these organisations. In addition, employers feel that business courses are too focused on large corporations rather than preparing students for working in small-medium enterprises (SMEs).This paper will present the authors approach to developing his own case studies for use in business assessments, based on local SMEs. This approach facilitates a more in-depth assessment analysis and exposes students to a broader range of business scenarios. The use of a ‘live’ case provides a closer fit to reality which in turn, enhances learning. It is intended that the approach presented here will inform and challenge university colleagues to explore the development and use of case-based assessments, particularly how they might apply these practices to their own professional area.