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This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research:(1) Theoretical knowledge is more useful than practical knowledge;(2) since one cannot generalize from a single case, the single case study cannot contribute to scientific development;(3) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, while other methods are more suitable for hypotheses-testing and theory-building;(4) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (5) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. The article explains and discusses these misunderstandings one by one, and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and that a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science will be strengthened with the production of better case studies.