Encouraging Cases: Exploring the Potential of Critical Realist Case Studies of “What Could Be” for a Critically Performative CMS

In CMS, debates on methodology have typically taken second stage to those on epistemology and ontology as the field embraced a plurality of methods. Recent work pushing for CMS to engage more strongly with mainstream theory, however, raises the need for a discussion on how to use methods recognizable to the mainstream in progressive ways. This paper seeks to remedy this lacunae by linking the concept of Critical Performativity (Spicer, Alvesson & Kärreman, 2009) to case study research and shows how case studies informed by Critical Realism (Easton, 2010a) can be generalized to “what could be” (Schofield, 2002). In this way, employing case studies in a progressive fashion may serve as a valuable means for a critically perfomative CMS to achieve greater impact through influence on mainstream theory building, business school education and management practice.