Keeping it real: Bridging research and teaching through tourism case writing and case teaching

Case teaching has long been recognized as a cornerstone of management education, offering students exposure to real-world challenges and fostering authentic learning experiences (Sharen & Woodwark, 2025). Far from being outdated, case pedagogy continues to evolve, prompting renewed reflection on its role in shaping business education and its future aims (Bridgman et al., 2016).
In tourism programs, case teaching has been shown to enhance critical thinking (Stone et al., 2017), promote sustainability (Chen et al., 2022), and encourage collaboration and active learning (Kim & Davies, 2014), ultimately improving student outcomes and satisfaction (Dorta-Afonso, 2019; Scott, 2007). However, case writing – an equally vital component of the process – has received comparatively less scholarly attention. This is occurring at a time when business schools and accreditation bodies are increasingly recognizing its value in strengthening industry-academia linkages and elevating teaching quality (Mills, 2024a), while also acknowledging its legitimacy as a form of scholarly output (Mills, 2024b). Christensen & Carlile (2017) highlight the relevance of this form of scholarship in their comment, “when approached properly, case studies can transform teaching into research” (p.240).

Recent critiques suggest that case writing has become overly formulaic, often prioritizing exhaustive detail over the complexity and ambiguity inherent in real-world contexts (Sharen & Woodwark, 2025). As such, there is a call for a shift in focus which places learning outcomes at the center of cases that are written with a clear, practical, and relevant depth and focus describing the messy, volatile, uncertain, and complex contexts within which we all live (Toogood, 2025), rather than those written tailored facts, broad generalizations, and an imagined and formulaic textbook narrative. This call is particularly important given the grand challenges we face as a global society and the resultant pressure on educators to guide our students in the development of critical geopolitical awareness (Belhoste & Dimitrova, 2024).

Drawing on our own experience as authors of multiple case studies published through Ivey Publishing, we illustrate how case writing can be leveraged as a tool to effectively and productively straddle the research-teaching nexus. Our work with business leaders in Ukraine has generated both novel research insights into business war volunteer tourism (Gill & Kenworthy, 2025) and compelling case studies which explore entrepreneurship, leadership, and resilience in the complex and highly uncertain environment of living with war (Kenworthy, Mehrotra, Gill, & Rodkin, 2025; Kenworthy, Gill, Bilyk & Kozlova, 2025). Given the synergies between our case writing and our scholarship, and considering the overwhelming positive responses from our students’ and colleagues’ in terms of resultant learning and innovative extensions to our work, we advocate for tourism, hospitality, and events educators to reimagine industry engagement not just as a pedagogical tool, but as a mutually enriching scholarly endeavour that keeps education real – and relevant – for our students, academic colleagues, and industry partners.