But what's the alternative to looking at examples of success? Looking at examples of failure? Working from a-priori theories? Both seem worse.
Clayton's Christensen's disruption theory was useful.
But nothing's bulletproof, of course.
So maybe looking at the methodologies serious business academics use to write their PHD, and their work in general, is a good alternative to case studies ?
Controlled experiments and/or causal analysis.
Does statistical causal analysis work when there are this many variables? Feels like that would just be essentially a case study again.
Yes, that's the whole point. It works when you can "simulate" experiments by looking at a large number of events.
E.g. DNA evolution in genetics, drug testing in medicine, studying failure modes in aeronautics...