Week 3

Reviewing the Literature

School of Economics and Management

Introduction

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Introduction
We will learn about
 The functions of the literature review in research
 How to carry out a literature search
 How to review the selected literature
 How to develop theoretical and conceptual frameworks
 How to write a literature review

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The place of the
literature review in
research

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The place of the literature review in…
The literature review
 In order to acquaint yourself with the available body of knowledge in your
area of interest.
 You need to go through the existing literature.
 The literature review is an integral part of the research process.
 However, it can be time consuming, daunting and frustrating.

 In the stages of research

 The literature review helps you to establish the theoretical roots of your
study, clarify your ideas and develop your research methodology.
 The literature review serves to enhance and consolidate your own
knowledge base.
 The literature review helps you to integrate your findings with the existing
body of knowledge

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The place of the literature review in…
The literature review

 The important role of literature review

 Since an important responsibility in research is to compare your findings
with those of others, the literature review plays an extremely important
role.

 The function of literature review

 It provides a theoretical background to your study.
 It helps you establish the links between what you are proposing to
examine and what has already been studied.
 It enables you to show how your findings have contributed to the existing
body of knowledge in your profession.
 It helps you to integrate your research findings into the existing body of
knowledge.

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The place of the literature review in…
The literature review

 The literature review can help in four ways, in relation to your own
study.
 First, it can bring clarity and focus to your research problem.
 Second, it can improve your research methodology.
 Third, it can broaden your knowledge base in your research area
 Fourth, it can contextualize your findings.

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The place of the literature review in…
Bringing clarity and focus to your research problem
 The literature review can play an extremely important role in shaping your
research problem.
 Because the process of reviewing the literature helps you to
understand the subject area better.
 Because the process of reviewing the literature helps you to
conceptualize your research problem clearly and precisely.
 Because the process of reviewing the literature makes it more
relevant and pertinent to your field of enquiry.

 When reviewing the literature...

 You learn what aspects of your subject area have been examined by
others.
 You learn what they have found out about these aspects.
 You learn what gaps they have identified.
 You learn what suggestions they have made for further research.
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The place of the literature review in…
Bringing clarity and focus to your research problem

 Reviewing the literature

 Reviewing the literature will help you gain a greater insight into your own
research questions.
 Reviewing the literature will provide you with clarity and focus which are
central to a relevant and valid study.
 Reviewing the literature will help you to focus your study on areas where
there are gaps in the existing body of knowledge, thereby enhancing its
relevance.

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The place of the literature review in…
Improving your research methodology

 What literature review tell you?

 It tells you if others have used procedures and methods similar to the ones
that you are proposing, which procedures and methods have worked well
for them and what problems they have faced with them.
 Going through the literature acquaints you with the methodologies that
have been used by others.
 By becoming aware of any problems, you will be better positioned to
select a methodology that is capable of providing valid answers to your
research question.

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The place of the literature review in…
Broadening your knowledge base in your research
area
 What we need to know through literature review?
 What other researchers have found in regard to the same or similar
questions?
 What theories have been put forward?
 What gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge?

 Important reason for doing a literature review

 It helps you to understand how the findings of your study fit into the
existing body of knowledge.
 It helps you to be an expert in your area of research.

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The place of the literature review in…
Enabling you to contextualize your findings
 Undertaking a literature review will enable you to compare your findings
with those of others and answer the following questions.
 How do answers to your research questions compare with what
others have found?
 What contribution have you been able to make to the existing body
of knowledge?
 How are your findings different from those of others?
 It is important to place your findings in the context of what is already
known in your field of enquiry.

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How to review the
literature

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How to review the literature
A specific research problem

 What if you do not have a specific research problem?

 You should review the literature in your broad area of interest with the
aim of gradually narrowing it down to what you want to find out about.
 However, there is a danger in reviewing the literature without having a
reasonably specific idea of what you want to study.
 So, you should try broadly to conceptualize your research problem before
undertaking your major literature review.

 There are four steps involved in conducting a literature review

 First, you need to search for the existing literature in your area of study.
 Second, you need to review the selected literature.
 Third, you need to develop a theoretical framework.
 Fourth, you need to develop a conceptual framework.

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How to review the literature
Searching for the existing literature
 To search effectively for the literature in your field of enquiry, it is
imperative that you have at least some idea of the broad subject area and
of the problem you wish to investigate.
 There are three sources that you can use to prepare a bibliography.
 Books
 Journals
 The Internet

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How to review the literature
Books

 Books have their disadvantages as well as advantages.

 The main advantage
 The material published in books is usually important and of good
quality, and the findings are ‘integrated with other research to form a
coherent body of knowledge’.
 The main disadvantage
 The material is not completely up to date, as it can take a few years
between the completion of a work and its publication in the form of a
book.

 Search for a book

 The best way to search for a book is to look at your library catalogues.
 Use the subject catalogue or keywords option to search for books in your
area of interest.
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How to review the literature
Books

 How to select appropriate books.

 First, select 10–15 books that you think are appropriate for your topic,
examine the bibliography of each one.
 Second, go through these bibliographies carefully to identify the books
common to several of them.
 If a book has been referenced by a number of authors, you should include
it in your reading list.
 Third, prepare a final list of books that you consider essential reading.
 Fourth, locate these books in your library or borrow them from other
sources.
 Fifth, examine their contents to double-check that they really are relevant
to your topic
 If you find that something in a book’s contents is relevant to your topic,
make an annotated bibliography.
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How to review the literature
Journals

 The main advantage

 Journals provide you with the most up-to-date information.
 Certain fields have more journals than others.

 Search for journals

 You need to prepare a list of the journals you want to examine for
identifying the literature relevant to your study.
 You can locate the hard copies of the journals that are appropriate to your
study.
 You can look at citation or abstract indices to identify and/or read the
abstracts of such articles.
 You can search electronic databases.

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How to review the literature
Journals

 How to select appropriate articles.

 First, prepare a list of those you want to examine, by journal.
 Second, select one of these journals and, starting with the latest issue.
 Third, examine its contents page to see if there is an article of relevance to
your research topic.
 Fourth, read its abstract if you feel that a particular article is of interest to
you.
 If you think you are likely to use it, either photocopy it, or prepare a
summary and record its reference for later use.

 There are sources designed to make your search for journals easier.
 Indices of journals (e.g. Humanities Index)
 Abstracts of articles (e.g. ERIC)
 Citation indices (e.g. Social Sciences Citation Index).
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How to review the literature
Journals

 What is available in your library?

 In most libraries, information on books, journals and abstracts is stored on
computers.
 In each case, the information is classified by subject, author and title.
 You may also have the keywords option (author/keyword; title/keyword;
subject/keyword; expert/keyword; or just keywords).

 Commonly used electronic databases in business studies

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How to review the literature
Journals

 Social and Science Citation Information ( SSCI )

 http://ssci.isi-database.org/

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How to review the literature
Journals

 Scopus
 https://www.scopus.com/

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How to review the literature
Journals

 Google Scholar
 https://scholar.google.com/

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How to review the literature
The Internet

 The main advantage

 In almost every academic discipline and professional field, the Internet
has become an important tool for finding published literature.
 Through an Internet search you can identify published material in books,
journals and other sources with immense ease and speed.

 Searching through the Internet

 Searching through the Internet is very similar to the search for books and
articles in a library.
 An Internet search identifies all material in the database of a search engine
that contains the keywords you specify.
 It is important that you choose words or combinations of words that other
people are likely to use.

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How to review the literature
Reviewing the selected literature
 The next step is to start reading selected books and articles critically to
pull together themes and issues that are of relevance to your study.
 While going through the literature you should carefully and critically
examine it with respect to the following aspects.
 Note whether the knowledge relevant to your theoretical framework
has been confirmed beyond doubt.
 Note the theories put forward, the criticisms of these and their basis,
the methodologies adopted
 Examine to what extent the findings can be generalized to other
situations.
 Notice where there are significant differences of opinion among
researchers and give your opinion about the validity of these
differences.
 Ascertain the gaps that exist in the body of knowledge.

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How to review the literature
Developing a theoretical framework
 The information obtained from different books and journals now needs to
be sorted under the main themes and theories.
 And we need to highlighting agreements and disagreements among the
authors and identifying the unanswered questions or gaps.
 And use these aspects as a basis for developing your theoretical
framework.
 Your review of the literature should sort out the information within your
theoretical framework.
 Until you go through the literature you cannot develop a theoretical
framework.
 The solution is to read some of the literature and then attempt to develop a
framework.

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How to review the literature
Developing a conceptual framework

 The conceptual framework

 The conceptual framework stems from the theoretical framework.
 It usually focuses on the section(s) which become the basis of your study.

 The difference between the conceptual and theoretical framework

 The theoretical framework
 It consists of the theories or issues in which your study is embedded
 The theoretical framework includes all the theories that have been
put forward to explain the relationship between “A” and “B”.
 The conceptual framework
 It describes the aspects you selected from the theoretical framework
to become the basis of your enquiry.
 The conceptual framework relates to the specific research problem.

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How to review the literature
Writing about the literature reviewed

 Two of the broad functions of a literature review

 The first is to provide a theoretical background to your study.
 In order to fulfil this, you should identify and describe various
theories relevant to your field.
 The second is to enable you to contextualize your findings in relation to
the existing body of knowledge.
 In order to comply with this function, you should integrate the results
from your study with specific and relevant findings from the existing
literature.
 The content of your literature review should reflect these two purposes.
 At this stage of the research process, only the first function can be
fulfilled.

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How to review the literature
Writing about the literature reviewed

 Your writing about the literature reviewed

 First, it should be thematic in nature, which is based on the main themes.
 Second, the sequence of these themes in the write-up should follow a
logical progression.
 Third, various arguments should be substantiated with specific quotations
and citations from the literature .
 Fourth, it should adhere to an acceptable academic referencing style.

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Thank you

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