BUSINESS RESEARCH

METHODS
Critically reviewing the literature
Lecture#3
 REASONS FOR REVIEWING THE
LITERATURE
• To conduct a ‘preliminary’ search of existing
material

• To organise valuable ideas and findings

• To identify other research that may be in progress

• To generate research ideas

• To develop a critical perspective

THE LITERATURE REVIEW PROCESS

Figure 3.1 The literature review process Source: Saunders et al. (2003)
 Critical Literature Review Approaches

Approaches used

Deductive
Develops a conceptual framework from the
literature which is then tested using the data

Inductive
Explores the data to develop theories which are
then tested against the literature
 Critical Literature Review Purpose

• To further refine research questions and objectives

• To discover recommendations for further research

• To avoid repeating work already undertaken

• To provide insights into strategies and techniques

appropriate to your research objectives

Based on Gall et al. (2006)

 Critical Literature Review Skills
Skills For Effective Reading

• Previewing which is looking around the text before you start

reading in order to establish precisely its purpose and how it may
inform you literature search
• Annotating that is conducting a dialogue with yourself, the author
and the issues and the ideas at stake
• Summarising the best way to determine that you’ve really got the
point is to be able to state it in your words. Outlining the argument
of text is a version of annotating, and can be done quite informally
in the margins of the text
• Comparing and contrasting: ask your self how you thinking has
been altered by this reading or how has it affected your response to
the issue and themes your research

Harvard College Library (2006)

 Critical Literature Review Skills

The most important skills are

• The capacity to evaluate what you read

• The capacity to relate what you read to other

information

Wallace and Wray (2006)

 Adopting a critical perspective for
Literature Review
Questions to ask yourself

Why am I reading this?

What is the author trying to do in writing this?

How convincing is this?

What use can I make of this reading?

Adapted from Wallace and Wray (2006)

 Content of the critical review
You will need to

• Include key academic theories

• Demonstrate current knowledge of the area

• Use clear referencing for the reader to find the

original cited publications

• Acknowledge the research of others

 Structure of the literature review

Three common structures

• A single chapter

• A series of chapters

• Throughout the report

 The key to a critical literature review

• Demonstrate that you have read, understood and

evaluated your material

• Link the different ideas to form a cohesive and

coherent argument

• Make clear connections to your research

objectives and the subsequent empirical material

Saunders et al. (2009)

 Categories of Literature Sources
Literature resources represent flow of information from the
original source. Often information flows from primary to
secondary and then tertiary sources it become less detailed
but easily accessible.
Primary/ Grey Literature (published and unpublished)
First occurrence of a piece of work.
Secondary
Subsequent publication of primary literature. Easier to
locate than primary literature.
Tertiary
Search tools helps to locate primary and
secondary literature.
 Literature sources available
Literature sources available

Saunders et al. (2009)

Figure 3.2 Literature sources available
 Journals
• Journals are also known as ‘periodical’
‘serials’ and ‘magazines’ and are published
on a regular basis. Journals are a vital
literature source for any research. They are
well covered by tertiary literature, and good
selection can be accessed from most
university libraries (printed or online)
•  http://newsweekpakistan.com/
 Refereed academic Journals
• Articles in refereed academic journals (such as Journal of
management studies)are evaluated by peers academic prior
to publication, to assess their quality and suitability, they
are usually written by experts in the field. There will be
usually be detailed footnotes, an extensive bibliography ,
rigorous attention to detail and verification of information.
• Such articles are written for a more narrow audience of
scholars with a particular interest in the field. The
language used may be technical or highly specialized as a
prior knowledge of the topic will be assumed.
 Professional Journals
• Professional Journals (such as People
Management) they are produced for their
members by organization such as the
chartered Institute of personal and
development (CIPD). They contain a mix of
news related items and articles that are
more detailed. However you have to
exercise caution
• http://www.pjms.com.pk/
 Trade Journals
• They fulfill a similar function to professional
journals. They are published by trade
organizations or aimed at particular industries or
trades such as carting or mining. Often they focus
in new products or services and news items, they
rarely contain articles based on empirical research,
although some provide summaries of research,
You should therefore use these with consideration
caution for you research project.
• www.exportpakistan.com
 Books
• Books and monographs are written for specific audiences.
Some are aimed at the academic, with a theoretical slant.
Others, aimed at practicing professionals, may be more
applied in their content. The material in books is usually
presented in a more ordered and accessible manner than in
journals, polling together a wider range of topics, they are
therefore, practically useful as introductory sources to help
clarify your research question(s) and objectives or research
methods you intend to use. Some academic textbooks such
as this one are now supported by web pages providing
additional information.
 Newspaper
• Newspaper are good source of topical events,
developments within business and government, as well as
recent statistical information such as share prices, they also
sometimes review recent research report.
• Again you should be carful when you use newspaper in
your research project as newspaper may contain bias in
their coverage, be it political geographical or personal.
• Reporting can also be inaccurate and you may not pick up
any subsequent amendments
 Reports
• Reports include market research reports
such as those produced by government
reports and academic reports. It is not easy
to get access for these reports as they are
not as widely available as books. It is
important to try to assess the authority of
the author, and to beware of personal bias
 Conference proceedings
• Conference proceedings sometimes referred to as
symposia, as often published as unique titles
within journals or as books. Most conferences
have a theme that is very specific, but some have
a wide-range overview. Many conferences have
associated web pages providing abstract and
occasionally the full papers presented at the
conference .
• https://call-forpapers.sas.upenn.edu/category/all
 Theses
• Theses are unique and so far a major
research project can be a good source of
further references. Unfortunately, they can
be difficult to locate and, when found,
difficult to access as there may be only one
copy at the awarding institution.
 Planning your search strategy
• All our students have found their literature search a time
consuming process, which take far longer than expected.
Fortunately, time spent planning will be repaid in time
saved when searching the literature. As you start to plan
your search, you need to beware of information overload!
• One of the easiest ways to avoid this is to start the main
search for your critical review with a clearly defined
research question (s), objectives and outline proposal.
 The literature search strategy
Write down

• parameters of your search

• key words and search terms to be used
• databases and search engines to be used
• criteria for selection of relevant and useful
studies
And

Discuss these with a tutor (if possible)

 The literature search strategy

1. Define the research parameters

2. Generate key words
 Discuss your research
 Brainstorm ideas
 Construct Relevance trees
3. Conducting your Literature search
4. Obtaining and evaluating the literature
5. Recording the Literature
 1. Defining The Parameters Of Your
Search
• For most research questions and objectives you will have a good
idea of which subject matter is going to be relevant. You will,
however, be less clear about the parameters within which you need
to search. In particular, you need to be clear about the following
(Bell 2005):
• Language of publication (e.g. English);
• Subject area (e.g. accountancy);
• Business sector (e.g. manufacturing);
• Geographical area (e.g. Europe);
• Publication period (e.g. the last 10 years);
• Literature type (e.g. refereed journals and books).
1. Defining The Parameters Of Your
Search
 2.Generating Your Keywords
• It is important at this stage to read both articles by key authors
and recent review articles in area of your research .This will help
you to define your subject matter and to suggest appropriate key
words. Recent review articles in your research area are often
helpful here as they discuss the current state of research for a
particular topic and can help you to refine your keywords. In
addition ,they will probably contain reference s to other work
that is pertinent to your research question(s) and objectives. If
you are unsure about review articles ,your project tutor should
be able to point you in the right direction. Another potentially
useful source of references is dissertations and theses in your
university's library.
 2.Generating Your Keywords
• After re-reading your lecture notes and textbooks and undertaking this
limited reading you will have a list of subjects that appear relevant to
your research project. You now need to define precisely what is
relevant to your research in terms of key words. The identification of
keywords or ‘research 'terms is the most important part of planning
your search for relevant literature (Bell 2005). Key words are the basic
terms that describe your research questions(s) and objectives, and will
be used to search the tertiary literature. Keywords (which can include
authors’ surnames identified in the examination of your lecture notes
and course textbooks)can be identified using one or a number of
different techniques in combination.
 2.Generating Your Keywords
 Discussion
• We believe you should be taking every
opportunity to discuss your research. In discussing
you work with others, whether face to face, by
email or by letter ,you will be sharing your ideas,
getting feedback and obtaining new ideas and
approaches. This process will help you to refine
and clarify your topic.
 2.Generating Your Keywords
 Brain Storming, Initial reading, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
handbooks and thesauruses
• To produce the most relevant keywords you may need to build
on your brainstorming sessions with support materials such as
dictionaries ,encyclopedias, handbooks and thesauruses, both
general and subject specific. These are also good starting points
for new topics which may be unfamiliar and for related subject
area. Initial reading, particularly of recent review article, may
also be of help here. Project tutors ,colleagues and librarians can
also be useful sources of ideas.
 2.Generating Your Keywords
• Initial reading, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks
and thesauruses
• It is also possible to obtain definitions via the Internet. The online
search engine Google offers a ‘define’(by typing ‘define:[enter
term ]’) that provides links to websites providing definitions
.Definitions are also offered in free online encyclopedias such as
Wikipedia(see box 3.9).These are often available in multiple
language and, although anyone is allowed to edit the entries,
inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly [Wikipedia
2008].However, whilst these websites may be useful for a quick
reference or in helping to define keywords, your university will
almost certainly expect you to justify the definitions in your
research project using refereed journal articles or textbooks.
 3. Conducting your Literature search

Approaches can include:

• Searching tertiary literature sources

• Obtaining relevant literature

• Scanning and browsing secondary literature

• Searching using the Internet

 3. Conducting your Literature search

Searching using tertiary literature

• Ensure key words match controlled index language

• Search appropriate printed and database sources

• Note precise details used – including search strings

• Note the FULL reference of each search found

 3. Conducting your Literature search
• Printed sources
• Scanning and browsing
• Searching the Internet
• Databases – use of Boolean logic and free text searching
3. Conducting your Literature search
Searching the Internet
 3. Conducting your Literature search
Searching the Internet

Saunders et al. (2003)

Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet (Continued)
 4. Evaluating The Literature

• Define the scope of your review

• Assess relevance and value

• Assess sufficiency
 5. Recording The Literature

Make notes for each item you read

Record –

• Biographic details

• Brief summary of content

• Supplementary information
Biographic details
Supplementary information
 Plagiarism
Four common forms

• Stealing material from another source

• Submitting material written by another

• Copying material without quotation marks

• Paraphrasing material without documentation

Adapted from Park (2003), cited in Easterby-Smith et al. (2008)