Unit-four: Review of literature

Scope
4.1 Significance of literature review
4.2 Sources of literature
4.3 Planning and conducting literature search
4.4 Recording the literature
4.5 Evaluating the literature
 Concept of Literature Review
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 Literature review is an organized critical

account of information that has been
published on a specific topic and provides
an organized synthesis of the information,
idea and knowledge
 a comprehensive investigation of reports

and articles that has been written about

the topic.
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 So, what is the importance of

Literature review in research?
 Importance of literature review
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• Identify items relevant to a particular

requirement.
• Essential to understand what has already
been done (if anything) in the specific topic
you have chosen and what has been done
in the wider subject area of that topic.
 Importance Cont’d…
5

As a researcher, you need to know the answers to

the following questions concerning the research
topic that you are considering for investigation:

o Has the work already been done?

o Who are the experts in the field?

o What are the main theoretical perspectives?

 Cont’d…
6

o What are the common research methods in the topic?

o What are the main problems in researching the topic?

o Are there any major controversies in this topic area?

o Is the topic open to hypothesis testing?

o Is the topic a trivial one?

 Importance cont’d…
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• The only way you can satisfactorily answer these questions is

by reading as much as you can on research which is directly and
indirectly related to your research topic.

• In the latter case, you can only know this by reading materials which
you think might be relevant.

• The easiest way to identify such material is through the article

title and the abstract.
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Now, lets us discuss in detail

 Importance of literature review
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1. Has the work already been done?

• Obviously, if this is the case, then you need to
consider changing your research topic or its focus.
• In most business-related research, it is very rare that
a specific set of research questions or a specific
hypothesis has already been addressed in your
specific topic area. This is more common in science
research.
 Cont’d…
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• Nevertheless, it is still important to check that a piece of

research already published is not so close to yours that
undertaking your research would not be worthwhile.

• Clearly, this means that the literature review and dealing

with the first question above is something that needs to
start immediately after you have identified a possible
research topic.
 Importance of literature review
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2. Who are the experts in the field?

• It should be clear to you now that in many areas of

business research there are indeed experts on specific
topics—so how do you identify them? In fact, this is
relatively easy—you could consult the Social Science
or Business citation index by topic area (on the web)
and this will show up the names of authors in that
area.
 Cont’d…
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• Where a name appears several times then you can be

reasonably certain that the author is very active in that
research topic.

• Alternatively, you could find a published article related to your

topic in an academic journal and consult the reference list at
the end of it—again it is often the case that the same name is
referenced more than once. This is also a good way of
establishing a ‘road map’ for your literature review.
 Importance of literature review
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3. What are the main theoretical perspectives?

• Whatever the research topic that you have

identified, you need to construct a conceptual
framework within which you will study the topic.
This is critical to the successful implementation of
the research work.
 Cont’d…
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• Without theory, it is almost impossible to

interpret data. The key point here is that we
need a theory in order to inform us what
kind of data we require in order to answer
the research questions we have already set
ourselves.
•
 Cont’d…
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• Where does one find this theory? The answer to this

question is easy—you will find it in the literature
related to your research topic. You will also find
critiques of theory there and alternative theories of
the same social behavior.

• It is critical that you are aware of all theories

pertaining to your research topic, their strengths and
their weaknesses.
 Importance of literature review
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4. What are the Common Research Methods in the

Topic?
In reading the published academic literature on or
closely related to your research topic, it is very
important to try to identify the common
characteristics of how the research was carried out.
There are a number of aspects of this that need to be
clearly understood:
 Cont’d…
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➢ Is the published research in this topic mainly of

a qualitative or a quantitative nature?

➢ If qualitative, what is its most common basis?

➢ If quantitative, what is its most common basis?

➢ Is the published research usually a mix of

qualitative and quantitative methods?
 Importance of literature review
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5. What are the Main Problems in Researching the Topic?

Without a review of the literature, you cannot possibly know this. There may
be many problems and several common problems in researching your
research topic. One of the most common problems is data.

• Does it exist for example?

• If it does, can you get access to it?

• Is it in a format which is easily manipulated?

• Is it trustworthy?

• How old is it?

 Cont’d…
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• Have the variables in the data been measured

correctly and consistently?

✓ All these questions are important. Additionally, is

the topic one for which primary data is essential?
If so, can it be collected in a reasonable time and
at low cost? Can it be collected at all if the topic is
personally, socially or politically sensitive?
 Cont’d…
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6. Are there Any Major Controversies in this Topic Area?

• The controversies may be of a methodological,

theoretical or empirical nature.

• They may arise due to mishandling theory, data

methodology, or choosing improper methods for
empirical investigation.
 Cont’d…
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• It is one of the skills of literature reviewing to

determine what the controversies actually are.

• This is also a very fruitful source for deriving

your own research questions since the gaps in
your understanding of the topic will be fairly
clear from the debates and controversies you find
in the literature.
 Cont’d…
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7. Is the Topic Open to Hypothesis Testing?

 Not all research questions can be put in the format of a
hypothesis.

 A hypothesis needs to be clear, unambiguous, focused and

testable using an accepted statistical method.

 If the research topic is mainly investigated using qualitative

methods, then it may be very difficult to generate testable
hypotheses.
 Cont’d…
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8. Is the Topic a Trivial One?

 Research should be concerning itself with
problems which are more significant and with the
potential for the results to be generalizable to at
least a group, an area, a sector of industry, or any
other aggregation.
 Sources of Literature Review
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▪ The ‘literature’ involved may be in the form of:

❖ books,
❖ journal articles,
❖ videos,
❖ cassette tapes,
❖ conference papers,
❖ reports, theses, patents, standards or other types
of information sources.
 OBJECTIVES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW
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The review should also achieve the following:

• Enables you to sharpen and focus your initial
research questions or even suggest new
research questions.
• Provides you with a wide and deep knowledge
of the theoretical, empirical and methodological
issues within your chosen research topic.
 Cont’d…
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• Provides a ‘bridge’ between your research

questions and your research findings.

• Enables you to compare your research methods,

theoretical framework and findings with work
already done.

• Enables you to set the scope and range of your

research topic.
 Steps in conducting literature review
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• There are four main steps in conducting a literature

review.
1. Search for existing literature in your area of study
2. Review the literature selected
3. Develop a theoretical and empirical framework
4. Writing up literature.
 Steps in conducting literature review
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1. Search for existing literature

• To effectively search for literature in your
filed of inquiry, it is imperative that you
have in mind at least some idea of the
broad subject area and of the problem you
wish to investigate .
 Cont’d…
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• Plan your information search.

• Spend some time thinking about what
you really want to find information.
• This may involve breaking your topic
down into several separate information
searches.
 Steps in conducting literature review
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Consider the following aspects of your search:

• Scope—is the information you require—a core element of
your topic, is it background (a paragraph in your
introduction), or tangential to your central topic?
• Timescale—how far back is the information of relevance?
Must it be recent? Published in the last five years? Or
historical? If looking to forecast, you may need to look back
over a long period to assess statistical trends for example.
 Cont’d…
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• Range—do you need local information only?

Regional? National or international? If a variety,
assess the part each type will play in your project.

• Most importantly, select the key concepts your search

will involve. From these concepts, generate a number
of subjects or keywords.
 Steps in conducting literature review
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• There are many sources of literature including

journals, books, reports, abstracts, and electronic
websites among others.

• Searching for the appropriate literature can be very

time consuming, and you need to be very specific
when using library search engines, Internet search
engines and other databases.
 Cont’d…
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• Once an appropriate article is obtained,

there are various ways of reading it for
research purposes. In doing the reading
for the review, one must consider the
credibility of the article.
 Cont’d…
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 Articles published in referred journals tend to be

the most reliable. Articles obtained from the World
Wide Web (www) have to be treated with a great
deal of caution, although there is good material on
the Web. If you plan to use the Internet as a major
source of research material, the most reliable sites
are those of academic departments in universities.
 Steps in conducting literature review
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2. Review the literature selected.

• Once an appropriate article is obtained, there

are various ways of reading it for research
purposes.

• Reviewing academic literature is not the same as

just reading it.
 Cont’d…
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• You need to think about the ideas, the research

methods, how the data was collected, and how the
findings have been interpreted. This is what we
mean literature review.

• To start with critical review, put together themes and

issues that are associated. When you find relevant
articles or books, note down the full bibliographic
reference.
 Steps in conducting literature review
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3. Develop Theoretical and empirical framework

The information obtained from different books and

journals need to be sorted under the main themes and
theories, highlighting agreements and disagreement
among the authors and identifying the unanswered
questions or gaps.
 Steps in conducting literature
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review
4. Writing up the Literature: recording
and organizing the literature in an
organized manner