1. LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH DESIGN

2. WHY DO A LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review is a critical look at the existing research that is significant to the work that you are carrying out
Helps to develop a good understanding and insight into relevant previous research and the trends that have emerged
In all project reports, you should return to the key issues from the literature in your discussion and conclusions

3. THE LITERATURE REVIEW PROCESS
Source: © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis, Adrian Thornhill and Martin Jenkins 2003

4. KEY WORDS AND LITERATURE REVIEW
The identification of key words or ‘search’ terms is the most important part of planning your search for relevant literature
Key words are the basic terms that describe your research question(s) and objectives, and will be used to search the tertiary literature
Techniques for generating keywords include:
Discussions
Brainstorming
Initial reading, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, handbooks and thesauruses
Relevance trees
which key words are directly relevant to your research question(s) and objectives;
which areas you will search first and which your search will use later;
which areas are more important – these tend to have more branches.
To construct a relevance tree:
1  Start with your research question or objective at the top level.
2  Identify two or more subject areas that you think are important.
3  Furthersubdivideeachmajorsubjectareaintosub-areasthatyouthinkareofrelevance.
4  Furtherdividethesub-areasintomoreprecisesub-areasthatyouthinkareofrelevance.

5. KEY WORDS AND LITERATURE REVIEW
Relevance Tree
Source: © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

6. LITERATURE SOURCES AVAILABLE
Source: © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009

7. STRATEGIES IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW
start at a more general level before narrowing down to your specific research question(s) and objectives
provide a brief overview of key ideas and themes
summarise, compare and contrast the ideas of the key writers
narrow down to highlight previous research work most relevant to your own research
provide a detailed account of the findings of this research and show how they are related
highlight those aspects where your own research will provide fresh insights
lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project report, which explore these issues

8. CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE
whichever way you structure your review you must demonstrate that you have read, understood and evaluated the items you have located
link the different ideas you find in the literature to form a coherent and cohesive argument, which sets in context and justifies your research
your literature review should be organised thematically around the ideas contained in the research being reviewed rather than the researchers
use sub-headings within the literature review to help guide your reader
the structure of your literature review should draw your reader’s attention to those issues which are going to be the focus of your research
your literature review lead your reader into subsequent sections of your project report

9. RESEARCH DESIGN

10. WHAT IS YOUR RESEARCH DESIGN
Your research design is the general plan of how you will go about answering your research question(s)
It will contain:
clear objectives, derived from your research question(s)
specify the sources from which you intend to collect data
consider the constraints that you will inevitably have (e.g. access to data, time, location and money)
discuss ethical issues
You must have valid reasons for all your research design decisions and justifications should always be based on your research question(s) and objectives

11. THE PURPOSE OF YOUR RESEARCH
EXPLORATORY
DESCRIPTIVE
EXPLANATORY
An exploratory study is a valuable means of finding out ‘what is happening; to seek new insights; to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light’ (Robson 2002:59). It is particularly useful if you wish to clarify your understanding of a problem, such as if you are unsure of the precise nature of the problem
descriptive research is ‘to portray an accurate profile of persons, events or situations’ (Robson 2002:59). This may be an extension of, or a forerunner to, a piece of exploratory research or, more often, a piece of explanatory research
Studies that establish causal relationships between variables may be termed explanatory research. The emphasis here is on studying a situation or a problem in order to explain the relationships between variables (Box 5.2). You may find, for example, that a cursory analysis of quantitative data on manufacturing scrap rates shows a relationship between scrap rates and the age of the machine being operated

12. DATA COLLECTION PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION observation
structured, semi-structured, unstructured interviews
in-depth and group interviews
questionnaires

13. CREDIBILITY OR RESEARCH FINDINGS
Reliability
1 Will the measures yield the same results on other occasions? 2 Will similar observations be reached by other observers? 3 Is there transparency in how sense was made from the raw data?
Validity
Reliability refers to the extent to which your data collection techniques or analysis proce- dures will yield consistent findings
Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Is the relationship between two variables a causal relationship?

14. THE ETHICS OF RESEARCH DESIGN
the research design should not subject those you are researching (the research population) to embarrassment, harm or any other material disadvantage.