1. Sule Ozmen ozmens@yore.com.tr sozmen@marun.edu.tr
LITERATURE REVIEW
Sule Ozmen
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

2. BROAD PROBLEM AREA BUSINESS RESEARCH
is essential to obtain information about
ENVIRONMENT
ECONOMY
MARKET
ORGANIZATION
Competitors
Customers
Employees
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

3. Research in Managerial Areas
Production
Finance
Organizational Behavior
Marketing
Accounting
Human Resources
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

4. Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis
TYPES OF THE PROBLEM
Currently existing problem
Situation that require improvement
Conceptual issue that needs to be tightened (understand and define a concept better)
Currently existing problems:
Absenteeism
Turnover
Bad Financial ratios or their becoming worser
Decrease in productivity
High costs
Inability to meet demand
Extent of financial crisis effects on operations of banks, on a given sector etc.
Situations that require improvement:
Increase in productivity
Reducing cost, reducing returned commodities
reducing turnover, reducing absenteeism, Increasing quality of the service or the product
Achieving better financial ratios
Increasing sales
Increasing the effectiveness of promotion
Sales effort increase
Improvement in call centers and internet services
Improvement in order processing, order fullfillment,
Improving delivery services
Improving customer relationships
Initiating data warehouse projects
To find some answers empirically (measure by data gathering and testing the relationship)
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

5. LITERATURE SURVEY - Agenda
What is literature survey?
Why is it conducted?
 How is it conducted?
Identifying and extracting the relevant information
How is it written
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

6. What is literature survey?
Documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources about the broad problem area
Survey of published articles and books discussing theories and past empirical studies about a topic
It is almost universal in academic research projects
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

7. Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources:
libraries, on line libraries of Universities, public and private organizations like National Library, YÖK Documentation Center, Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Industry
books, journals, newspapers, magazines, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, master’s thesis, publications of research centers, public organizations.
ACCESS TO DATABASES
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

8. Secondary and primary data
Secondary data: Data that have been previously collected for some project other than the one at hand
State Institute of Statistics,
Chamber of Commerces,
Istanbul Stock Exchange
Primary data: Data gathered and assembled specifically for the research project at hand
Interviews,
Questionnaires,
Experiments
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

9. Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis
Why is it conducted?
In order not to ignore the important variables related with the problem concerned. Examples...
What variables to consider (parsinomy), why they are important This helps to construct theoretical framework and develop the hypothesis for testing.
Testability and replicability of the findings of the current research is enhanced.
The problem statement can be made with greater precision and clarity
Avoid the risk of “reinventing the wheel”. Not to waste efforts on tring to discover something that is already known.
Significancy and relevancy of the problem investigated is revealed to the scientific community
IMMEADIATELY AFTER THE FIRST BULLET
Not to ignore important variables:
In case of preliminary studies, like pilot studies, or unstructured or informal interviews to explore the relevant variables lit. Survey helps a lot. Because even the interviewees, the people you talk with may not be aware of it or not able to articulate them, express them, OR it may be too clear for them that they may not need to say it.
EXAMPLE: Problem is High Turnover of employees who are graduates of MBA.
However appriopriate test is applied, their analytical skills, judgement, leadership, motivation, oral and written communication skills are measured. But about one year they leave the job even though the payment is so high.
AREVIEW OF THE LITERATURE might indicate that when employees job expectations are not met they can quit. Their original expectations of their roles may not fit to their actual experiences. They may be overqualified for the given job.
When this is further investigated by interviewing the recruiters it was noted that realistic job previews have never offered to the candidates when they are interviewed for the job.
SECOND BULLET: Identifying the factors effecting sales increase or increase in market share, increase in commitment. These can be explained by many factors or by some important factors. Because manipulating few variables to increase sales is of course simpler and less costly.
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

10. Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis
How is it conducted? (1)
Identify & Access to the relevant sources
the published and unpublished materials that are available about the research topic
Bibliographic Databases; name of the article, author, source of the publication, year, volume, page numbers.
Abstract Databases
Full - text Databases
Extract the relevant information from the previously conducted researches.
BU BÖLÜMDE WORD LITERATURE SURVEY DOSYASI GÖSTERİLECEK
Discuss ways of gaining access to these sources
Access to databases.
Extracting the relevant information
Get the list of articles. This may include hundreds of items,
Glance at the titles and if you think that it is relevant to your subject topic, read the abstract and if you think that article is needed to be obtained then try to find if that journal is available in your university library or other Turkish Universities libraries or if you can access on line no problem. If no way to get it try to obtain it from abroad, subscribe to journal ....
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

11. How is it conducted? (2) Extract the relevant information
Take brief notes about the following issues
Problem
Variables
Sample
Data collection
Data analysis
Results
Conclusion
Any other information, comments
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

12. Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis
How is it written? (1)
Introduce the subject of the study
Highlight the problem (reader should be able to conceptualize the theoretical framework and understand the problem)
Summarize the work so far done on the topic in a manner that convinces the reader that the researcher has indeed surveyed what has been done before
A method of citing references and using quotations should be used.
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

13. Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis
How is it written? (2)
Purpose is to identify and highlight the important variables
Significant findings from earlier research will serve the foundation of the theoretical framework
Hypothesis can be devloped based on the previous findings
It is NOT presenting the all the studies in chronological order with bits and pieces of uncoordinated information
It should bring all relevant information in a convincing and logical manner
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

14. A (1) : Literature Review Evaluation
Evaluate an article related with area of your interest from business, marketing, finance and other journals.
The article should include a literature review, research and conclusion sections so that you can
comment on the literature review and
evaluate the research design
This evaluation should be about two pages
Please attach a copy of the article to your report.
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

15. The content of A (1) should be as follows.
What is the purpose of the literature review in this particular article?
How many sources did the author use?
How long was the literature review?
Do you think that literature review relates to the author’s thesis and leads you to understand better about the research topic. Does it drive you to the research topic?
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis

16. In the research design:
How the problem is formulated?
What are the sampling and data collection methods?
What is (are) the hypothesis tested?
Which statistical analysis method is used to analyse the data?
How the research results and findings are presented?
Is the conclusion in accordance with the findings?
Did the author make any recommendation depending on the result?
Sule Ozmen Seminar in Thesis