Slide 3.1 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 Chapter 3 Critically reviewing the literature

Slide 3.2 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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

Slide 3.3 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 Source: Saunders et al. (2003) Figure 3.1 The literature review process

Slide 3.4 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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

Slide 3.5 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 Key purposes  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)

Slide 3.6 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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)

Slide 3.7 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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)

Slide 3.8 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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)

Slide 3.9 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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

Slide 3.10 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 Three common structures  A single chapter  A series of chapters  Throughout the report

Slide 3.11 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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)

Slide 3.12 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  Primary (published and unpublished)  Secondary Detailed in Tables 3.1 and 3.2 Saunders et al. (2009)

Slide 3.13 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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 literature, and good selection can be accessed from most university libraries (printed or online)

Slide 3.14 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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, 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.

Slide 3.15 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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.

Slide 3.16 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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.

Slide 3.17 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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.

Slide 3.18 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  Newspaper are good source of topical events, developments within business and government, as well as recent 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

Slide 3.19 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  Reports include market research reports such as those produced by Mintel and keynote 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

Slide 3.20 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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.

Slide 3.21 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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.

Slide 3.22 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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)

Slide 3.23 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  Define the research parameters  Generate key words  Discuss your research  Brainstorm ideas  Construct Relevance trees - use computer software

Slide 3.24 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  For most research questions and objectives you will have a good idea of which subject matter is going to be relevant.  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).

Slide 3.25 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  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.  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.

Slide 3.26 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  Key words are the basic terms that describe your research questions(s) and objectives, and will be used to search the tertiary literature. Keywords can be identified using one or a number of different techniques in combination.

Slide 3.27 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  We believe you should be taking every opportunity to discuss your research. In discussing you work with others, whether face to face, by 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.

Slide 3.28 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009  Define the scope of your review  Assess relevance and value  Assess sufficiency

Slide 3.29 Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5 th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009 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)