Saunders Chapter 3 - Literature Review (1) (2).pdf

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1. 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
Literature Review

2. Slide 3.2
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Reasons for reviewing the literature
•To conduct a ‘preliminary’ search of existing
material that would have been discussed for the
proposal
•To organise valuable ideas and findings
•To identify other research that may be in progress
•To generate research ideas
•To develop a critical perspective subject of this chapter

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

4. Slide 3.4
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The Critical Review (1)
Approaches used
Deductive -
Use the literature to help you identify theories and
ideas that you will test using data. The conclusions
reached are certain, inevitable, inescapable
Inductive -
Explores the data to develop theories which are
then tested against the literature. The conclusions
reached are probable, reasonable, plausible,
believable

5. Slide 3.5
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The Critical Review (1)
Examples
Deductive –
•All men are mortal. (General and no specific to one man)
•Socratesis a man
•(Therefore,) Socrates is mortal ( specific)
Inductive -
•This ice is cold. (Specific, based on a direct observation.)
•All ice is cold. (General, can be applied to any ice)
•3 + 5 = 8 Three and five are odd numbers while eight is an even number.
Therefore, an odd number added to another odd number will result in an
even number.

6. Slide 3.6
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The Critical Review (1)
Approaches used
Deductive -
Develop
Theory
Formulate
Hypothesis
Collect &
analyze data
Accept/Reject
Hypothesis

7. Slide 3.7
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The Critical Review (1)
Approaches used
Inductive -
Observation
Pattern
Tentative
Hypothesis
Theory

8. Slide 3.8
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The Critical Review (2)
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)

9. Slide 3.9
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Adopting a critical perspective (1)
Skills for effective reading
•Previewing
•Annotating
•Summarising
•Comparing and contrasting
Harvard College Library (2006)

10. Slide 3.10
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Adopting a critical perspective (2)
The most important skills are
•The capacity to evaluate what you read
•The capacity to relatewhat you read to other
information
Wallace and Wray (2006)

11. Slide 3.11
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Adopting a critical perspective (3)
Questions to ask yourself
Why am I reading this? (helps to focus on your subject)
What is the author trying to do in writing this?
(helps deciding how valuable for your purpose)
How convincing is this?
What use can I make of this reading?
Adapted from Wallace and Wray (2006)

12. Slide 3.12
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
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 ( Harvard Ref)
•Acknowledge the research of others

13. Slide 3.13
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Is your literature review critical?
Checklists Box 3.2 and Box 3.3
Complete the checklists to evaluate your
literature review
Saunders et al. (2009)

14. Slide 3.14
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Structure of the literature review
Three common structures
•A single chapter
•A series of chapters
•Throughout the report

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

16. Slide 3.16
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Categories of Literature Sources
•Primary (published and unpublished)
•Secondary
•Tertiary
Detailed in Tables 3.1 and 3.2Saunders et al. (2009)

17. Slide 3.17
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Literature sources available
Literature sources available
Saunders et al. (2009)
Figure 3.2 Literature sources available

18. Slide 3.18
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The literature search strategy (1)
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)

19. Slide 3.19
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
The literature search strategy (2)
•Define the research parameters
Language (English), subject area (Accountancy), business sector
(manufacturing), geographic area( Europe), Publication period( last 10 years),
Literature type(journals, books)
•Generate key words
•These are the basic terms that describe your research questions/objectives
and will be used to search tertiary literature
•Discuss your research
•Brainstorm ideas
•Construct Relevance trees -use computer software

20. Slide 3.20
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Conducting a literature search (1)
Approaches can include
•Searching tertiary literature sources
•Obtaining relevant literature
•Scanning and browsing secondary literature
•Searching using the Internet

21. Slide 3.21
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Conducting a literature search (2)
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

22. Slide 3.22
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Conducting a literature search (3)
•Printed sources
•Databases –use of Boolean logic and free
text searching (Table 3.3)
•Scanning and browsing
•Searching the Internet (Tables 3.4 and 3.5)
Saunders et al. (2009)

23. Slide 3.23
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Conducting a literature search (4)
Searching the Internet
Saunders et al. (2003)
Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet

24. Slide 3.24
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Conducting a literature search (5)
Searching the Internet
Saunders et al. (2003)
Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet (Continued)

25. Slide 3.25
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Evaluating the literature
•Define the scope of your review
•Assess relevance and value
•Assess sufficiency

26. Slide 3.26
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Recording the literature
Make notes for each item you read
Record –
•Biographic details
•Brief summary of content
•Supplementary information
Sharp et al.(2002)

27. Slide 3.27
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Recording the literature
•Bibliographic details (Table 3.6)
•Brief summary
•Supplementary information (Table 3.7)
Saunders et al. (2009)

28. Slide 3.28
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
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)

29. Slide 3.29
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Summary: Chapter 3
The critical literature review
•Sets the research in context
•Leads the reader into later sections of the report
•Begins at a general level and narrows to specific
topics

30. Slide 3.30
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5
th
Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Summary: Chapter 3
A literature search requires
•Three main categories of sources
•Clearly defined research questions and
objectives
•Defined parameters
•Use of techniques –( brainstorming and
relevance trees)