Literature Review Slide

8/3/2019 Literature Review Slide

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Tackling the literature review

Faculty Research Methodology Course

25 October 2011

Aims

Suggest ways in which the literature may be used

To provide an overview of issues you might encounter


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Outline

Three parts

What is the literature review? Literature sources and some practicalities Tackling the literature review

Why refer to the literature?

Reasons include:

To build on the work of othersTo guide your researchTo focus your researchTo identify the gapTo help with your methodologyTo suggest data sourcesTo facilitate generalisationTo allow others to build on yourfindings in future


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What is the literature review? (3)

It is a criticalreview critique of arguments, authors etc Can quite easily slip into a non critical retelling of what

authors say.

Haywood & Wragg call this thethe furniture sale catalogue, in which everything merits one

paragraph entry no matter how skilfully it has been conducted:

Bloggs (1975) found this, Smith (1976) found that, Jones (1977)

found the other, Bloggs, Smith & Jones (1978) found happiness

in heaven.

Myresearch

Focuses on the structure oftelecommunication markets

Both wireless and fixed(broadband) markets

Asks how competitive andinnovative are these markets,

and how are they regulated?


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The largest international mobileoperator is

Many companies claim to be the worlds largest global operator.

.but who can actually claim this title?

Literature > research > literature

Research Question: Whichcompany is the worlds

largest mobile operator?What does the literature

tell us about largeness?

That largeness can be

measured in various ways:

StructurePerformanceAttitudinalThat certain types of data must

be collected to measure these

attributes of largeness

Does the literature

suggest types and

sources of data?


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Practical suggestions (1)

Make use of your supervisors

Get a feel for a field before jumping in

Read review articles and readers Obtain conference proceedings And perhaps even read a book


Libraries

Join and then visit all of the libraries in Glasgow Search copyright library catalogues Inter library loans Ask librarians for help

Author trail

Visit websites of leading departments in your field

Write mini-summaries of what youve read


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Record Where you find references and how you got there Productive search phrases What youve collected (Endnote etc) Where youve stored articles etc

Register for electronic table of contents of journals,industry newsletters etc

Subscribe to RSS feeds that many publishers nowoffer

Available literature sources

ReportsThesesEmails

Conference reportsCompany reports

Some governmentpublicationsUnpublished

manuscripts

NewspapersBooks

JournalsInternetSome government

publications

IndexesAbstractsCatalogues

EncyclopaediasDictionaries

BibliographiesCitation indexes

Primary Secondary Tertiary (search tools)

Increasing Level of Detail

Increasing Time to PublishSource: Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2000, Research MethodsFor Business Students, Prentice Hall, London.

There are more sources than just the Internet!


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Google alerts a useful

feature, if managed

correctly

Google Alerts be precise!

A good example A not so good example


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From Google to the articleinsome cases

Library databases


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You need to focus and rememberwhat works

Journal quality rankings


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Record what you have read

Use bibliographic software

Endnote

Wide range of input formats, cite as you write Can make notes and include keywords Searchable and exportable

Endnote an example


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And over to you

Any tips that you want to share

What search techniques have worked well? What sources/searches have been the most

productive?

What management tips do you have?

Some harsh realities (1)

You should

Accept that dead ends are inevitable Realise that the relevance of articles changes over

time, youremphasis will change as well.

Recognise that not everything you read will end up inthe final draft


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Some harsh realities (2)

Be aware that

The literature continually expandsYour box keeps on expandingAuthors keep on writing relevant materialYou must judge when to stop reading

The review is not exhaustive

Whole > Bits > Whole (1)

Conducting a literature review is a huge task

Quality vs. quantity

You can easily read too much You forget to reflect on what youve read You can get caught in intellectual dead ends


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Method vs. serendipity

Going outside the box you define for yourself is hardto do

Follow hunches But, too loose a structure means that detail &

understanding is often overlooked, and identifying

gaps difficult


Manageable tasks

Break the literature review down into smallachievable tasks

E.g., collect all the key papers by one particularauthor or the key authors in a field

Read the papers and then reflect on the value youcan gain from them. And dont forget to write a

summary of this reflection!


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Iterative

Repeat the small manageable tasks. Gradually build up your knowledge Tortoise vs. hare

Steady accumulation of knowledge andunderstanding

Read > Write > Reflect > Amend literatureparameters and continue search


Assembling the pieces takes time, and severalattempts

Structure and link the pieces together By field, author, theme, school of thought Consider the relevance of what you include Critically build your argument up, weave authors

together etc


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Limiting expectations aims

and content of the

Literature Review

Uppsala internationalisation models

Market imperfection models

Early Uppsala modelsInnovation models

Said why one model

was better than another

Identifying shortcomings

paving the way for the next

part of the review

Onto the next chapterEclectic paradigm

Transaction cost economics

Internalisation

What happened in practice?nDrew on previous knowledge

nManageable tasks and author trailing

nSerendipity played a role; complete changein emphasis resulted

nSeveral drafts; time away from to reflect

nPeriodic searches for literature thatsubsequently included

Considered the

methodological issues

Summary

The literature review

Provides a context within which your research takesplace

Can be frustrating and seemingly never ending Needs to be managed


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Reading

Fink, A. (1998). Conducting research literaturereviews: from paper to the Internet. Thousand Oaks,

California: Sage Publications

Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill. (2000). ResearchMethods for Business Students. Prentice Hall

Wallace, A and A Way (2006) Critical reading andwriting for postgraduates, SAGE Publications, London

Contact details

Dr Jason Whalley

Department of Management Science,

Strathclyde Business School,

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 141 548-4546

Fax: +44 (0) 141 552 6686

Email: [email protected]

W: www.strath.ac.uk/mansci

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Literature Review Slide