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University of Professional Studies
Literature Review
Lecture Four

Outline of Presentation
 Introduction
 Definition
 Forms of Literature Review
 Reasons for conducting Literature Review
 Literature Review Process
 Structure of Literature Review
 Presentation of Literature Review
 Evaluating the content of literature review
2

Introduction
To quote the words of Jankowicz (2005, p. 161):
“…the work that you do is not done in a vacuum, but builds on the
ideas of other people who have studied the field before you. This
requires you describe what has been published, and to marshal the
information in a relevant and critical way”
Whatever the objective(s) of a research may be, its significance is
invariably judged in relation to other peoples research and findings.
Therefore, one really needs to demonstrate awareness of the current
state of knowledge in the chosen area of research and show how his/her
research fits into the wider context (Gill & Johnson, 2002). This can be
achieved through a literature review.
3

What is Literature Review?
A literature review is a part of the research report where
the researcher analyzes and discusses published/scholarly
information relating to the subject area under research.
A literature review surveys scholarly articles, books and other
sources (e.g. dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to a
particular issue, area of research, or theory by providing a
description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work.
4

What is Literature Review Cont’d
It is a critical and evaluative account of what has been
published on a chosen research topic.
Its purpose is to summarise, synthesise and analyse the
arguments of others.
You should describe and analyse the knowledge that exists
and what gaps occur in research related to your field of interest.
(This should clarify the relationship between your own research and
the work that has previously been done.)
It should reveal similarities and differences, consistencies and
inconsistencies and controversies in previous research.
5

What Literature Review is not
 It is not primarily an argument for the importance of what it is
you are researching. While it is necessary to explain what is the
primary purpose of your research, the reader of a literature
review will assume that the need for undertaking the research has
already been established.
 It is not a descriptive list of papers or summaries. You must not
just list your sources and describe them in detail one at a time.
 A literature review is organised around ideas, not the sources
themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organised. You
should assess previous studies and discuss their strengths and
weaknesses.
6

Forms of Literature Review
Two forms of literature review are usually conducted for different
reasons (Sharp et al, 2002)
1. The preliminary review which helps the researcher to
generate and refine research ideas. This review usually does
not form part of the research project proper
2. The critical review, which forms part of the research project,
helps the researcher
7

The Purpose of the Critical Literature
Review
Reviewing the literature critically provides the foundation on
which a research is built.
The precise purpose of reviewing the literature will depend on
the approach used in the research.
1.Deductive approach: The literature is used to identify the
theories and ideas that will be tested using data
2.Inductive approach: the literature review helps you relate
your findings to existing knowledge.
8

Reasons for conducting Literature
Review
Literature review may be conducted for a number of reasons. These
include:
1. Literature review offers an overview of significant literature
published on a topic
2. To help you refine further your research questions and objectives
3. To highlight research possibilities that have been overlooked
implicitly in research to date. That it helps to identify knowledge
gaps
4. To discover explicit recommendation for further research. These
can provide you with an excellent justification for your own
research questions and objectives
9

Reasons for conducting Literature
Review Cont’d
5. To help avoid simply repeating work that has been
done already
6. To sample current opinions in newspapers,
professional and trade journals, thereby gaining
insights into the aspects of your research questions
and objectives that are considered newsworthy
7. To discover and provide an insight into research
approaches, strategies and techniques that may be
appropriate to your own research questions and
objectives
10

Literature Review Process
The process can be likened to an upward spiral culminating into the final draft
of a written critical review. The processes are:
 State the research problem/questions and objectives
 Define the parameters for your search
 Generate and refine key words for the search
 Conduct literature search
 Obtain literature
 Evaluate the literature: determine which literature makes a
significant contribution to the understanding of your work
 Record the relevant literature
 Start drafting the literature review: this should involve description,
analysis and synthesis
The process may be repeated a number of time to come out with a critical
review report
11

Conducting the Literature Review
Literature reviews should comprise the following
elements:
 An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration,
along with the objectives of the literature review
 Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in
support of a particular position, those against, and those offering
alternative theses entirely)
 Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from
the others
 Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their
argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the
greatest contribution to the understanding and development of
their area of research
12

The Content of Critical Literature
Review
The content of the critical literature review need:
1. To include the key academic theories within your
chosen area of research
2. To include relevant empirical research conducted
on the chosen area
3. To demonstrate your knowledge of your chosen
area is up to date
4. Show clear referencing which will enable those
reading your project report to find the original
publications you cite
13

Evaluating the Content of Critical
Literature Review
Ask if you have:
 shown how your research question relates to previous research
reviewed
 assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the previous research
reviewed
 been objective in your discussion and assessment of other people’s
research
 included references that is counter to your our opinion
 made reasoned judgements about the value and relevance of others’
research to your own
 highlighted those areas where new research (yours!) is needed to
provide fresh insights and taken into account in your arguments.
 justified clearly your own ideas
14

The Structure of the Critical Review
Three common structures are identified. The literature review can
be written in:
1. A single chapter
2. A series of chapters
3. Throughout the project report as you tackle various issues
For dissertation, adopt a single chapter approach with the following
components:
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical and
3. Empirical
4. Concepts, Constructs and Operational definitions
15

Conducting Theoretical Review
Theoretical literature refers to the various theories or
abstractions expressing the ideas and concepts on a subject
matter.
To conduct a theoretical literature review:
Identify the key themes
Identify your variables of interest if any
Identify and discuss the theories bordering on the variables
Synthesize and evaluate these theories with respect to your
hypothesis or proposition, or thesis or research question
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Conducting Theoretical Review
Cont’d
 Create a mind-map of the theories to write about
 Convert the mind-map into a story-board or an outline
 Get the necessary information and synthesize and evaluate
under each sub-theme or theory.
 Relate these to your hypothesis or proposition or research
question.
17

Sources of Information for
Theoretical Literature Review
 Text Books
 Book Reviews
 Peer reviewed Journals
 Accredited scholarly publications
 Web (scholarly search engines)
18

Empirical Literature Review
After the theoretical literature look for published scholarly
research evidence in respect of the key theories in you work.
Discuss whether they support your hypothesis or counter your
hypothesis or emergent views and arguments.
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Concepts and Constructs
A Concept is a generally accepted collection of meanings or
characteristics associated with certain phenomenon, events,
objects, conditions, situations or behaviors.
 Eg. Employee performance, customer satisfaction, quality,
strategic management, strategic leadership.
A Construct is an image or idea specifically invented for a
given research and or theory building purpose.
E.g. Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction is defined as "the extent
to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction)
their jobs" (Spector, 1997, p. 2
20

Operational Definition
An operational definition is a definition stated in terms specific
testing or measurement criteria.
These terms must have empirical referents that we must be able to
count or in some other way gather information through.
The definition must specify the characteristic and how they are to
be observed.
The specifications and characteristics must be so clear that any one
using it will classify the objects the same way
E.g. “…..and Job Satisfaction will be measured by or
operationalized by ……..”
21

Presentation of the Literature Review
Three different approaches can be adopted if there are no
institutional regulation or requirement. These are:
1.Chronological: present the information according to when
they were published [from the most recent to the earliest or vice
versa]
2.Thematic: information is organized along topic(s) or issue(s),
rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time
may still be an important factor in a thematic review.
3.Methodological: presentation focuses on the "methods" or
“strategies” the researchers or writer used
22

Planning your Literature Search
Strategy
The planning should include:
The parameters of your search
 The key words and search terms you intend to use
The databases and search engines you intend to use
The criteria you intend to use to select the relevant and useful
studies from all the items you find
23

Defining the Parameters of your
search
You need to be clear on the following:
 Language of publication
 Subject area
 Business sector
 Geographical area
 Publication period
 Literature type
24

Generating your Key words
Could use one or a number of different techniques in combination:
Discussion with colleagues, your project tutor and handbook
Initial reading
Dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias and handbook
Mind mapping
Brainstorming
Relevance tree
25

Conducting your literature search
The literature search could be conducted using a variety of
approaches:
 Tertiary literature sources
 Literature referenced in books and journals
 Scanning and browsing secondary literature in your
library
 Searching using the internet
26

Sources of Information
1. Untested opinion
2. Self-evident truth
3. Authoritative source (documents from authoritative
sources)
4. Literary works
5. Scientific method
6. postulations
27

Sources of Literature
Primary Tertiary
 Reports
 Theses
 E-mail, Memos, minutes
 Conference proceedings
 Company reports
 Unpublished manuscript
sources
 Some government
publications such as
white paper etc.
 Indexes
 Abstracts
 Catalogues
 Encyclopedia
 Dictionaries
 Bibliographies
 Citation Indexes
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Secondary
 Books
 Journals
 Newspapers
 Some government
Publications

Evaluating the Literature
Evaluating the literature gathered involve defining the scope of your review and assessing the value
of the items that you have obtained in helping you to answer your research questions. Ask yourself
the following questions:
 Relevance
 How recent is the item?
 Is the item likely to have been superseded?
 Are the research questions or objectives sufficiently close to your own to make it relevant to
your own research?
 Is the context sufficiently different to make it marginal to your research questions and
objectives?
 Have you seen references to this item (or its authors) in other items that were useful?
 Does the item support or contradict your arguments?
 Value
 Does the item appear to be biased?
 What are the methodological omissions within the work?
 Is the precision sufficient?
 Does the item provide guidance for future research?
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