1.

The Critical Literature Review Chapter 4

Research Methods for Business

Faculty of Business Administration
Dr Mohamad Al Masarowah
University of jordan- Aqaba
2020-2021

Student Name :Heba sami

5200012
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 1. Discuss the functions of a literature review.

 2. Write a literature review on any given topic, documenting the references in the prescribed
manner.

 3. Discuss the ethical issues of documenting the literature review.

A literature review

 A literature review is “the selection of available documents (both published and

unpublished) on the topic, which contain information, ideas, data and evidence
written from a particular standpoint to fulfill certain aims or express certain views
on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective
evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed” (Hart,
1998 , p. 13).
The functions of the critical literature review

1.The research effort is positioned relative to existing knowledge and builds on this
knowledge.
2. You can look at a problem from a specific angle; it shapes your thinking and sparks
useful insights on the topic of your research.
3. You do not run the risk of “reinventing the wheel”, that is, wasting effort on trying to
rediscover something that is already known.
4. You are able to introduce relevant terminology and to define key terms used in your
writing. This is important because the same term may have different meanings, depending
on the context in which it is used. Definitions will also help you to give structure to your
essay, article or report.
5. You obtain useful insights of the research methods that others have used to provide an
answer to similar research questions. Knowledge of the research methods used by others
allows you to replicate existing research, which will help you to relate your research
findings to the findings of others.
6. The research effort can be contextualized in a wider academic debate. In other words, it
allows you to relate your findings to the findings of others.
The examples in Box 4.1 illustrate that
a critical review of the literature is vital in nearly all research projects,
regardless of the type of study.
a critical review of the literature is vital in nearly all research projects,
regardless of the type of study.
 Descriptive study :A critical review of the literature should help to come up with a
comprehensive overview of the relevant perspectives on value, a guiding definition of value
and an in‐depth overview of frameworks, instruments, and analytical tools.(EMMA
STUDY)BOX 4.2
 Fundamental research project is inductive and exploratory in nature. A review of the literature
has helped to develop a theoretical background, which provides an overview of the literature
pertinent to the specific topic he is studying. Relevant research findings, methodological issues,
and major conclusions of earlier and more recent work are put forward, the logical continuity
between earlier and more recent work is clarified, and controversial issues, when relevant, are
addressed. (George ’ s fundamental research)4.2.
 Applied study is deductive in nature A second review of the literature has allowed to develop a
theoretical background. This has helped to obtain a clear idea as to what variables will be
important to consider in his theoretical framework, why they are considered important, how
they are related to each other, and how they should be measured to solve the problem. A critical
review of the literature has also helped him to provide arguments for the relationships between
the variables in his conceptual causal model and to develop hypotheses.(Jims applied study)
The importance of literature review

1. a critical review of the literature is vital in nearly all research

projects, regardless of the type of study.
2. familiarity with the literature on your subject area is beneficial in
exploratory, descriptive, and in causal research.
3. A literature review is helpful in both an academic (or fundamental)
and a non‐academic (or applied)context. In both cases, a good
theoretical base will add rigor to the study.
4. In sum, a critical review of the literature will spark many useful
insights on your research topic; it will allow you to work in an expert
manner, to make informed decisions, and to benefit from existing
knowledge in many different ways.
HOW TO APPROACH THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Data sources:

The quality of a literature review depends on a cautious selection and

reading of books, academic and professional journals, reports, theses, conference proceedings, unpublished manuscripts, and the like.
Academic books and journals are, in general, the most useful
sources of information.

Other sources such as professional journals, reports, and even newspapers may also be valuable because they can provide you with specific, real world information about markets, industries, or companies.

Therefore, as a rule, you will need to use a combination of information resources. The precise combination of resources depends on the nature and the objectives of your research project.
Textbooks

Textbooks are a useful source of theory in a specific area.

An advantage of textbooks is that they can cover a broad range of topics. What’s more, textbooks can cover a topic
much more thoroughly than articles can. Hence, textbooks offer a good starting point from which to find more
detailed sources such as journal articles, theses, and unpublished manuscripts.
A downside of textbooks is that they tend to be less up to date
than journals.
 Journals
Advantage:
• Both academic and professional journals are important sources of up ‐to ‐date information
• Articles in academic journals have generally been peer‐reviewed: this means that the articles have been
subject to the scrutiny of experts in the same field before being accepted for publication.
Review articles :
1. Are very useful because they provide an overview of all the important research in a specific area.
2. Summarize previous research findings to inform the reader of the state of existing research.
3.It is may or may not contain a meta‐analysis: a type of data analysis in which the results of several studies are
combined and analyzed as if they were the results of one large study) summarize previous research findings to
inform the reader of the state of existing research. Review articles are very useful because they provide an
overview of all the important research in a specific area.
Research articles: are reports of empirical research, describing one or a few related studies. The conceptual
background section of a research article provides a compact overview of relevant literature.
• provide a detailed description of the purpose of the study, the method(s) used, and the results of the study.
 PhD theses often contain an exhaustive review of the literature in a specific area.
 Most PhD theses include several empirical chapters. These chapters often have the same structure and
characteristics as academic journal articles.
 Note that not every empirical chapter of a thesis is eventually published in an academic journal.
Conference proceedings

 Conference proceedings can be useful in providing the latest research, or

research that has not (yet) been published.
 Conference proceedings are very up to date. This information source is quite
valuable.
NOTE :Not every manuscript presented at a conference is eventually
published in an academic journal; hence you must critically assess the quality of
this information source.
Unpublished manuscripts

 The APA defines an unpublished manuscript as any information source that

is not “officially” released by an individual, publishing house, or other
company.
 Examples of unpublished manuscripts may include papers accepted for
publication but still “in press,” data from an unpublished study, letters,
manuscripts in preparation, and personal communications (including e‐
mails).
 Unpublished manuscripts are often very up to date.
 Reports

 A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and
purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always
in the form of written documents.
 Government departments and corporations commission or carry out a large amount of research
 Their published findings provide a useful source of specific market, industry, or company
information.
Newspapers

 A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written 

information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white
or gray background.
 Newspapers provide up‐to‐date business information.
 They are a useful source of specific market, industry, or company information.
 Note that opinions in newspapers are not always unbiased.
 The Internet
The amount of information that can be found on the World Wide Web is enormous.
Note that the Internet is unregulated and unmonitored.
A source that may help you to assess the quality of online information is Cooke (2001). You can also find useful information on the Internet itself; several universities have developed useful guidelines to assess the quality of information found online (check, for instance, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/ Internet/Evaluate.html).

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! can help you to find relevant information.
 Searching for literature
 Previously, one had to manually go through several bibliographical indexes that are compiled
periodically, listing the journals, books, and other sources in which published work in the area of
interest could be found.
 With modern technology, locating sources where the topics of interest have been published has
become much easier. Almost every library today has computer online systems to locate published
information.
 Computerized databases provide a number of advantages:

1. First, they save enormous amounts of time.

2. Second, they are comprehensive in their listing and review of references

3.Third, gaining access to them is relatively inexpensive. For these reasons the researcher can focus
on material most central to the research effort.
 Most libraries have the following electronic
resources at their disposal

1. Electronic journals.
2. Full‐text databases.
3. Bibliographic databases.
4. Abstract databases.
 Online databases
 Databases contain raw data stored in a variety of ways.
 Computerized databases can be purchased that deal with statistical data, financial data, texts, and the
like.
 Computer network links allow the sharing of these databases, which are updated on a regular basis.
 Most university libraries have computerized databases pertaining to business
information that can be readily accessed.
SOME ONLINE RESOURCES USEFUL FOR BUSINESS RESEARCH:
1. ABI/INFORM Global.
2. The Business Periodicals Index (BPI
3. Dow Jones Factiva.
4. EconL it.
5. The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS.
6. PsycINFO.
7. SSRN (Social Science Research Network.
8. Web of Stories.
9. World Development Indicators (World Bank).
10. RePEc (Research Papers in Economics.
On the Web
Some of the many websites useful for business research are provided below:

 General Example: Bureau of Census: http://www.census.gov

 Accounting :ARN: http://www.ssrn.com/update/arn/. The Accounting Research
Network (ARN) was founded to increase communication among scholars and
practitioners of accounting worldwide.

 Management :Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org

 Society for Human Resource Management: www.shrm.org
 Academy of Management: http://www.aomonline.org
 Financial economics :CNN financial network: http://money.cnn.com
 Marketing : http://www.knowthis.com
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATABASES
Bibliographic Index. A cumulative bibliography of bibliographies – an index that
lists, by subject, sources of bibliographies.
2. Business Books in Print. This indexes, by author, title, and business subject, the
books in print in the areas of finance, business, and economics.
3. Business Periodicals Index. This is a cumulative subject index covering 270
business periodicals.
4. Management Information Guide. This offers bibliographic references in many
business areas.
5. Human Resource Management Abstracts. This is an index of articles that deal with
the management of people and the subject area of organizational behavior.
6. Psychological Abstracts. This summarizes the literature in psychology, covering
several hundred journals, reports, monographs, and other scientific documents.
7. Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin. This has a selective subject index of
books, yearbooks, directories, government documents, pamphlets, and over a
thousand periodicals relating to national and international economic and public
affairs.
8. Work Related Abstracts. This contains abstracts of articles, dissertations, and books
 Evaluating the literature
 Accessing the online system and searching for literature in the area of interest will provide a comprehensive
bibliography on the subject. Because the search for literature can sometimes provide as many as 100 or more results,
you will have to carefully select relevant books and articles.
 Titles of the articles or books indicate which of them may be pertinent and which others are likely to be
peripheral to the contemplated study.
 The Abstract of an article usually provides an overview of the study purpose, general research strategy,
findings, and conclusions. A good abstract thus provides you with enough information to help you to decide whether an
article is relevant for your study.
 An article’s introduction also provides an overview of the problem addressed by the research and specific
research objectives. The introduction often ends with a summary of the research questions that guide the study.
 The problem statement, research questions ,and /or the research objectives give you a feel for what the
researcher is studying and thus for the relevance of the article to your study.
 A good literature review needs to include references to the key studies in the field.
 For this reason, articles and books that are often cited by others must be included in your literature review, even if these
articles and books were written 30 or even 40 years ago.
 more recent work should also be incorporated in your literature survey, since recent work will build on a broader and
more up‐to‐date stream of literature than older work.
 The quality of the journal that published an article can also be used as an indicator of the quality of an article.
Evaluating the literature
WE HAVE TO ANSWER THIS QUESTIONS:
● Is the main research question or problem statement presented in a clear and analytical way?
● Is the relevance of the research question made transparent?
● Does this study build directly upon previous research?
● Will the study make a contribution to the field?
● Is there a theory that guides the research?
● Is the theory described relevant and is it explained in an understandable, structured, and convincing manner?
● Are the methods used in the study explained in a clear manner (description of methods)?
● Is the choice of certain methods motivated in a convincing way (justification of methods)?
● Is the sample appropriate?
● Are the research design and/or the questionnaire appropriate for this study?
● Are the measures of the variables valid and reliable?
● Has the author used the appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques?
● Do the conclusions result from the findings of the study?
● Do the conclusions give a clear answer to the main research question?
● Has the author considered the limitations of the study?
● Has the author presented the limitations in the article?
Documenting the literature review
1. As stated earlier, the purpose of the literature review is to help the researcher to build on
the work of others. to make informed decisions during the various stages of the research
project.
2. A review of the literature identifies and highlights relevant themes and documents
significant findings, frameworks, and/or instruments from earlier research that will
serve as the foundation for the current project.
 Documenting the literature review is important to convince the reader that the researcher
is knowledgeable about the problem area and has done the preliminary homework that is
necessary to conduct the research.
 A point to note is that the literature survey should bring together all relevant information
in a cogent and logical manner instead of presenting all the studies in chronological
order with bits and pieces of uncoordinated information.
 A literature review is intended to synthesize (and not necessarily to summarize) relevant
research on your topic. To synthesize is to combine two or more elements to form a new
whole.
EXAMPLE:

Organizational effectiveness Organization theorists have defined organizational

effectiveness (OE) in various ways. OE has been described in terms of objectives
(Georgopolous &Tannenbaum, 1957), goals (Etzioni, 1960), efficiency(Katz & Kahn,
1966), ressources acquisition (Yuchtman & Seashore, 1967), employee satisfaction
(Cummings1977), interdependence (Pfeiffer, 1977), and organizational vitality (Colt,
1995). As Coulter (2002) remarked, there is little consensus on how to conceptualize,
measure, or explain OE. This should, however, not come as a surprise to us since OE
models are essentially value‐based classifications of the construct (the values being those
of the researchers) and the potential number of models that can be generated by
researchers is virtually limitless. Researchers are now moving away from a single model
and are taking contingency approaches to conceptualizing OE (Cameron, 1996;
Wernerfelt, 1998; Yetley, 2001). However, they are still limiting themselves to examining
the impact of the dominant constituencies served and the organization’s life cycle on OE
instead of taking a broader, more dynamic approach (Dahl, 2001, p. 25).
 ETHICAL ISSUES

 Earlier in this chapter we have explained that research involves building on the work of
others. When you summarize, add to, or challenge the work of others, there are two
important pitfalls that you have to beware of:
 1. Purposely misrepresenting the work of other authors – that is, their viewpoints, ideas,
models, findings, conclusions, interpretations, and so on.
 2. Plagiarism – the use of another ’ s original words, arguments, or ideas as though they were
your own, even if this is done in good faith, out of carelessness, or out of ignorance.
 Two other reasons to take plagiarism very seriously are provided by IJzermans and Van
Schaaijk ( 2007 ). They point out that:
 1.Plagiarism makes it is difficult for the reader to verify whether your claims about other
authors and sources are accurate.
 2. You are participating in a scientific debate. You need to make your position in this debate
clear by designating the authors whose work you are building on or whose ideas you are
challenging.
 Forms of plagiarism:
1. “The Ghost Writer”
The writer turns in another ’ s work, word‐for‐word, as his or her own.
2. “The Photocopy”
The writer copies signify cant portions of text straight from a single source, without alteration.
3. “The Potluck Paper”
The writer tries to disguise plagiarism by copying from several different sources, tweaking the
sentences to make them fit together while retaining most of the original phrasing.
4. “The Poor Disguise”
Although the writer has retained the essential content of the source, he or she has altered the
paper ’ s appearance slightly by changing key words and phrases.
5. “The Labor of Laziness”
The writer takes the time to paraphrase most of the paper from other sources and make it all fit
together, instead of spending the same effort on original work.
6. “The Self‐Stealer”
The writer “borrows” generously from his or her previous work, violating policies concerning the
expectation of originality adopted by most academic institutions.
1.The Forgotten Footnote”
The e writer mentions an author ’ s name for a source, but neglects to include specific
information on the location of the material referenced. The is often masks other forms of
plagiarism by obscuring source locations.
2. “The Misinformed”
The writer provides inaccurate information regarding the sources, making it impossible to find
them.
3. “The e Too‐Perfect Paraphrase”
The e writer properly cites a source, but neglects to put in quotation marks text that has been
copied word‐for‐word, or close to it. Although attributing the basic ideas to the source, the
writer is falsely claiming original presentation and interpretation of the information.
4. “The e Resourceful Citer”
The e writer properly cites all sources, paraphrasing and using quotations appropriately. The e
catch?
The e paper contains almost no original work! It is sometimes difficult to spot this form of
plagiarism because it looks like any other well‐researched document.
5. “The e Perfect Crime”
Well, we all know it doesn't ’ t exist. In this case, the writer properly quotes and cites sources in
some places, but goes on to paraphrase other arguments from those sources without citation.
The is way, the writer tries to pass off the paraphrased material as his or her own analysis of the
cited material
Bibliography and References

 APA FORMAT FOR REFERENCING RELEVANT ARTICLES

 A Bibliography is a listing of work that is relevant to the main topic of research

interest arranged in alphabetical order of the last names of the authors.

 Reference list is a subset of the bibliography, which includes details of all the
citations used in the literature review.
At least three modes of referencing are followed in business research.
1. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (2012),
2. The Chicago Manual of Style (2010).
3. Turabian’s Manual for Writers (2013).
Specimen format for citing different types of references (APA format):

Book by a single author

Leshin, C.B. (1997). Management on the World Wide Web. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Book by more than one author
Diener, E., Lucas, R., Schimmack, U., & Helliwell, J.F. (2009). Well‐being for
public policy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Book review:
Nichols, P. (1998). A new look at Home Services [Review of the book Providing
Home Services to the Elderly by Girch, S.].
Family Review Bulletin, 45, 12–13.
 Specimen format for citing different types of references (APA format):

Conference proceedings publication

Sanderson, R., Albritton B., Schwemmer R., & Van de Sompel, H. (2011). Shared
canvas: A collaborative model for medieval
manuscript layout dissemination. Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM/IEEE Joint
Conference on Digital Libraries, pp. 175–184.
Ottawa, Ontario.

Doctoral dissertation
Hassan, M. (2014). The Lives of micro‐marketers: Why do some differentiate
themselves from their competitors more than
others? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge.
Specimen format for citing different types of references (APA format)

Journal article
Jeanquart, S., & Peluchette, J. (1997). Diversity in the workforce and
management models. Journal of Social Work Studies,
43 (3), 72–85.
Deffenbacher, J.L., Oetting, E.R., Lynch, R.S., & Morris, C.D. (1996). The
expression of anger and its consequences. Behavior
Research and Therapy, 34, 575–590.
Journal article in press
Van Herpen, E., Pieters, R., & Zeelenberg, M. (2009). When demand accelerates
demand: Trailing the bandwagon, Journal of
Consumer Psychology.
Journal article with DOI
REFERENCING AND QUOTATION IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW SECTION

1. Todd (2015) found the more motivated students are . . .

2. More recent studies of transformational leadership (Hunt, 2014; Osborn, 2013) focus
on . . .
3. In a follow‐up study from 2013, Green demonstrates . . .

As can be seen from the above, if the name of the author appears as part of the narrative as
in the case of 1,the year of publication alone has to be cited in parentheses.
Note that in case 2, both the author and the year are cited in parentheses, separated by a
comma.
If the year and the author are a part of the textual discussion as in 3
above, the use of parentheses is not warranted.
 Note also the following:
1. Within the same paragraph, you need not include the year after the first citation so long as the
study
cannot be confused with other studies cited in the article. An example of this is:
- Lindgren (2009, p. 24) defines satisfaction as “the customer’s fulfillment response. It is the
judgment that
a . . . service . . . provides a pleasurable level of consumption‐related fulfillment.” Lindgren
finds that . . .

2. When a work is authored by two individuals, always cite both names every time the reference
occurs in
the text, as follows:
- As Tucker and Snell (2014) pointed out . . .
- As has been pointed out (Tucker & Snell, 2014), . . .
3. When a work has more than two authors but fewer than six authors, cite all authors the
first time the
reference occurs, and subsequently include only the surname of the first author followed by
“et al.” as
per the example below:
- Bougie, Pieters, and Zeelenberg (2003) found . . . (first citation) Bougie et al. (2003)
found . . . (subsequent citations)
4. When a work is authored by six or more individuals, cite only the surname of the first
author followed
by et al. and the year for the first and subsequent citations. Join the names in a multiple‐
author citation
in running text by the word and. In parenthetical material, in tables, and in the reference
list, join the
names by an ampersand (&).
 Quotations in text
 Quotations should be given exactly as they appear in the source. The original
wording, punctuation, spelling, and italics must be preserved even if they are
erroneous. The citation of the source of a direct quotation should always include
the page number(s) as well as the reference.
 Use double quotation marks for quotations in text. Use single quotation marks to
identify the material that was enclosed in double quotation marks in the original
source. If you want to emphasize certain words in a quotation, underline them and
immediately after the underlined words, insert within brackets the words: italics
added. Use three ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate that you have omitted material
from the original source.
 If you intend publishing an article in which you have quoted extensively from a
copyrighted work, it is important that you seek written permission from the owner
of the copyright.