RFC 027

BUSINESS RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION
⚫ Review of literature is one of the most important steps
in the research process.
⚫ It is an account of what is already known about a
particular phenomenon.
⚫ The main purpose of literature review is to convey to
the readers about the work already done & the
knowledge & ideas that have been already established
on a particular topic of research.
⚫ Literature review is a laborious task, but it is essential if
the research process is to be successful.
 REVIEW
⚫A literature review uses as its database reports of
primary or original scholarship & does not report
new primary scholarship itself. The primary reports
used in the literature may be verbal, but in the vast
majority of cases, report are written documents. The
types of scholarship may be empirical, theoretical,
critical/analytic, or methodological in nature.
Second a literature review seeks to describe,
summarize, evaluate, clarify &/or integrate the
content of primary reports.
…(H.M. Cooper, 1988)
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• A literature review is an evaluative report of information found in
the literature related to selected area of study. The review
describes, summarizes, evaluates & clarifies this literature. It gives
a theoretical base for the research & helps to determine the nature
of research.
…(Queensland University, 1999)
• A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical
points of knowledge on a particular topic of research.
…(ANM, 2000)
• A literature review is an account of what has been already
established or published on a particular research topic by
accredited scholars & researchers.
…(University of Toronto, 2001)
Identification of a research problem & development or refinemen
of research questions.
Generation of useful research questions or projects/activities fo
the discipline.
Orientation to what is known & not known about an area o
inquiry to ascertain what research can best contribute t
knowledge.
Determination of any gaps or inconsistencies in a body of
knowledge.
Discovery of unanswered questions about subjects, concepts or
problems.
Determination of a need to replicate a prior study in
different study settings or different samples or size or
diffewrwewn.drtjaysesthupadtidyar.bploogsppout.cloam tions.
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Identification of relevant theoretical or conceptual
framework for research problems.
Identification or development of new or refined clinical
interventions to test through empirical research.
Description of the strengths & weaknesses of
design/methods of inquiry & instruments used in earlier
research work.
Development of hypothesis to be tested in a research study.
Helps in planning the methodology of the present research
study.
It also helps in development of research instruments.
Idewnwwt.idfrijacyeashtpiaotidnar.bolofgsspout.ciotmable design & data
collection methods for a research study.
The purpose of a literature review is to convey to the
reader previous knowledge & facts established on a
topic, & their strength & weakness.
The literature review allows the reader to be updated
with the state of research in a field & any contradictions
that may exist with challenges findings of other research
studies.
It helps to develop research investigative tools & to
improve research methodologies.
It also provide the knowledge about the problems faced
by the previous researchers’ while studying same topic.
Besides enhancing researchers’ knowledge about
thewwtwo.dprjaiyces,hpwatidrairt.binloggspoat.colmiterature review helps
to:
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Place each in the context of its contribution to the
understanding of subject under review.
Describe the relationship of each study to other research
studies under consideration.
Identify new ways to interpret & shed light on any gaps
in previous research.
Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory
previous studies.
Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication
of effort.
Point a way forward for further research. See what has
& has not been investigated.
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Develop general explanation for observed variations in a
behavior or phenomenon.
Identify potential relationship between concepts & to
identify researchable hypothesis.
Learn how others have defined & measured key concepts.
Identify data sources that other researchers have used.
Develop alternative research projects.
Discover how a research project is related to the work of
others.
Place one’s original work (in case of thesis or
diswswew.rdrtjaayetsihopantid)arc.bloognsptoet.coxmt of the existing
literature.
Literature can be reviewed from two
sources:
1. Primary sources
2. Secondary sources
1. Primary Sources
⚫ Literature review mostly relies on primary sources,
i.e. research reports, which are description of studies written
by researchers who conducted them.
⚫ A primary sources is written by a person who developed the
theory or conducted the research, or is the description of an
investigation written by the person who conducted it.
⚫ Most primary sources are found in published literature.
⚫ For example, a nursing research article.
Example of a primary source: An original qualitative on patient
experiences in the ICU: Hupcey, J. E. (2000). Feeling safe the
psychosocial needs of ICU patients. Journal of Nursing
A credible literature
⚫ Scholarship, review reflects the use of mainly
32:361-367.
primary sources.
2. Secondary Sources

⚫ Secondary source research documents are description of

studies prepared by someone other than the original
researcher.
⚫ They are written by people other than the individuals
who developed the theory or conducted the research.
⚫ The secondary sources may be used when primary
sources are not available
 Magazines Electronic
& database
newspapers

Research Books
Resources
Reports of
literature
review
Encyclopedia Journals
&
dictionary

Theses Conference
papers
1. Electronic Sources:
Computer-assisted literature search has
revolutionized the review of literature.
These searches, however, for a variety of reasons
may not provide the desired references.
Electronic literature search through web may be
very useful, but sometimes it can be time
consuming & unpredictable because there are
many website & web pages that can lead to
information overload & confusion.
ho w e v e r , c u r r e n tly it is one of the
ww w.d rja ye shp a tid ar. blo g sp ot. com

most
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General literature search can be conducted through

search engines like Yahoo (www.yahoosearch.com),
Google (www.google.com), MSN search, Lycos,
WebCrawler, Alta Vista, or Excite.
2. Printed Sources:
⚫ Printed sources are also used for literature review.
⚫ Printed research summary may be located from published
abstracts.
⚫ Following are the main printed sources that can be used to
review the relevant literature:
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Research reports
Unpublished dissertations & theses
Magazines & newspapers
Conference papers & proceedings
Encyclopedias & dictionaries
Books
POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN
WRITING LITERATURE
REVIEW
Be specific & be succinct:
Briefly state specific findings listed in an article,
specific methodologies used in a study, or other important points.
Literature reviews are not the place for long quotes or in-depth
analysis of each point.
Be selective:
Researcher should narrow down a lot of information
into a small space for literature review. Just the most important
points (i.e. those most relevant to the review’s focus) must be
mentioned in each work of review.
Focus of current topics:
Researcher needs to analyse points such as if it is a
current article, & if not, how old it is: has its claims, evidence, or
arguments been superseded by more recent work; if it is not
current, then if it is important for historical background ; etc.
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Ensure evidence for claims:
Researcher should focus on what support is given for claims
made in literature. What evidence & what type (experimental,
statistical, anecdotal, etc.) of evidences are offered? Is the
evidence relevant & sufficient? What arguments are given?
What assumptions are made, & are they warranted?
Focus on sources of evidences:
Researchers should ensure the reliability of the sources of the
evidence or other information – if they are from
author’s own experiments, surveys, historical records,
government documents, etc. He should check how reliable
those sources are.
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Account of contrary evidences:
Does the author take into account contrary or conflicting evidence
& arguments? How does the author address disagreements with
other researchers?
Reference citation:
Any references cited in the literature review must be included in the
bibliography. The common practice is that the reviewer does not list
references in the bibliography that are not directly cited in the
literature review or elsewhere in the paper /thesis.
Avoid abbreviations:
Avoid technical terms, jargons & abbreviations.
Simple & accurate sentence structure:
A researcher should use simple sentences & must avoid errors of
grammar & punctuation
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Organization of literature review:
A literature review is organized by subtopic, not by individual
references. In a typical literature review, the writers may cite
several references in the same paragraph & may cite the same
reference in more than one paragraph, if that source address more
than one of the subtopics in the literature review. Typically,
discussion of each sources is quite brief. The contribution the
present reviewers make is organizing the ideas from the sources
into a cogent argument or narrative that includes their perspectives.
Referring original source:
The reviewer should focus on citing the material that originates
with each reference. This may require a careful reading of the
reference. If the reference author refers to another source whose
ideas are relevant or interesting, it is better to track & use that
original reference.