WRITING REMARKABLE LITERATURE REVIEWS

Start-Up Inventory

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Writing Remarkable Literature Reviews

Start-Up Inventory

What databases did you use to find your literature? What keywords did
you use search for the literature. Note: if you have only used Google
Scholar, you are not doing exhaustive research. Make sure you are
using academic databases behind your librarys pay wall.

Databases Keywords

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List the bod(ies) (or buckets) of literature relevant to your project. Use
these to create meaningful sections in your literature review.

1.
2.
3.
4.

Are there bodies of literature that you suspect may be relevant but
havent explored yet? What are they?

What are your criteria for including and excluding sources from your
review?

List studies (author and year only) that provide evidence for the need
for your work.

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Did you find sources that refute or question the rationale for your
study? If so, list here (author and year only).

Who are the rock stars in your field? These are the foundational texts
or authors that everyone refers to. How has their work impacted the
field?

What are the foundational concepts in this area of research?

What is missing in the literature, and how will your study will help
address this gap?

How does the literature youve read help you think about or understand
your own project?

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SAMPLE INVENTORY
What databases did you use to find your literature? What keywords did you use
search for the literature (some fields require disclosure of this information)?

- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ch/

- ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/home
- Emerald: https://emerald.sbs.edu/
- Ebscohost: http://search.ebscohost.com

List the bod(ies) (or buckets) of literature relevant to your project. Use these to
create meaningful sections in your literature review.

- The Business Case of Sustainability

- Stakeholder Theory,
- Sustainability Accounting
- Sustainability Reporting
- Sustainability Disclosure
- Asset Pricing (Fama French Model, Capital Asset Pricing Model ...)
- Sustainability and Performance

Are there bodies of literature that you suspect may be relevant but havent
explored yet? What are they?

- Corporate social responsibility,

- Business ethics,
- Sustainable development,
- Socially responsible Investment

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List studies that provide evidence of the need for your work. (Justification)

- The Brundtland Commission's Report,

- The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Concepts,
- The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy.
- Corporate Sustainability: First Evidence on Materiality,
- The Need for Sustainability Accounting Standard,
- Investing for a Sustainable Future,
- Integrating ESG into Valuation Models and Investment Decisions: The Value
Driver Adjustment Approach,
- ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000
empirical studies,
- Perspectives on ESG Integration in Equity Investing: An opportunity to enhance
long-term, risk-adjusted investment performance,
- From the Stockholder to the Stakeholder: How sustainability can drive financial
outperformance,
- Sustainable Investing Establishing long-term value and performance,
- Shedding Light on Responsible Investment: Approaches, Returns and Impacts,
- Demystifying Responsible Investment Performance

Did you find sources that refute or question the rationale for your study? If so, list
here.

- The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits (Friedman 1970);

- An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social
responsibility and profitability (Aupperle, Carroll, and Hatfield 1985);
- The role of money managers in assessing corporate social responsibility
research (McWilliams and Siegel 1997);

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- Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function

(Jensen 2002);
- Does it pay to be different? An analysis of the relationship between corporate
social and financial performance (Brammer and Millington 2008;
- Do Managers Do Good with Other Peoples Money? (Cheng, Hong, and Shue
2014);
- Are red or blue companies more likely to go green? Politics and corporate
social responsibility (Di Giuli and Kostovetsky 2014);
- All Conventional studies suggests that sustainable investing doesnt add alpha

Who are the rock stars in your field? These are the foundational texts or authors
that everyone refers to. How has their work impacted the field?

- John Elkington; R. Edward Freeman; George Serafeim; Eccles; Robert G;

Stefan Schaltegger; Fama & French

What are the foundational concepts in this area of research?

- Stakeholder Theory,
- Triple Bottom Line
- Modern portfolio theory

What is missing in the literature, and how will your study help address this gap?

- Assessing the Business Case for Sustainability in Case by grouping geographic

criteria (Southern Countries, Scandinavian countries and German Speaking
countries)
- Very few studies present evidence on the value implications of Materiality on
sustainability investments, no evidence in Europe
- Applying US Sustainability Standards in European Context

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How does the literature youve read help you think about or understand your own
project?

- How other researchers have approached a problem and the strengths and
weaknesses in their work;
- Establishing the relationships between different works;
- Identifying any areas of controversy in the subject;
- Showing what questions need further research.

Used with permission by Tarik Elamri

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