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The Literature Review

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Kevin O’Gorman
GMS
Robert MacIntosh

THE GLOBAL MANAGEMENT SERIES

Research Methods
for Business
& Management
Second edition

The Literature Review

Norin Arshed and Mike Danson

This is a sample only. Full information and purchase details for this title
are available at http://www.goodfellowpublishers.com and for other
titles in the series at the Global Management Series page.
THE GLOBAL MANAGEMENT SERIES

Research Methods
for Business
& Management
Second edition

A guide to writing your dissertation

Kevin O’Gorman and Robert MacIntosh

(G) Goodfellow Publishers Ltd

(G)
Published by Goodfellow Publishers Limited,
26 Home Close, Wolvercote, Oxford OX2 8PS
http://www.goodfellowpublishers.com

First published 2014

This edition 2015

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this

title is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: on file.

ISBN: 978-1-910158-51-7

Copyright © Kevin O’Gorman and Robert MacIntosh, 2014, 2015

All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any part thereof, may not
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information
retrieval system, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher or
under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Further details
of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the
Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street,
London EC1N 8TS.

All trademarks used herein are the property of their repective owners, The
use of trademarks or brand names in this text does not imply any affiliation
with or endorsement of this book by such owners.

Design and typesetting by P.K. McBride, www.macbride.org.uk

Cover design by Cylinder

This is a sample only. Full information and purchase details for this
title are available at http://www.goodfellowpublishers.com and
for other titles in the series at the Global Management Series page.
 Contents

1 The Nature of Research 1

Robert MacIntosh and Nigel Caldwell
2 The Key is in the Reading: Finding a Project 15
Andrew MacLaren and Emma Hill
3 The Literature Review 31
Norin Arshed and Mike Danson
4 Mapping Research Methods 50
Kevin O’Gorman and Robert MacIntosh
5 Case Studies and Data 75
Angeliki Papachroni and Sean Lochrie
6 From Archives to the Internet 96
Keith Gori & Rodrigo Perez-Vega
7 Qualitative Data Gathering Techniques 118
Sean Lochrie, Ross Curran and Kevin O’Gorman
8 Qualitative Data Analysis Approaches 140
Katherine J C Sang and Rafał Sitko
9 Quantitative Data Gathering Techniques 155

Babak Taheri, Catherine Porter, Nikolaos Valantasis-Kanellos and Christian König

10 Quantitative Data Analysis Approaches 174
Babak Taheri, Catherine Porter, Christian König and Nikolaos Valantasis-Kanellos
11 Managing Ethics in Research Projects 196
James Richards, Lakshman Wimalasena and Gavin MacLean
12 Writing Up Your Research Project 212
Robert MacIntosh, Thomas Farrington and John Sanders
Appendices
A1 Managing Your Research Project 229
John Sanders, Vera Tens and Robert MacIntosh
A2 Assessing Your Research Project 240
Nigel Caldwell and Robert MacIntosh
A3 Project Structure and Word Counts 245
Kevin O’Gorman
Index 247
 3 The Literature Review

Norin Arshed and Mike Danson

Being able to establish what is known about a subject area, and by association what is
not yet known, is an important skill for students, researchers and practicing managers
alike. In academic circles this is referred to as reviewing literature, and allows you to
understand the current state in a subject area, to relate this to the ongoing research,
and to identify gaps in this knowledge. A literature review may resolve a debate, estab-
lish the need for additional research, and define a topic of inquiry. This chapter concen-
trates on establishing and understanding the purpose of the literature review and the
steps involved in undertaking a comprehensive literature review.

The purpose of the literature review

The purpose of a literature review is simple: it is to educate oneself in the
topic area and to understand the literature before shaping an argument or
justification. A literature review is “an important chapter in the thesis, where
its purpose is to provide the background to and justification for the research
undertaken” (Bruce, 1994, p. 218). The writer “extracts and synthesises the
main points, issues, findings and research methods which emerge from a
critical review of the readings” (Nunan, 1992, p. 217) to build a “coherent
argument which leads to the description of a proposed study” (Rudestam
and Newton, 2007, p. 63). Over the years, numerous types of literature
reviews have emerged, but the four main types are traditional or narrative,
systematic, meta-analysis and meta-synthesis. The primary purpose of a
traditional or narrative literature review is to analyse and summarise a body
of literature. This is achieved by presenting a comprehensive background of
the literature within the interested topic to highlight new research streams,
identify gaps or recognise inconsistencies. This type of literature review
can help in refining, focussing and shaping research questions as well as
 to highlight new research streams, identify gaps or recognise incon-
sistencies. This type of literature review can help in refining, focussing
and shaping research questions as well as in developing theoretical and
32 Research Methods for Business and Management
conceptual frameworks (Coughlan et al., 2007).
„developing theoretical
„ The systematic and conceptual
literature frameworks
review in contrast (Coughlan
undertakes a moreet al., 2007).
rigorous
Theapproach
systematic literature the
to reviewing review in contrast
literature, undertakes
perhaps a more
because this type ofrigorous
review
approach to reviewing the literature, perhaps because this type of
is often used to answer highly structured and specific research questions. review
is often used to answer highly structured and specific research questions.
„„ The meta-analysis literature review involves taking the findings from the
The meta-analysis literature review involves taking the findings from
chosen literature and analysing these findings by using standardised
the chosen literature and analysing these findings by using standardised
statistical procedures (Coughlan et al., 2007). Polit and Beck (2006) argue
statistical procedures (Coughlan et al., 2007). Polit and Beck (2006) argue
that meta-analysis methods help in drawing conclusions and detecting
that meta-analysis methods help in drawing conclusions and detecting pat-
patterns and relationships between findings.
terns and relationships between findings. They also discuss meta-synthesis,
„a„ non-statistical
They also discussprocedure, which evaluates
meta-synthesis, which is and analyses findings
a non-statistical from
procedure;
qualitative
instead itstudies
evaluatesandandaimsanalyses
to buildfindings
on previous
from conceptualisations
qualitative studies and
interpretations.
aims to build on previous conceptualisations and interpretations.
Of Ofthethe four
four approachesdescribed
approaches describedabove,
above,the
thetwo
two dominant
dominant styles
styles of
literature review are the traditional or narrative literature review and the
systematic literature review. Therefore it is important to distinguish the
traditional literature review (which usually adopts a critical approach) from
the systematic literature review (which aims to identify all the literature
in the topic area to ensure that no existing understanding or knowledge is
missed). The systematic literature review has been long used in healthcare
literature (Ernst and Pittler, 2001) and is a “method of making sense of large
bodies of information, and a means of to contributing to the answers to ques-
tions about what works and what does not” (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006, p.
2). The traditional social science and business management literature review
gaps in
is useful in identifying gaps in knowledge,
knowledge whereas the systematic review
concentrates on promoting research knowledge. Jesson et al. (2011, p. 11)
provide a continuum of the different approaches to both of these literature
reviews (Figure 3.1).

Narrative view Systematic review

Variety of styles Structured approached

No defined method Rigorous method

No specified analysis Synthesis, meta-analysis

Figure 3.1: A continuum of literature review approaches

Our aim is to provide guidance on undertaking a traditional literature

review, concentrating on the context of doing a more traditional and criti-
cal literature review rather than a systematic literature review. Literature
reviews are important for numerous reasons. First, by undertaking a litera-
 The Literature Review 33

ture review, the information gathered from credible articles or studies that
are of relevance, important and valid can be summarised into a document
(for example, a thesis or a dissertation). This can then allow for the rationale
or reason for a study to emerge, which may include a justification for a spe-
cific research approach (McGhee et al., 2007). Second, it provides a starting
point for researchers where they are required to identify and understand
what has been written about a particular area. That will usually mean read-
ing all the relevant texts and then going through each to summarise, evalu- 3
ate, critically review, synthesise and compare these research studies in their
chosen area. Third, by carrying out a literature review it not only highlights
the gaps in knowledge but it means that students, researchers and managers
alike are not replicating or repeating previous work – it identifies discrepan-
cies, knowledge gaps and inconsistencies in the literature. Finally, it can
support “clarity in thinking about concepts and possible theoryReview
The Literature develop- 39
ment” (Henwood and Pidgeon, 2006, p. 350). The purpose of a literature
review is to follow a process as illustrated in Figure 3.2.

Identification of problem domain

Critical discussion of what has
been done

Identification of
knowledge gaps

Objectives
3

Figure 3.2: The purpose of the literature review. Source: Maier (2013, p. 4)

Often business students will find that there are many subject areas,
themes, strands, theories, etc. that overlap with one another. For example,
in marketing studies, ‘opportunity’ and ‘creativity’ are both themes that
are essential for marketers to understand because this is how they develop
marketing plans. However, ‘opportunity’ and ‘creativity’ themes are also
discussed in the entrepreneurship field where ‘opportunity’ and ‘creativity’
are based on seeking gaps in the market and developing a business plan
to address the gap. Both share many fundamental concepts but depending
on what field of research that you undertake or follow, the language and
labels used may differ slightly. It is imperative that your literature review
is clear and consistent over such issues. Therefore, if you choose to look at
 34 Research Methods for Business and Management

the themes ‘opportunity’ and ‘creativity’ within the entrepreneurship field,

you would have to ensure that the scope of your research remained within
the field of interest.
Ideally the literature review will be able to answer the following
questions:
1 What do you know about the research area?
2 What are the relationships between key ideas, dynamics and variables?
3 What are the current theories, trends and themes?
4 What are the inconsistencies, implications and shortcomings of previous
studies?
5 What needs further investigation because evidence is lacking, inconclu-
sive, contradictory and/or limited?
6 What methodological approaches have been taken and why? Are the
methodological approaches justified?
7 Why does this area of research need to be studied further?
8 What contribution will your work make to the current debate?
Given these questions, the initial literature review will reveal areas requir-
ing further research and will help to formulate your research question(s).
However, literature reviews are not without their problems. If a literature
review is not undertaken with a comprehensive and focussed search of the
existing literature, the literature review is potentially weak. The literature
review could be too narrow, too general with little structure, include obso-
lete citations, and searches may be of little value if they are primarily taken
from websites, textbooks, press articles and so forth. The issue for you is
not to review or cite as many authors as possible, but rather to synthesise
and make an adequate argument for the purposes of the chosen research.
By synthesising, you are required to critique the existing literature: to think,
read and write critically in a manner which is consistent and supports and
justifies your argument in your chosen area of interest.

Selecting a topic
Selecting a topic can be overwhelming. As a first step, the selection of a
topic should be based on your interest and understanding of that domain.
But many students ask “how do I choose which topic to review?” This may
seem like a daunting task but your main ideas for studying or researching

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