CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPING LITERATURE REVIEW SKILLS

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

1. FORMULATING THE TOPIC2. FINDING AND STORING THE RELEVANT

SOURCES3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE4. DESIGNING THE RESEARCH5. COLLECTING THE DATA6. ANALYSING DATA7. WRITING UP

1. FORMULATING THE TOPIC: Topic formulation frames your literature search, critical reading and critical literature review

Formulate your topic Formulate a broad research question Formulate review question Formulate a question on methodology.

Topic: Unintended consequences + Affiliate marketing + ComplexityBroad research question: What is the role of unintended consequences in the evolution of affiliate marketing?Review question: What are the unintended consequences in affiliate marketing and how they influenced the evolution of affiliate marketing? Methodological question: What methodologies have been used in similar studies?

Topic: Unintended consequences + Affiliate marketing + ComplexityBroad research question: What is the role of unintended consequences in the evolution of affiliate marketing?Review question: What are the unintended consequences in affiliate marketing and how they influenced the evolution of affiliate marketing? Methodological question: What methodologies have been used in similar studies?

2. FINDING AND STORING THE RELEVANT SOURCES: Critical reading starts with a well-thought though literature search

What to read? Academic articles; books; conference proceedings; trade journals; data bases; Google Scholar; Internet, reading list; library; key authors; key journals.

Search for information on the constructs/broader themes as formulated in the research question. Make appropriate folders. Search for 1 construct at a time. Read. Refine the constructs and themes based on the reading. Search more. Refine the folders. Identify key authors. Look for more references within the articles of the key authors.

Search for information on the constructs/broader themes as formulated in the research question. Make appropriate folders. Search for 1 construct at a time. Read. Refine the constructs and themes based on the reading. Search more. Refine the folders. Identify key authors. Look for more references within the articles of the key authors.

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: Critical writing starts with critical reading

When reading, keep asking: have the authors been misled into something I don’t consider true? Have the authors been logical in their reasoning? Does their research build on the assumptions that I don’t share? Do the authors claim to be saying something new, which is not new to me?

Look for evidence, logical flow of arguments, explicit and implicit indications of the author’s assumptions, match between the author’s claims and those of others, match of the authors claim’s and your own research evidence and knowledge.

What questions might you, as a critical reader, want to ask of the author in relation to the claims made?

What to look for? Overview of the key issues in the filed and why they are important, overview of what has been done and found out, where the field of enquiry currently stands, examples of methodology, results and analysis.

How to know whether it is worth it? Look at the conclusion and warrant (the justification for why the claim should be accepted). Why am I reading it? What are the authors trying to achieve by writing this? What are the authors saying that is relevant to what I am trying to find out? How convincing is what they are saying? In conclusion, what can I make of it?

Having developed the ability to read critically, you automatically develop your critical writing! Demand of yourself the evidence to back up your claims, avoid illogical jump in your reasoning, be aware of your assumptions, read the literature thoroughly to ensure your understanding is deep enough.

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: Critical writing starts with critical reading

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: Critical writing starts with critical reading

o Keep the objectives in front of me.o Read broadly, read abstract, literature review sections and conclusions. Relevant? If yes, read the whole paper.o Make annotated bibliography, though not very detailed.o When making comments/annotations on each paper, I give each comment a number and put the same number in the text to quickly find it later. Make brief notes

of the relevant definitions and constructs (just to know they are there). Note down the methods that were used in those papers (this is to evaluate objectivity or look for the methods that might be if use to me).o Make a literature map (for each of the literature review chapters). Group articles into themes. It is better to have too many themes than too few.o Take one chapter at a time.

o Keep the objectives in front of me.o Read broadly, read abstract, literature review sections and conclusions. Relevant? If yes, read the whole paper.o Make annotated bibliography, though not very detailed.o When making comments/annotations on each paper, I give each comment a number and put the same number in the text to quickly find it later. Make brief notes

of the relevant definitions and constructs (just to know they are there). Note down the methods that were used in those papers (this is to evaluate objectivity or look for the methods that might be if use to me).o Make a literature map (for each of the literature review chapters). Group articles into themes. It is better to have too many themes than too few.o Take one chapter at a time.

Example of the literature map: manual

Example of the literature map: electronic

Critical literature review: a reviewer’s constructively critical account, developing an argument designed to convince a particular audience about what the published, and possibly also unpublished, literature (theory, research, practice or policy) indicates is and is not known about one or more questions that the researcher has framed.

Critical literature review will bear in mind: the substantive focus, the theoretical issue, methodological approaches.

Evidence should be backed up! Top features: Focused; Structured; Discerning; Constructively

critical; Accurately referenced; Clearly expressed and reader-friendly; Informative; Convincingly argued; Balanced.

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: Critical writing starts with critical reading

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: Critical writing starts with critical reading

o Identify key authors.o Identify the most relevant and significant theories in the field.o Identify arising themes broadly. o Group themes into sets. Re-read the materials more carefully on each theme, regardless of the context they were used in. What is written on this theme?o Return back to the context, and look at both instances and sequences. o Look for opinions: both similar and contrasting. Compare and contrast when different ideas emerged (look at the year of publication)? Compare and contrast ideas from

different schools of thought, different countries? Look for patterns.o Note down the identified patters and structure them into a clear story.o Use Papers, Mendeley, nVivo.

o Identify key authors.o Identify the most relevant and significant theories in the field.o Identify arising themes broadly. o Group themes into sets. Re-read the materials more carefully on each theme, regardless of the context they were used in. What is written on this theme?o Return back to the context, and look at both instances and sequences. o Look for opinions: both similar and contrasting. Compare and contrast when different ideas emerged (look at the year of publication)? Compare and contrast ideas from

different schools of thought, different countries? Look for patterns.o Note down the identified patters and structure them into a clear story.o Use Papers, Mendeley, nVivo.

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: Critical writing starts with critical reading

o Plan carefully, structure the arguments – a clear story, good flowo Write in simple wordso Decorate the text afterwardso The first sentence of each paragraph should tell the reader the storyo Sentences no longer than 3 lineso Use commaso Read aloudo Re-read next day and highlight the text every time it doesn’t read well. o Use synonyms’ tools

o Plan carefully, structure the arguments – a clear story, good flowo Write in simple wordso Decorate the text afterwardso The first sentence of each paragraph should tell the reader the storyo Sentences no longer than 3 lineso Use commaso Read aloudo Re-read next day and highlight the text every time it doesn’t read well. o Use synonyms’ tools

TO SUM UP…

1. FORMULATING THE TOPIC: What is your research question? What is your review question? What

methodological aspects might you be of help in your dissertation?

2. FINDING AND STORING THE RELEVANT SOURCES:Read broadly, be aware of the sources you use, read critically, identify where the field of enquiry currently stands, examples of methodology, results and analysis, look for instances and sequences, develop a literature map.

3. REVIEWING THE LITERATURE:Bear in mind the substantive focus, theoretical issues and methodological approaches. Ensure that your lit.review is Focused; Structured; Discerning; Constructively critical; Accurately referenced; Clearly expressed and reader-friendly; Informative; Convincingly argued; Balanced!

WHAT IS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK?

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK COVERS THE MAIN FEATURES (ASPECTS,

DIMENSIONS, FACTORS, VARIABLES) OF A CASE STUDY AND THEIR PRESUMED

RELATIONSHIPS (ROBSON, 1999, P. 150)

Why Do You Need One?

Forces you to be explicit about what you think you are doing. Helps you to:

Decide which are the important features Decide which relationships are likely to be of

importance or meaning What data you are going to collect and analyse

When Do You Do This?

Have an initial attempt to do this before starting the study.

You should not regard this initial framework as definitive. Remain open to alternative formulations, or possible

features or relationships not captured in your initial framework.

Keep reviewing as you do more reading and weight your efforts heavily towards the features or relationships included in the conceptual framework.

How Do You Do It?

While some prefer a narrative or descriptive account of the framework, most seem to find a diagrammatic version more compelling. Our advice is to do both!

Get all of the diagram on one page and map relationships between the boxes.

Inputs to the framework come from theoretical formulations and previous related research, together with your personal orientation and what is already known about your topic.

Don’t worry too much about getting the definitive structure. You will not get it right first time.