Week 3 Seminar

1
Week 3 - Seminar

• Academic Research and Writing Skills Workshop for
  Business Strategy

2
Aims

• To discuss the rationale for doing a literature
  review, describe what it should contain and how
  it should be structured
• To identify the facilities/resources available to
  students for conducting research into the subject
  of business strategy
• To ensure that students are familiar with and
  understand the Harvard referencing system
• (Please refer to handouts for references for
  material used in this presentation)

3
Literature Reviews

• What is a literature review?
• What you need to do in order to write a
  literature review?
• Why do a literature review?
• Goals of a literature review
• Contents of a literature review
• Example of a good and a bad review

4
What is a literature review?

• ... a search and evaluation of the available
  literature in a given subject area...
• Surveying the literature in your chosen area of
  study Synthesising the information gathered
  into a summary Critically analysing the
  information gathered Identifying areas of
  controversy Formulating questions for further
  research Presenting the literature according to
  an organised style

5
To write a Literature Review

• define the topic, or research question
• compile a list of the keywords (search strategy)
• identify and select relevant information sources
  (e.g. library catalogues indexes and electronic
  databases and the Internet)
• conduct searches, interpret and evaluate results,
  and if required, modify search strategy
• locate and obtain relevant references found in
  search results (may require you to search library
  catalogues visit and use other libraries)

6
Typical Research Resources

• The library (e.g. books, journals, newspapers,
  government publications)
• The WWW (e.g. electronic search engines academic
  journal databases company web-sites newspapers
  government reports)

7
Goals of a Literature Review (Neuman, 2000, p.
446)

• to demonstrate a familiarity with a body of
  knowledge and establish credibility
• A review tells a reader that the researcher knows
  the research in an area and knows the major
  issues. A good review increases the reader's
  confidence in the researcher's professional
  competence, ability, and background.
• A review outlines the direction of research on a
  question and shows the development of knowledge.
  A good review places a research project in a
  context and demonstrates its relevance by making
  connections to a body of knowledge.
• to integrate and summarise what is known in an
  area

8
Some points to remember as the writer of a
literature reviewit is not a descriptive list
of the information gathered it is not a summary
of one piece of literature after another the
review must be defined by a guiding concept (eg.
essay question, research objective, etc.)
your purpose is to convey to the reader what
knowledge and ideas have been established on a
topic - what are the strengths and weaknesses
organise the information gathered into sections
that present themes. do not attempt to list
all published material, but rather synthesise
and evaluate the literature according to your
guiding concept Contents of a Literature Review

• It is not a descriptive list of the information
  gathered.
• It is not a summary of one piece of literature
  after another.
• The review must be defined by a guiding concept
  (e.g. essay
• question, research objective).
• The purpose is to
• convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas
  have been established on a topic - what are the
  strengths and weaknesses?
• organise the information gathered into sections
  that present themes
• Do not attempt to list all published material,
  but rather synthesise and evaluate the literature
  according to your guiding concept.

9
Contents of a Literature Review

• Introduction
• define the topic, providing an appropriate
  context for reviewing the literature
• establish writer's reasons (point of view) for
  reviewing the literature
• explain the organisation of the review (sequence)
  
• state what literature is and is not included
  (scope)

10
Contents of a Literature Review

• In the Body
• group the literature according to common themes
• provide insight into relationship between central
  topic and a larger area (i.e. discipline)
• proceed from the general, wider view of the
  research under review to the specific

11
Contents of a Literature Review

• In the Conclusion
• summarise major contributions of the literature
• evaluate the current "state of the art"
  literature reviewed
• point out major flaws, or gaps in research
• outline issues pertinent to future study (if
  evidence is there to suggest this)

12
Example of a Bad Review (Neuman, 2000)

• Sexual harassment has many consequences. Adams,
  Kottke, and Padgitt (1983) found that some women
  students said they avoided taking a class or
  working with certain professors because of the
  risk of harassment. They also found that men and
  women students reacted differently. Their
  research was a survey of 1,000 men and women
  graduate and undergraduate students. Benson and
  Thomson's study in Social Problems (1982) lists
  many problems created by sexual harassment. In
  their excellent book, The Lecherous Professor,
  Dziech and Weiner (1990) give a long list of
  difficulties that victims have suffered.

13
Example of a Better Review (Neuman, 2000)

• The victims of sexual harassment suffer a
  range of consequences, from lowered self-esteem
  and loss of self-confidence to withdrawal from
  social interaction, changed career goals, and
  depression (Adams, Kottke, and Padgitt, 1983
  Benson and Thomson, 1982 Dziech and Weiner,
  1990). For example, Adams, Kottke, and Padgitt
  (1983) noted that 13 percent of women students
  said they avoided taking a class or working
  with certain professors because of the risk of
  harassment.

14
Harvard Referencing

• See hand-out and/or visit the sites listed below
  for further information
• http//www.shef.ac.uk/library/libdocs/hsl-dvc1.htm
  l
• http//www.lmu.ac.uk/lss/ls/docs/harvfron.htm
• http//lisweb.curtin.edu.au/guides/handouts/harvar
  d.html