REVIEWING LITERATURE

One of the essential preliminary tasks when carrying out a research study is going thorough
the existing literature in order to familiarise yourself with the available body of knowledge in
your area of interest.Reviewing literature can be too demanding but it also rewarding.The
literature review is an essential part of the research process and makes a valuable contribution
to almost every operational step.It has value even even before the first step;that is ,when you
are merely thinking about a research question that you maywant ot answerthrough the
research.In the early stages of the research ,it helps you toestablish the theoretical roots of
your study,clarify your ideas and develop your research methodology.Later in the process,the
literature review enhances and consolidates your own knowledge base and helps you to
integrate your findings with the existingbody of knowledge.Since an important responsibility
in research is to compare your findings with those of others,it is here that the literature review
plays a very important role.During the write-up of your report ,it helps you to integrate your
findings with existing knowledge that is either to support or contradict earlier research.

Functions of a literature review

i)provides atheoretical background to your study

ii)helps you establish the links between what you are pproposing to examine and what has
already been studied

iii)enables you to show how your findings have contributed to the existing body of
knowledge.

In relation to your own study, the literature review can help in four ways. It can:

1.bring clarity and focus to your research problem;

2.improve your research methodology;

3.broaden your knowledge base in your research area; and

4.contextualise your findings.

Bringing clarity and focus to your research problem

The literature review involves a contradiction. On the one hand, you cannot effectively
undertake a literature search without some idea of the problem youwish toinvestigate.On the
other hand,the literature review can play an extremely important role in shaping your
research problem because the process of reviewing the literature helps you to
understand the subject area better. Thus helps you to conceptualise your research
problem clearly and precisely and makes it more relevant and pertinent to your field
of enquiry. When reviewing the literature you learn what aspects of your subject
area have been examined by others,what they have found out about these aspects,
what gaps they have identified and what suggestions they have made for further research. All
these will help you gain a greater insight into your own research questions and provide
you with clarity and focus which are central to a relevant and valid study.Inaddition, it
will help you to focus your study on areas where there are gaps in the existing bodyof
knowledge, thereby enhancing its relevance.

Improving your research methodology

Going through the literature acquaints you with the methodologies that have been used by
others to find answers to research questions similar to the one you are investigating. A
literature review tells you if others have used procedures and methods similar to the ones that
you are proposing, which procedures and methods have worked well for them and what
problems they have faced with them. By becoming aware of any problems and pitfalls, you
will be better positioned to select a methodology that is capable of providing valid answers to
your research question.This will increase your confidence in the methodology you plan to use
and will equip you to defend its use.

Broadening your knowledge base in your research area

The most important function of the literature review is to ensure you read widely around the
subject area in which you intend to conduct your research study. It is important that you
know what other researchers have found in regard to the same or similar questions, what
theories have been put forward and what gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge.
Doing a literature review is that it helps you to understand how the findings of your study fit
into the existing body of knowledge(Martin 1985: 30).

Enabling you to contextualise your findings

Obtaining answers to your research questions is comparatively easy:the difficult part is

HOW TO REVIEW THE LITERATURE

If you do not have a specific research problem, you should review the literature in your
broad area of interest with the aim of gradually narrowing it down to what you want to find
out about. After that the literature review should be focused around your research problem.
There is a danger in reviewing the literature without having a reasonably specific idea of
what you want to study. It can condition your thinking about your study and the methodology
you might use,resulting in a less innovative choice of research problem and methodology
than otherwise would have been the case.Hence, you should try broadly to conceptualise
your research problem before undertaking your major literature review. There are four steps
involved in conducting a literature review:
1. Searching for the existing literature in your area of study.

2. Reviewing the selected literature.

3. Developing a theoretical framework.

4. Developing a conceptual framework. The skills required for these tasks are different.
Developing theoretical and conceptual frameworks is more difficult than the other
tasks.

Searching for the existing literature

To search effectively for the literature in your field of enquiry, it is imperative that you have
at least some idea of the broad subject area and of the problem you wish toinvestigate, in
order to set parameters for your search. Next, compile a bibliography for this broad area.
There are three sources that you can use to prepare a bibliography:books, journals and the
Internet.

Books

Though books are a central part of any bibliography, they have their disadvantages as well as
advantages.The main advantage is that the material published in books is usually important
and of good quality, and the findings are ‘integrated with other research to form a coherent
body of knowledge’ (Martin 1985: 33). The main disadvantage is that the material is not
completely up to date,as it can take a few years between thecompletion of a work and its
publication in the form of a book.

Journals

You need to go through the journals relating to your research in a similar manner. Examples
of journals are ;Journal of Marketing ,Journal of International Marketing.Journals provide
you with the most up-to-date information, even though there is often a gap of two to three
years between the completion of a research project and its publication in a journal.You
should select as many journals as you possibly can, though the number of journals available
depends upon the field of study-certain fields have more journals than others. As with
books, you need to prepare a list of the journals you want to examine for identifying
the literature relevant to your study.This can be done ina number of ways. You can:

 Locate the hard copies of the journals that are appropriate to your study;
 Look at citation or abstract indices to identify and/or read the abstracts of such
articles;
 search electronic databases

The Internet
 In almost every academic discipline and professional field,the Internet has become an
important tool for finding published literature. Through an Internet search you can identify
published material in books, journals and other sources easily and speed. An Internet search is
carried out through search engines, of which there are many, though the most commonly used
are Google and Yahoo. Searching through the Internet is very similar to the search for books
and articles in a library using an electronic catalogue,as it is based on theuse of keywords.
An Internet search basically identifies all material in the database of a search engine that
contains the keywords you specify, either individually or in combination. It is important that
you choose words or combinations of words that other people are likely to use. According to
Gilbert (2008: 73),‘Most search facilities use Boolean logic, which allows three types of
basic search “AND”, “OR” and “NOT”.’ With practice you will
become more efficient and effective in using keywords in combination with AND, OR and
NOT, and so learn to narrow your search to help you identify the most relevant references.

Reviewing the selected literature

Now that you have identified several books and articles as useful, the next step is to start
reading them critically to pull together themes and issues that are of relevance to your
study.Unless you have a theoretical framework of themes in mind to start with, use separate
sheets of paper for each theme or issue you identify as you go through selected books and
articles.

Once you develop a rough framework, slot the findings from the material so far reviewed into
these themes, using a separate sheet of paper for each theme of the framework so far
developed. As you read further, go on slotting the information where it logically belongs
under the themes so far developed. Keep in mind that you may need to addmore themes as
you go along. While going through the literature you should carefully and critically examine
it with respect to the following aspects:

 Note whether the knowledge relevant to your theoretical framework has been
confirmed beyond doubt.
 Note the theories put forward, the criticisms of these and their basis, the
methodologies adopted (study design,sample size and its characteristics, measurement
procedures,etc.) and the criticisms of them.
 Examine to what extent the findings can be generalised to other situations.
 Notice where there are significant differences of opinion among researchers and give
your opinion about the validity of these differences.
 Ascertain the areas in which little or nothing is know-the gaps that exist in the body
of knowledge.

Developing a theoretical framework

Examining the literature can be a never-ending task, but as you have limited time it is
important to set parameters by reviewing the literature in relation to some main themes
pertinent to your research topic. As you start reading the literature, you will soon
discover that the problem you wish toinvestigate has its roots in a number of theories
that have been developed from different perspectives. The information obtained from
different books and journals now needs to be sorted under the main themes and theories,
highlighting agreements and disagreements among the authors and identifying the
unanswered questions or gaps. You will also realise that the literature deals with a
number of aspects that have a direct or indirect bearing on your research topic. Use
these aspects as a basis for developing your theoretical framework. Your review of the
literature should sort out the information, as mentioned earlier, within this
framework.Unless you review the literature in relation to this framework, you will
not be able to develop a focus in your literature search: that is your theoretical framework
provides you with a guide as you read. This brings us to the paradox mentioned previously:
until you go through the literature you cannot develop a theoretical framework, and
until you have developed a theoretical framework you cannot effectively reviewthe
literature.The solution is to read some of the literature and then attempt to develop a
framework, even a loose one, within which you can organise the rest of the literature you
read.As you read more about the area,you are likely to change the
framework.However, without it, you will get bogged down in a great deal of unnecessary
reading and note-taking that may not be relevant to your study. Literature pertinent to
your study may deal with two types of information:

1. universal;

2. more specific (i.e. local trends or a specific programme).

In writing about such information you should start with the general information,gradually
narrowing it down to the specific.

Developing a conceptual framework

The conceptual framework is the basis of your research problem. Itstems from the theoretical
framework and usually focuses on the section(s) which become the basis of your
study.Whereas the theoretical framework consists of the theories or issues in which your
study is rooted,the conceptual framework describes the aspects you selected from the
theoretical framework to become the basis of your enquiry. The theoretical framework
includes all the theories that have been put forward to explain the relationship between
independent and dependent variable.

Writing about the literature reviewed

Now, all that remains to be done is to write about the literature you have reviewed. As
mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, two of the broad functions of a literature review
are (1) to provide a theoretical background to your study and(2) to enable you to
contextualise your findings in relation to the existing body of knowledge in addition to
refining your methodology.The content of your literature review should reflect these two
purposes.In order to fulfil the first purpose,you should identify and describe various theories
relevant to your field; and specify gaps in existing knowledge in the area, recent advancesin
the area of study, current trends and so on.In order to comply with the second function you
should integrate the results from your study with specific and relevant findings from the
existing literature by comparing the two for confirmation or contradiction. Note that at this
stage you can only accomplish the first function of the literature review,to provide a
theoretical background to your study.For the second function, the contextualisation of the
findings, you have to wait till you are at the research reportwriting stage. While reading the
literature for theoretical background of yourstudy, you will realise that certain theme have
emerged.List the main ones, converting them into subheadings.Some people write up the
entire literature review in one section, entitled‘Review of the literature’,‘Summary of
literature’or ‘The literature review’,without subheadings,however,it is recommended that
you write your literature review under subheadings based upon the main themes that
you have discovered and which form the basis of your theoretical framework.These
subheadings should be precise,descriptive of the theme in question and followa logical
progression. Now,under each subheading, record the main findings with respect to the
theme in question(thematic writing), highlighting the reasons for and
against an argument if they exist, and identifying gaps and issues.

END OF CHAPTER QUESTIONS

1.Describe the relevance of literature in a research study.

2.Develop a conceptual frame for a topic of your choice.

3.Examine the steps in conducting a literature review.

4.Explain the aspects through which literature can be carefully and critically examined.