California State University Long Beach Literature Review Discussion

Prompt – DUE Thursday – 11/19/20 – 1 page APA format

Identify and evaluate three common errors to avoid in a literature review.

Support your statements with logic and at least three credible references. Please use APA style in-text citations and references to support your posts.

Reading –

1. WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?

What is literature review? Reviewing the literature is the process that business researchers and other individuals use to locate, read, synthesize, and critique the literature available on topics related to their research question. In the process of research, a literature review is a written synthesis of journal articles, books, and other documents that summarizes and critiques the past and current state of information about a topic, organizes the literature into subtopics, and documents the background for a study (Plano-Clark & Creswell, 2015). In this module, we will examine the purpose of a literature review, the review of literature in both quantitative and qualitative studies, and design techniques in literature review. We will cover the following topics:

Apart from selecting a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods research design, the business researcher also needs to review the literature about the organizational problem being studied. The literature review helps to determine whether the organizational problem is worth studying. The literature review provides high-level insight into how the business researcher can limit the scope of the study to a bounded or manageable area of inquiry (Creswell, 2014). There are several approaches through which business researchers can gain insight into their organizational problem under study. One way is to draft a brief title for the study. Drafting a brief title for the organizational problem being studied becomes a major road sign in research. This is a tangible idea on which the business researcher can keep focusing and changing as the project progresses.

A literature review means locating and summarizing studies about issues related to the organizational problem under investigation. Usually, this includes conceptual articles or thought pieces that provide frameworks for reflecting on the organizational problem. For instance, there is no single approach to conducting a literature review, but many business researchers proceed in a systematic fashion to capture, evaluate, and summarize the literature. The following are a few recommended techniques that business researchers may use in conducting their research:

First, it is critical for business researchers to begin by identifying key words that are useful for locating materials in an academic library at a college or university. The key words may emerge in identifying a topic, or may result from preliminary readings (Creswell, 2014).

3. LITERATURE REVIEW RESEARCH MAPPING

One of the first tasks for a business researcher working with an organizational problem or issue is to organize the literature. Proper organization of the literature enables the business researcher to understand how the proposed study adds to, extends, or replicates existing studies on the organizational problem. A useful approach to this process is to design what is known as a literature map (Creswell, 2014). This is a visual summary of similar organizational problems that have been studied by others.

A literature map, or research map, may be organized in different ways. For instance, it could have a hierarchical structure, with a top-down presentation of the literature, ending at the bottom with the proposed study. Another approach is like a flowchart, in which the reader understands the literature as unfolding from left to right, with the farthest right-hand section advancing a proposed organizational problem (Creswell, 2014). A third model or approach may be a series of circles, with each circle representing a body of literature, and the intersection of the circles representing the place where future research is indicated (Creswell, 2014). The central idea here is that the business researcher begins to build a visual picture of existing research about the organizational problem under study.

4. LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM SUBSTANTIATION

When business researchers write reviews of the literature for proposed studies, they locate articles and develop abstracts of the articles. An abstract is a brief review of an article; typically, a short paragraph that summarizes major elements to enable readers to understand the basic features of the article (Creswell, 2014). In developing an abstract, business researchers need to consider what material to extract and summarize. This is critical when reviewing perhaps dozens, if not hundreds, of studies. Identifying the literature that will be used to substantiate the problem being addressed in the proposed study may depend on the following:

Demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the organizational problem under study

Completing a comprehensive, thoughtful review of the literature is a challenging process that takes determination and perseverance. Like any other project or task, the literature review becomes easier with practice. As researchers learn more or examine more information about the process or the organizational problem under study, they become more comfortable with the task and can easily relate their study to prior studies. Today’s literature reviews make extensive use of computer-based technologies, and researchers’ prior experiences with searching the internet provide a helpful starting point. Technologies have made things so easy and comfortable that today’s business researchers do not need to take a trip to the library. Almost anything can be found from the comfort of the researcher’s home, school, or work place using a computer or a smart device. Searching over the internet is a convenient research strategy, but it only works well if the researcher can carefully design a researchable question or organizational problem. Therefore, the first step to take when searching for literature is to clearly identify the organizational problem and narrow the search items to a few key terms (Plano-Clark & Creswell, 2015).