CHAPTER THREE

LITERATURE REVIEW(SCHOLARLY REVIEW)

AND
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK IN RESEARCH

1
 Doing a Literature Review

3
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
 How well do you know the literature?
 Name five national journals in your field?
 Name five international journals in your field?
 Name three scholars in your field?

 www.aau.e-library

4
 MEANING OF REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 The phrase ‘review of literature’ consists of two words: Review and
Literature.
 Here in research methodology the term literature refers to the
knowledge of a particular area of investigation of any discipline
which includes theoretical, practical and its research studies.
 Literature can include books, journal articles, internet (electronic
journals), newspapers, magazines, theses and dissertations,
conference proceedings, reports, personal communications and
documentaries.
 Scholarly literature is available in the form of published and
unpublished literature.
 The term ‘review’ means to organize the knowledge of the specific area
of research to show that his study would be an addition to this field.
 The task of review of literature is highly creative and tedious.
5
 NEED OF REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 The review of literature is essential due to the following reasons:
 It avoids the replication of the study of findings to take an advantage from
similar or related literature as regards, to methodology, techniques of
data collection, procedure adopted and conclusions drawn.
 It provides as source of problem of study,
 The researcher formulates his/her hypothesis on the basis of review of
literature.
 Ascertains what is known about a subject, concept or Problem
 Provides background to the research (theory, practice, methodology,
previous findings, rationale for the current study, etc)
 Identifies gaps/weaknesses/consistencies/inconsistencies in conducted
studies
 Helps justify a need for a new investigation.
 Grounds new theory; is used to discuss the results or findings of a study.

6
 Good Scientific Research Vs Poor Scientific Research

8
 TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
• There are different types of literature review that can be
undertaken, depending on the purpose of the research.
• The main types of literature review are:
1. An Evaluative Review
2. An Exploratory Review
3. An Instrumental Review
• These are not mutually exclusive and will often be mixed
together.
• However, in the case of academic research, it is the second type of
literature review which is the most common.

9
 Literature Sources Available

10
 Which Sources to Avoid?
• Textbooks are usually not acceptable
 They are for teaching purposes, not research.
 If a concept is mentioned in a textbook you can be sure it is
based on an important original work.
Wikipedia and other open-source texts
 Their authoritativeness is in doubt due to many authors and lack of
information on their methodology.
 Use it in browsing perhaps, never in the final thesis! A means to an
end, not a quotable source!
Newspaper articles and magazines
 Unless a news item or opinion piece on a contemporary topic adds
something to the scholarly debate, which is not very common.
 Newspaper articles have a certain angle, are time-bound, and have
not been peer-reviewed-So if you use them, think carefully about
why it’s justified.

11
 How many should I refer to?
 Review widely as many sources as possible:
 Here are suggestions for different level of research
work:

 PhD: 350-400;
 Masters:160-200;
 Limited scope:100

12
 Common Errors Committed
 Poor structure
 Haphazard approach
 Lack of focus on most important facets of the study
 Literature unrelated to the study
 Few references
 Outdated references
 Plagiarism
 Reads like a series of disjointed summaries

13
 Remember these!
• Most typical pitfall No. 1: Getting lost in the (literature)
forest!

14
 Remedy
 A helicopter view!

 Scan literature first – start broad -> narrow down

15
 Steps for conducting a SR
1. First, determine concept/issue/topic/problem.
2. Conduct computer search (consult the librarian).
3. Clean the literature before you save or print, i.e. get rid of
irrelevant sources.
4. Organize your soft or hard copies of sources.With soft copies,
create files within files.
5. Conduct a preliminary reading and get rid of irrelevant sources.
6. Read each source critically by summarizing and critiquing it.
7. Synthesize critical summaries

16
 Presenting Scholarly Review
• Summaries the study’s main claim.
• Describe in a sentence the central argument of what you
read.
• Focus only on the aspects of studies that are relevant for the
purpose of your own study.
• Avoid the following flat approach:
o Paragraph 1 notes that article Ksays ...; Paragraph 2
notes that book R says ...; Paragraph 3 notes that
article Esays ....
 In case you group similar studies together, discuss similar
studies separately in a few successive paragraphs.
 e.g.: Youmay mention all authors together in a single sentence
such as: Barnard (2011:2), Song (2012:17) and Morole (2013:7)
assert that transformation has brought with it......
17
 Link Between Studies
For agreements:
 Similarly, A points to…
 B concurs that…
 C also makes this point…
 In addition, it is noted that D agrees with E…

Disagreements
 A disagrees with B…
 On the other hand, C makes argues that…
 Conversely, D argues…
 However, what Esuggests…

18
 Presentation Verbs

19
 Paraphrasing & Synthesizing

 Paraphrasing = writing the essence of the

original text in your own words.
 Read -> Synthesize in your mind -> Write
in your own words

20
 The Conceptual Framework

Developing the theoretical and conceptual framework

21
 Levels of Theory?...(Creswell)
 Grand theories

 Major categories of phenomena—common in natural sciences

and Economic theory

 Middle-range theories

 Between working hypotheses of everyday life and grand theories

and Development theories

 Substantive theories(lower order theories)

 Explanations in restricted settings—expressed as propositions or

hypotheses eg. Consumer theory

 The lower level theories have short life span and could be replaced

22 within short time.

 What is a Conceptual or Theoretical Framework?
 Different terms being used like:
Theoretical perspective,
 Theoretical frame,
 Conceptual framework, or
 Theoretical/conceptual framework.
 Theoretical framework is a logically structured representation
of the concepts, variables and relationships involved in a
scientific study with the purpose of clearly identifying what
will be explored, examined, measured or described.
 It identifies a set of variables and relationships that should be
examined in order to explain the phenomena”; “…need not
specify the direction of relationships or identify critical
hypotheses” (Kitson et al, 2008)

 Can usually be shown in a diagram/picture

23
 Figure 2.1: The conceptual framework or model of the study

Financial Performance of Insurance Companies

Affected by
I Age of Company D
N Past profitability E

Measured by
D P
Retention Ratio
E
E
Solvency Margin
P I N
Reinsurance
E
DDependence n D
N Asset Size
E
D Volume of Capital te
N
E
Liquidity rn Dete T
N
Leverage
al rmin ROA
T V

V Loss Ratio ants A

A R
Premium growth
R I
Market Share Exte
I A
rnal
A B
GDP
B
L
L
Inflation
E
E Exchange Rate
24
S Source: Empirical literatures, 2017
 Hypotheses and Hypothesis Testing
• A primary function of the conceptual framework is to lead
to hypotheses relevant to the research problem.
• Hypotheses result from the reasoning done in the
conceptual framework.
• Hypotheses need to be testable and refutable.
• Hypotheses are tentative assertions that are
subject to testing.

26
 Steps In Developing The Conceptual Model:
1) Study the research literature related to your problem.
 How have others conceptualized problems similar to yours?
 Are their conceptual analyses adaptable to your framework?
2) Reduce the problem to the simplest set of conditions.
 Sometimes you can “assume away” parts of a complex problem to gain
an initial understanding.
3) Identify applicable economic theory.
 Consider a wide range of economic theories in selecting the most
appropriate.
4. Start with a “base model” analysis.
 Based on your literature review and basic assumptions,
start with a simple model (statistical, graphical,
mathematical …)

27
4) Expand the base model to other relevant dimensions of the
problem.
 Alter and relax assumptions, then reanalyze the problem.
 This will likely make the model more complex, but remember,
the goal is not complexity, but rather, accurately addressing the
problem.
5) Assemble relevant, testable hypotheses from the
conceptual analysis.

28
 Critiquing The Theoretical Framework
1. Is the theoretical framework clearly identified?
2. Is the theoretical framework consistent with what is being studied?
3. Are the concepts clearly and operationally defined? Do they reflect the
area of investigation?
4. Was sufficient literature reviewed to support the proposed relationships?
5. Is the theoretical basis for hypothesis formulation clearly articulated? Is
it logical?
6. Are the relationships among propositions clearly defined?
7. If the theory is borrowed from a discipline other than management, are
the data related specifically to management?
8. Does the instrument used to measure the variables, consistent with the
theoretical framework?
9. Are the study findings related to the theoretical rationale?
10. Are the relationships among propositions clearly defined?

29
 Activity 3 (15 to 20 pages]
 1. Review the most important literatures for your title
 Cover at least 30 to 50 articles from reputable sources.
 2. write Research gap
 3. develop conceptual framework
 4. Develop hypotheses from your conceptual framework

30
 Thank You!!!

31