Literature Review: Saunders et al. Research Methods

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the key concepts, methodologies, and source categories involved in conducting a critical literature review based on Chapter 3 of Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill's Research Methods for Business Students.

Literature Review

A process to conduct a preliminary search of existing material, organize valuable ideas, identify ongoing research, and generate research ideas while developing a critical perspective.

Deductive Approach

Using existing literature to identify theories and ideas that will be tested using data, leading to conclusions that are certain, inevitable, and inescapable.

Inductive Approach

Exploring data to develop theories which are then tested against the literature, leading to conclusions that are probable, reasonable, and believable.

Deductive Reasoning Process

The sequence of developing a theory, formulating a hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and finally accepting or rejecting the hypothesis.

Inductive Reasoning Process

The sequence of observation, identifying a pattern, forming a tentative hypothesis, and finally developing a theory.

Effective Reading Skills

A set of skills for critical reading including previewing, annotating, summarising, and comparing and contrasting material.

Critical Perspective Skills

The capacity to evaluate what you read and the capacity to relate what you read to other information.

Harvard Referencing

A clear referencing style used in a critical review to allow readers to find the original cited publications.

Literature Review Structures

The three common ways to organize a review: as a single chapter, a series of chapters, or integrated throughout the report.

Primary Literature

The first category of literature sources, consisting of published and unpublished original work.

Secondary Literature

The second category of literature sources, following primary sources in the research process.

Tertiary Literature

The third category of literature sources, often used to search for basic terms and identify keywords for research questions.

Research Parameters

Defined limits for a literature search including language, subject area, business sector, geographic area, publication period, and literature type.

Relevance Trees

A technique used to brainstorm ideas and construct search frameworks, often created using computer software.

Boolean Logic

A system used when searching databases to combine keywords and refine search results.

Literature Evaluation Criteria

The process of assessment based on the defined scope, relevance, value, and sufficiency of the gathered materials.

Plagiarism

Four common forms: stealing material from another source, submitting material written by another, copying material without quotation marks, or paraphrasing material without documentation.

Bibliographic Details

The specific recording of publication details and summaries required for every item read during the literature search.