LITERATURE REVIEW

A literature review or narrative review is a type of review article. A literature review

is a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings, as
well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews are
secondary sources, and do not report new or original experimental work. Most often associated
with academic-oriented literature, such reviews are found in academic journals, and are not to be
confused with book reviews that may also appear in the same publication.
Literature reviews are a basis for research in nearly every academic field. A narrow-
scope literature review may be included as part of a peer-reviewed journal article presenting new
research, serving to situate the current study within the body of the relevant literature and to
provide context for the reader. In such a case, the review usually precedes the methodology and
results sections of the work.
A literature review can be a precursor to the introduction of a research paper, or it can
be an entire paper in itself, acting as the first stage of large research projects and allowing the
supervisor to ascertain that the student is on the correct path.
A literature review is a critical and in-depth evaluation of previous research. It is a
summary and synopsis of a particular area of research, allowing anybody reading the paper to
establish why you are pursuing this particular research. A good literature review expands on the
reasons behind selecting a particular research question.

TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW

There are many types of literature review and the following types of literature review are the
most popular in business studies:

 Narrative literature review critiques the literature and summarizes the body of a
literature. Narrative review also draws conclusions about the topic and identifies gaps or
inconsistencies in a body of knowledge. You need to have a sufficiently focused research
question to conduct a narrative literature review.

 Systematic literature review requires more rigorous and well-defined approach

compared to most other types of literature review. Systematic literature review is
comprehensive and details the timeframe within which the literature was selected.
Systematic literature review can be divided into two categories: meta-analysis and meta-
synthesis.

When you conduct meta-analysis, you take findings from several studies on the same
subject and analyze these using standardized statistical procedures. In meta-analysis
patterns and relationships are detected and conclusions are drawn. Meta-analysis is
associated with deductive research approach.

Meta-synthesis, on the other hand, is based on non-statistical techniques. This technique

integrates, evaluates and interprets findings of multiple qualitative research studies. Meta-
synthesis literature review is conducted usually when following inductive research
approach.
  Argumentative literature review, as the name implies, examines literature selectively in
order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical
problem already established in the literature. It should be noted that a potential for bias is
a major shortcoming associated with argumentative literature review.

 Integrative literature review reviews, critiques, and synthesizes secondary data about
research topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the
topic are generated. If your research does not involve primary data collection and data
analysis, then using integrative literature review will be your only option.

 Theoretical literature review focuses on a pool of theory that has accumulated in regard
to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. Theoretical literature reviews play an
instrumental role in establishing what theories already exist, the relationships between
them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new
hypotheses to be tested.

At the earlier parts of the literature review chapter, you need to specify the type of your
literature review and provide reasons for your choice. Your choice of a specific type of
literature review should be based upon your research area, research problem and research
methods. Also, you can briefly discuss other most popular types of literature review
mentioned above.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND

LITERATURE REVIEW