2.18 fashion management

FMAN3003 RESEARCH PROJECT

Week 17 - Secondary Research and Literature Review

Salma Tallaa De Montfort University

Literature review

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

Literature review

Chapter 3

Methodology

Chapter 4

Results

Chapter 5

Analysis & Discussion

Chapter 6

Conclusion & Outcomes

Literature review

literature search and review

This is a search designed to identify existing research and

information about your chosen topic

This is a written piece summarising and analysing the

literature you have found through your search.

Literature search Literature review

Synthesis: the combination of components or elements to form a connected whole.

What is literature review ?

the literature review is a work of Synthesis

• A literature review is a critical analysis of existing research which is relevant

to your topic, showing how it relates to your investigation.

• It explains and justifies how your investigation may help answer some of the

questions or gaps in this area of research.

Why write a literature review ?

• It can give you a general overview of a body of research with which you are not familiar.

• It can reveal what has already been done well, so that you do not waste time “reinventing the wheel.”

• It can give you new ideas you can use in your own research.

• It can help you determine where there are problems or flaws in existing research.

• It can enable you to place your research in a larger context, so that you can show what new conclusions

might result from your research.

• helpful in stimulating your own thinking. A broad review of existing literature might reveal new

theoretical hypotheses, research methods, or policy recommendations that you want to incorporate in

your own research.

• Its purpose is to help show how your final conclusions relate to the prior wisdom about your subject.

1. Picking your research question 2. Planning your literature search

3. Evaluating and recording your results 4. Reviewing your search plan

5. Synthesising your results

The literature review writing process

• Look for every resource related to your research area • Search systematically and comprehensively for resources • Save time

Developing a search strategy enables you to:

Literature search and

review process

Defining your research question

Decide on your topic

PHASE 2 PHASE 3

Analyse the question and

its themes

Identify keywords

PHASE 1

Step 1 - Picking

your research

question

Tip:

use mind

maps

'How does influencer marketing affect consumer

purchasing behaviour in the luxury fashion sector?

The impact of advertising on

fashion

PHASE 2 PHASE 3

(buying behaviour, brand

perception, shopping trends,

cultural values, media channels,

design, marketing strategies)

,etc.

influencer marketing

social media influencers

digital influencers

brand ambassadors

purchasing decisions

,etc.

PHASE 1

Step 1 - Picking

your research

question

Tip: Reading a general text or doing some browsing on the Internet can be a helpful way of clarifying your thoughts at this stage, and ensuring you focus on exactly what you want to research.

Tip:

use mind

maps

Planning your literature search

Step 2 -

Planning your

literature

search

consider where you will look, use a mixture of approaches:

• be systematic in looking at everything relevant in the library

• adopt a retrospective approach when looking at journal articles

• use citation searching to get useful leads if your topic crosses several disciplines

• be more targeted when you have a clear picture of what you need to find out.

In this stage, you should use sources of academic quality

you will almost certainly need to use both books and journal articles, but you may need to use other information sources related to your subject, such as government reports, or sources of statistical information.

SOLUTION

Peer-reviewed other academics have read the

source and checked it for

accuracy. Before publication in

an academic journal, for

example, an article is checked

by a panel of referees.

Academic books are checked

by editors and other reviewers.

Objective Written for academics

academic sources aim to

examine a topic fairly. This

does not mean that they

never take a side, but that the

source does not ignore

alternative positions on the

topic.

academic sources target

university lecturers, students,

and professionals interested

in the theoretical side of a

topic.

Identifying academic sources Step 2 -

Planning your

literature

search

RESULT

Good Middling Poor Academic Journals

Scholarly Conference Proceedings

Academic Books (eg, edited books)

Academic Databases (eg, SCOPUS, FAME)

Independent Research Associations (eg, Mintel)

Trade magazines

Middle Market Newspapers

Books

Wikipedia and other open Wiki’s

General search engines, such as Google

Tabloid Newspapers (eg, The Sun, Daily Mail)

‘Glossy’ Magazines

General Internet

Identifying academic sources Step 2 -

Planning your

literature

search

Two helpful ways of accessing scholarly material are: • Limiting your search to the academic (or scholarly or peer-reviewed) journal search options available on many of

the databases, and making sure you are using academic rather than trade journals. • Limiting your Internet search to sites which end in .ac or .edu.

• Once you have an initial set of search results, have a look at the material you have found. This will give you an overview of what you’ve found so far, helping you identify what kind of information is out there, and whether you’re finding the right kind of material.

• As you find materials, it is also important to record the outcomes of your search plan. This will save you time and effort when you need to re-run a search or locate references at the end of your project.

Evaluating and recording your results

Step 3 –

Evaluating and

recording your

results

It is essential that you reference all items as it:

• ensures good academic practice by acknowledging other people’s ideas • enables your tutor to see what sources you have used • gives more authority to your arguments • shows the scope and breadth of your research • avoids plagiarism

Evaluating and recording your results

Step 3 –

Evaluating and

recording your

results

Plagiarism (presenting someone else’s material as your own) is a serious academic offence and can result in a reduction of the mark awarded or a module failure.

Evaluating and recording your results

Step 3 –

Evaluating and

recording your

results

Referencing is important regardless of whether you are directly quoting or paraphrasing the original source. All sources you use, regardless of format, need to be referenced so ensure you reference images and diagrams as well as printed or online material.

Click here

• Once you have evaluated and recorded your initial results, you will need to review and revise your search plan in order to fill in gaps in the material you have found, and address any other issues you have noted.

• Literature searching is a cycle and for a typical project you will need to go through the process of evaluating and revising several times before you have found the right material.

Reviewing your search plan

Step 4 –

Reviewing your

search plan

some commonly encountered problems and potential ways in

which you might revise your search plan to cope with them.

• Using more precise terms (advertising rather than marketing)

• Adding in limits (television and advertising and UK)

• Concentrating on key authors and books

• Using database features like the help menu, or subject headings

Continue reviewing and revising your search plan and recording and evaluating your results until you are happy with the materials you have found. It is a

good idea to start this process early in your project, and then re-run your search as the project progresses to update yourself on newly published material.

Finding too much

Finding too little • Making the project (or just your keywords) more general.

• Searching for comparative or related information, e.g. looking at all children, rather

than a particular age group.

Step 4 –

Reviewing your

search plan

The literature review is a way of demonstrating two things:

• Literature search – the materials that you have found • Understanding and analysis – how you have put what you found into the context of your project.

The key elements of a literature review are providing: an overview and argument, reading critically, writing analytically, and identifying areas for further research.

Synthesising your results

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Approach

One common way to approach a literature review is to start out broad and then become more specific. Think of it as an inverted triangle…

Broad issues

Studies which overlap with your research

Studies that are directly related to you investigation

More specific More recent

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Providing an overview and an argument

• Start by discussing your research question and your initial thoughts.

• It is a good idea to provide an overall summary of the literature you have found, in particular highlighting any gaps in research and conflicts in theory.

• Make sure that you also state your own research perspective and the scope of your investigation, in particular what limits you established, and why you have chosen to approach the topic in a particular way

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Reading critically

The literature you find will not be unbiased. Think and read critically. For each item you read, you might want

to consider:

• Has the author clearly defined the topic and question? Is it an effective analysis and account of the subject?

• Is there any bias evident (political, ideological, disciplinary?)

• How scholarly is the piece of work? Trade and professional journal articles and websites are often current

but not scholarly.

• Is the argument coherent, or does the piece contradict itself?

• Are there references to sources the author consulted? Have any sources or theories been ignored or

omitted?

• Is the item as relevant to the topic which you are investigating as it initially appeared?

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Reading critically

Critical analysis is not asking yourself whether you agree with a viewpoint but more importantly, what does it

mean, who published it, how did they obtain it, what is it based on, what are its implications, how does it

relate to other findings?

You can ensure you are analysing critically by testing out your own views against those you are reading about:

What do you think about the topic? Then as you read each new study, does the evidence presented confirm

your view, modify your views, update your views, or does it provide a counter-argument that causes you to

question your view?

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Writing analytically

• Try to summarise the arguments of different authors in relation to your own research question or topic.

Can you compare or contrast different authors or theories, or identify any emerging themes? You will need

to present an argument, or a series of points: do not just describe what different authors have written.

• Often you will find that your topic overlaps different subject disciplines, bringing in multiple perspectives

and different sets of literature. Pointing this out and discussing it emphasises the thoroughness of your

work.

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

For more guidance on writing there are a number of guides available from the Centre for Learning and Study Support,

which also offers group or individual study tutorials on writing. For more information see www.library.dmu.ac.uk/CLASS

or email [email protected].

Writing analytically

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Writing analytically

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Descriptive

Summarises what other people have found without

saying what these findings mean for your

investigation.

Usually a chronological list of who discovered

what, and when.

Analytical

Synthesises the work and succinctly passes

judgement on the relative merits of research

conducted in your field.

Reveals limitations or recognises the possibility of

taking research further, allowing you to formulate

and justify your aims for your investigation.

For example: "Green (1975) discovered …." "In 1978, Black conducted experiments and discovered that …." "Later Brown (1980) illustrated this in ……"

For example: There seems to be general agreement on x, (see White 1987, Brown 1980, Black 1978, Green 1975). However, Green (1975) sees x as a consequence of y, while Black(1978) puts x and y as …. While Green's work has some limitations in that it …., its main value lies in …."

Identifying areas for further research

• Relate the literature review to the bigger questions within the literature or subject.

• You should try and identify areas where not a lot of literature existed, as opportunities for gaps to be filled.

• Highlight the gap in the knowledge

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Once you have completed your literature review, it is a good idea to use it as an opportunity to reflect on your own progress, both in terms of finding information and in

critical reading. These are very valuable graduate skills, and often you do not see how well you have worked until after the task is completed

Structuring a literature review

Introduction • Purpose of the review

• Key ideas

• Agenda for discussion

Main Body • An Analysis of the literature according to a number of theme or topics.

• Organised in sections or key themes.

Conclusion • The whole review in a nutshell

• Summarise the current state of the research as analysed in the main body.

• Highlight any gaps or problems with the existing research.

• Explain how your investigation is going to address these gaps or build on the existing research.

Step 5 –

Synthesising

your results

Common pitfalls

Gall, Brog, and Gall (1996) claims problems can happen when researcher:

• Does not clearly relate the findings of the lit review to the researcher’s own study.

• Does not sufficiently identify the best sources to review related to the researcher own topic.

• Uncritically accepts researcher’s findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the

research design and analysis.

• Does not report the research procedures used in the literature review.

• Does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations in synthesising the literature review.

Activity

Create a mind map that represents your potential research question. Include main themes, sub-themes, and any initial

keywords that come to mind.

THANK YOU