Literature Search
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ibus620Writeabriefliteraturereview.docxWrite a brief literature review. See the example literature review below for your main guidance. Your literature review may be substantially shorter than my example. Length: 4 pages maximum, including references list. Ok to go shorter as long as you satisfy all the requirements of the assignment. You really don't need to cite more than say 4-8 sources (and give the detailed info in your References section.
Important: Read the prompt and go over ALL materials provided for this assignment carefully. (including the two videos).
Some Useful Hints: Write an original research question with an international business aspect to it. Also write one original testable, directional hypothesis of association. The example lit. review file below shows an example research question and testable directional hypothesis. Use this structure.
Orient your literature search around keywords related to your research question and hypothesis. If there is nothing related to your research Q or hypothesis, write about the closest research you can find to your research area, even if it's not very close.
Use the SF State Library databases to perform your searches for literature related to your topic. Possible useful databases include EBSCO and ABI/Global. Other databases may also be useful. Play around and try different databases.
Note the structure of the headings in the example literature review. This structure can work for you, too.
Format your references using the format given in the example lit. review.
Here's a link to two very good tutorial videos on literature reviews. Please concentrate your efforts on the "single study" parts of the video. It's a great introduction to literature reviews and can help with the assignment.
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Guide to creating a literature Search by Prof. Heiman NEW!File
This should be helpful for this assignment (required). Please also view the video and sample literature review in this section before attempting this assignment.
· More Help on Performing a Literature Search/Review (they are the same thing).
This example is based on an actual question a bright student sent me. This student had written some interesting stuff about the field of interest, but it was not a literature review for use in a research paper. Here's part of my reply, using the student’s example research question. Many of you may be experiencing similar issues. The Literature Review assignment may be the most difficult of the class. This may be the most useful info on handling the assignment (maybe not--you need to review all the other materials for this assignment, too).
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Your literature search should answer ONLY your specific research question, with the following logic:
Since, your research Q is "What factors determine Chinese consumers'; willingness to buy iPhones?"
You need to report (solely) on what other social scientific researchers have learned about your resch. Q. Broadly, "what does the existing research tell us about what we already know?
The DV, or outcome of interest we want to predict, is Chinese consumers' willingness to buy iPhones.
--Who else has studied what you are interested in (same or similar research Q)? This means the same DV or similar or closest that you can find DV in existing research. Maybe some of what you find looks at your DV, but not in China, maybe some looks at the same DV in China, but studies different IVs. What three published articles (or bits of a book) come closest to studying your research question? Has anyone studied your exact res. Q? Report on what you find. You probably need around 5 citations total to make this work, I'd estimate. A few more or less is no big deal.
You figure this stuff out by thinking of many clever keywords to use to search a database of academic journals in the Library. Academic search skills are built this way. Build your experience with this. It takes a bit of time.
--What specific factors (IVs--independent variables) did others study?
--What findings did they have–what can you say about IVs that were statistically significant? Not significant?
Examples of IVs for this Res. Q might include
Age
Gender
Already has owned at least one iPhone Y/N--> codes as 1/0
Already has owned one non-iPhone smartphone Y/N--> codes as 1/0
Income level (code with intervals)
Education level (highest attained education--code with intervals)
Feels must own the very latest technology (Likert scale of agree/disagree, coding 1-5)
There are many other possible IVs.
You would have a separate hypothesis for each IV,
for example, using two from the list of IVs above,
H1:
Older Chinese people are more willing to buy an iPhone than younger people. (measure with survey item Age).
H2: As Chinese people the must own the most current personal device technology, they are increasingly willing to buy an iPhone.
Quick comment on the DV: I'm OK with "willingness," as the DV, but think it's a lot easier to measure "interest in buying an iPhone," or "desire to buy an iPhone." You may wish to change to one of those.
Do not use popular sources, but use only academic sources--journal articles (peer-reviewed) and possibly academic research-focused books by professional academics or research organizations.
