1. INTRODUCTION

A literature review is a broad summary or review of already conducted research works on any specific topic. This review tries to identify what is already known, and what is yet to be known, and provides a logical ground for a new inquiry. An understanding on a particular topic enhances when the existing research is synthesized systematically upon the findings of some previous research works (Kumar et al., 2020). Through literature review a researcher gets an understanding of the theories and findings of already existed research works, which can give direction to one’s topic of research along with indicating which appropriate methodology to use (Ridley, 2008).

Academic journal articles and the published book’s articles are the most widely accepted source for a literature review. Other significant resource for a literature review could be articles published in newspapers, magazines, conference proceeding, periodicals and in governmental publications.

For an in-depth understanding of a particular topic, a literature review describes the important findings from the available seminal works, as well as from the most recent studies available on that topic.

As a research methodology (Snyder, 2019), a literature review contributes methodologically, thematically, and conceptually (Palmatier et al., 2018; Hulland and Houston, 2020). Such review works have become widely acknowledged and accepted evidence of review-based studies, across various area of research (Callahan, 2014; Kraus et al, 2020). Among other purpose of a literature review, one major purpose is to find out the research gaps in existing literature for future studies. Therefore, a literature review works as a platform for researchers and scholars for further studies on a particular topic.

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE PAPER:

This study is based on secondary data, which tries to increase the knowledge on these objectives:

· To simplify the understanding of an effective literature review.

· To understand what elements are important towards an impactful literature review.

· To understand how to write a review article which can have an academic value.

3. IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE REVIEW:

It becomes unrealistic to presume that a researcher familiarizes him/herself with all the knowledge and information available on any topic. As the knowledge expands continuously, it becomes challenging to keep an eye on every development on the topic of one’s choice.

Due to numerous reasons the literature reviews have its importance in academic research. Firstly, a review article gives a platform for a researcher to gather relevant information from a single place which includes all the available information of significance about a particular topic. It serves in understanding what already has been researched and what has not been researched, regarding the topic of one’s choice. Secondly, through a literature review we come to know about those experts, who have significant contribution on the topic of our choice. By reviewing previous research studies, the shortcomings and research gaps can be identified effectively. Such will be of great value to examine a particular topic and also to give future directions for knowledge creation. Lune and Berg (2017), states this as foreshadowing the researcher’s own research-work.

4. LITERATURE REVIEW AS A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW:

It includes a comprehensive overview on the topic of our choice. The literature review starts with a wide review to address a particular research question which is generally the topic of a researcher’s interest.

The focus of a literature review primarily depends upon the type of the research question, and how this can be analyzed depends upon the researcher’s own approach. The researcher needs to identify the findings of previous works, and to understand how that knowledge contributes to his/her own research. A literature review is an effective platform for a researcher to educate him/herself about how the earlier studies contributes towards his/her attempt for knowledge creation.

So, the literature review varies depending upon the type of research question being examined. A pre-defined, properly analyzed, and structured outlines for the review process will help not only in saving time, but will also be helpful in writing the review article while connecting all the relevant information. A well-structured outline serves in integrating, transforming, and streamlining the ideas and provides a framework for research work (Stone, 2012).

The outline works as the base, so the sources work as the founding elements of the whole structure of a literature review. An appropriate source provides not only the previous research topics, but it also provides an important information and findings. Unearthing and studying the previous work through a researcher’s eye is an important step to generate topics and to identify related sub-topics, which needs to be studied. It also helps to grow the universe of knowledge on the topic of any particular choice. For which it is necessary to know what all sources are relevant, where to find those sources and which particular sources are useful towards the research works pertaining to research questions.

Through various ways one can locate the relevant sources. Universities’ library and online database are the major source of information. With the suitable combination of Boolean search items, researchers get the relevant data of his/her choice. Such digital databases allow researchers to download the subscribed articles for their later use. The downloadable articles may vary from university to university and also from database to database. Books, magazines, and newspapers are among other sources which are available in online databases. Sometimes an alternative database can also be useful but must be used with caution. Now-a-days Google Scholar has gained popularity as a major database and allows access to published research articles easily.

5. METHODOLOGY AND STRUCTURE OF REVIEW ARTICLES:

Academic and practice-oriented numerous literature reviews have been conducted across all discipline which can be categorized as the domain specific literature reviews. Although a gradual and systematically reprocessed research does provide some fare understanding on a particular topic, but research of a significantly novel value, best provides the future directions for further research to enhance the present understanding on that topic. Thematic, bibliographic, meta-analysis and a high-quality review article enriches a researcher with understanding and helps the whole area or discipline to grow further (Dwivedi et al., 2019; Jeyaraj and Dwivedi, 2020; Jones and Gatrell, 2014; Palmatier et al., 2018).

5.1. Theory specific reviews:

Theory specific literature reviews have equal value to both a new scholar and an experienced researcher. The underlying theory in such type of theory specific review article plays a central role for systematically analyzing, investigating, and facilitating for further growth in the knowledge of an existing literature.

5.2. Method specific reviews:

Underlying methodology plays the central role in method specific review articles for systematically analyzing, investigating, and facilitating for further growth in knowledge of the literature. The methodology could be either qualitative or quantitative, or even a mixed method.

5.3. Domain specific reviews:

Domain specific reviews are conducted in large numbers in all areas. This type of review can be classified as framework specific review (Paul and Benito, 2018), structured review (Canabal and White, 2008; Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018), and bibliometric review (Randhawa et al., 2016).

5.4. Framework specific reviews:

Framework specific reviews are that type of domain specific review, which includes a framework in its article. Therefore, researchers conducting a framework specific article, need to design their own framework or need to utilize an already existing framework for constructing their reviews.

5.5. Structured reviews:

In a structured review article, usually the data is presented in a well-designed visual representation. Such representation can be in a form of table, graph, chart, or figure. Such data can be referred easily whenever required. Such type of review articles can have upto 10 tables depending upon the level of analysis.

5.6. Bibliometric reviews:

The bibliometric reviews are useful to analyze trends, citations, and co-citations of literature of any particular domain. It helps in analyzing the literature based on any country, year, author, method, journal, theory and theme. Bibliographic analysis can be done with the help of statistical tools.

5.7. Hybrid reviews:

When a researcher combines the principles of a structured review and a bibliometric review, we call it a hybrid review article. So, by integrating the principles of structured review along with the bibliometric review, the hybrid reviews can be developed.

5.8. Meta-analytical reviews:

Meta-analyses is a type of quantitative technique of literature review. Meta-analysis enhances the researcher’s understanding to find-out the future direction of study using weighted average techniques (Klier et al.,2017).

6. DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE REVIEW ARTICLE:

Topic identification, journal identification, relevant article identification, timeline identification and gap identification are some of the useful ideas for writing an effective literature review article.

Literature review integrates the previous and current research-work’s findings to inspect the future (Torraco, 2016; Webster and Watson, 2002). Review articles require to be thoroughly studied, analyzed, and examined. Although, a couple of times researcher may have fare understanding of the research topic, they lack the required skills to identify the associated theory, method, and the construct. It requires a humongous effort to synthesize and gather all the relevant information at one place. The best way to collect data should be in a form of a table or chart, just to make it easy to refer to. An effective literature review process must be rigorous and extensively researched both scientifically and logically.

6.1. Topic identification:

An effective review article is usually well-designed and well-drafted. In case of large numbers of literature review exist on any particular topic, especially in reputed journals, then conducting a fresh literature review on the same topic is not advisable. A popular thematic review article is not encouraged by many authors, unless researcher brings significantly novel reviewing contribution to the existing literature. It’s also advisable to search about the novelty of an idea in major databases such as, Scopus, Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar before finalizing any particular topic of research.

6.2. Journal identification:

In case of enormous amount of availability of researched articles on a hot topic, in such a scenario a researcher can refer the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)-listed journals with an impact factor higher than a certain number (Paul and Rosado-Serrano, 2019).

6.3. Relevant article identification:

Although there is no fixed numbers of papers to be reviewed before writing a review article, a good range of papers which needs to be analyzed can be anywhere between 50 to 500 or more. Searching and finding out the relevant articles is a challenging task. Most of the times, researchers rely on their experience and understanding for choosing an inclusion-exclusion criteria. By efficiently applying the inclusion-exclusion criteria, total number of review articles come under a comfortable limit.

6.4. Timeline identification:

Deciding a timeline for capturing already published literature can vary from 5 years to 50 years or more (Paul and Feliciano-Cestero, 2021; Schmid and Kotulla, 2011). The most common timeline for a general literature review covers 20 to 30 years of study (Furrer et al., 2008). Rialp et al., (2005), states that atleast 10 years of timeline should be an acceptable duration for analyzing the research topic for the purpose of a literature review.

6.5. Gap identification:

Researchers need to identify main gaps through a rigorous synthesis of the previously conducted studies. It is advisable to give one-fourth part of the review article which should cover all the relevant future research agenda identified through rigorous synthesis. Probable novel ideas can be applied in further studies to increase the knowledge of the identified topic. A well-designed table and figure provide a wealth of data and information in lesser time. A logically constructed table and figure may be placed inside the review article only if it adds value to readers’ understanding.

7. SUITABLE TECHNIQUE TO CONCLUDE A LITERATURE REVIEW:

The concluding of a literature review writing should act as a rope towards the current study. So, the ending part must be brief and crisp regarding the important offerings which the literature review article brings forth. It should also emphasize the need of further growth in the knowledge of the studied topic through continuous on-going research. Concluding part also needs to include the required balance between the existing understanding of the topic and the current findings along with mentioning the shifts in theory or methodology, if any. Future studies might also develop a new methodology of conducting research on the given topic, such possibilities should clearly be mentioned. It is more suitable to precisely mention the shortcomings or flaws in the results of previous findings in the end section of the literature review. By following the above-mentioned procedures, understanding, comprehending, and writing a literature review article, will become an unchallenging process with a regular exercise. With the skillful knowledge of an effective writing, a literature review will help in arranging and ordering an extensive amount of data along with identifying the arguments being made during previous research findings across all areas of research-work.

As per Boote and Beile (2005), a substantial, in-depth, and knowledge-rich literature review is an essential requirement for conducting substantial, in-depth, and knowledge-rich research. Therefore, knowhow of writing an effective literature review is crucial from both the writing as well as knowledge perspective.

8. CONCLUSION:

A review article critically inspects the vast existing literature on a given topic and classify the significant theories, methods and finds out the pertaining research gaps. This current paper tried to describe simple guidelines for analyzing, understanding, and writing an effective literature review article. It is essential to follow the highlighted elements of literature reviews for increasing the chances of acceptability while writing an effective review article. The provided information in this paper is based upon the ideas, experience and insights gained from an extensive reading of published articles of reputed journals. Hoping the readers will get some benefits out of this current article.

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Received on 20.10.2022 Modified on 09.08.2023

Asian Journal of Management. 2024;15(1):79-82.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5763.2024.00014