A  literature  review  identifies,  evaluates  and  synthesises  the  relevant  literature  within  a particular  field  of  research.  It  enlightens  how  knowledge  has  evolved  within  the  field, highlighting what has already been done, what is generally accepted, what is emerging and what is the current state of thinking of the topic.   A  literature review assignment aims to summarise and critically evaluate the literature to established current knowledge of a topic.

The purpose of this assignment is to facilitate your abilities to write in a research a topic you had chosen for the project in the final semester. By doing this assignment, you can learn how to read a journal article, identify relevant articles to formulate your inquiry question of research, analyse the information and synthesise into a small-scale written literature review.

This assignment is an individual assignment. You are required to write a literature review on one of the following broad scope:

Note: The scope is quite broad, and you may narrow down into specific topic/issue to made the literature review more depth. For example, ERM and Performance Management in  Value Creation.

You can discuss with your member’s group on the topics, however, the task should be prepared individually. Discussion in the group will help you to get a better picture of the topic and sharing the articles. Rule of plagiarism is applied in this assignment in which the index of similarity should not exceed 25% (preferably by Turnitin).

When writing your literature review, please use Times New Roman  12 with 1 ½ spacing and paper margin of 1 inch for each side – left, right, upper dan below.

Submission date for individual assignment:

Structure of Literature Review Assignment

NOTES: A literature review is NOT a summary of studies in the related topic presented one by one, paragraph by paragraph. Instead, you need to structure the body of your literature review in themes or ideas, synthesising information from various sources. Appendix A provides an example of how to analyse and synthesise the literature review.

The structure of literature review assignment is as follows:

1) Introduction (1 - 2 pages)

•    Introduce the general issue and its importance.

•    Identify key trends or perspectives.

The status quo of the issue & what motivate you to review this issue

•    Identify the specific focus of this literature review. => objective

•    Give a brief outline of the structure of the body

2) Body (6 - 10 pages)

•    Develop themes,highlighting major concepts, influential studies, etc. about your topic.

•    Focus on areas of agreement, disagreements, tensions and contentious issues related to your topic.

•    Use strong topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph so that the reader can clearly identify the theme or aspect of the theme being discussed.

•    This section can be divided into several sub-headings.

•    Previous studies used in reviewing the literature can be summarised in the form of a table. Please put this table in the appendix. Example of summary of previous studies is in Appendix B.

3)  Conclusion (1 - 2 pages)

•    Summarise the main  findings from the  articles you reviewed, in the context of the particular focus mentioned in the introduction.

•    Conclude  by  summing  up  and  identifying  the  significance  of the  topic  about  the literature.

4)  References

•    List all references that you mentioned in your paper

•    References expected to be between 10 to 15 articles

•    Use the following format to list down your references

o Journal  articles  -  Hall,  M.  (2008).  The  effect  of  comprehensive  performance measurement systems on role clarity, psychological empowerment and managerial performance. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 33, 141- 163.

o Book - Oppenheim, A. N. (2001). Questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement. London: Pinter Publishers.

o Chapter in book - Sansone, C., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2000). Controversies and new directions: Is it déjà vu all over again? In C. Sansone, & J. M. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search of optimal motivation (pp. 444-452) San Diego, CA. USA: Academic Press.

Source:https://www.monash.edu/rlo/graduate-research-writing/write-the-thesis/introductionliterature-reviews

Example of analysis and synthesis

Let’s look at an example of analysis and synthesis. After reading and analysing individual sources, you have identified a key concept relating to your research topic as well as a key resource (A) relating to that concept. The argument in resource A is supported by another article (B), which is in turn supported by article (D). However, you have also found article C, which contradicts the argument presented in resource A. One way to synthesise these texts, is to group together the texts supporting your key resource (articles B and D), and explain that article C presents  contradictory  results.  Then,  you  would  need  to  examine  the  methodological differences or any other possible reasons for the contradictory results.

Another way of managing sources and arguments presented in themisto use a literature review matrix (also called synthesis matrix). Literature review matrix is a table in which you can represent the views, ideas, or data according to thematic categories that correspond to your research project.

As you fill out your matrix, you will begin to get a clearer view of how different sources are related, and recognise patterns that may not have been immediately visible before. For example, you may see a correlation between sample sizes and types of conclusions, or between specific kinds of aims and the methods chosen to address them.

Because information is arranged in thematic columns, you can get a useful overview of all aims, or all methods at a glance. You can add new columns as your understanding improves. Thus, the review matrix can also be a powerful tool for synthesising the patterns you identify across literature, and for formulating your own observations.