Building Theory From Literature-Session 2

8/11/2019 Building Theory From Literature-Session 2

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Building Theory from Literature

Dr. M. V. Anuradha

PGPM


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Why Literature Review

Choosing your research topic

Developing your question

Arguing for rationale

Supporting with theory

Research design/Methods

Primary data source


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Managing Literature

Knowing literature types- exploring a topic

Assessing relevance

Adequate coverage- informing your study with theory

Writing/referencing Systematically


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How literature helps in designing methods

Learn relevant methodologies

Know what is the standard method used in your area ofresearch

Assess need for alternative methodology

Overcome shortcomings of existing methodology


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What is Literature Review

Argumentative, relevant, critical and comprehensive review of

past research

Compare contrast, synthesize and argue

Where to get literature from

Books (contemporary research might be missing)- classics and

recent books

Journal Articles- classics and most recent work (academic innature)

Unpublished conference papers, Phd Theses, newspaper

articles, white papers etc

Official publications statistics and archives


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Tips on how to decide what to read

Expert opinion- professors, managers

Text Books

References (Citation Index)

Knowing databases

EBSCO

Proquest

Science direct

Sage

Google Scholar


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How to document literature

STEP 1: Check for relevance

STEP 2: Annotate References

Summarize: for your own eyes, author and audience

Critical commentnot just a summary- is it saying anything new?

What is the contribution? Is the contribution worth it? Are

there any methodological defects? How is it different from

other literature? What is the underlying assumption about

reality? Are the assumptions clearly stated?

How does this paper help you in your research?

Identify gapsto be able to place your research rationale- eg:

study not done in India, method used inappropriate


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Tips for managing literature review

Identify relevant variables

Find their synonyms/ related topics

Look for themes/patterns in the references, arrange them

accordingly- based on definitions used, methods used etc

The arguments should be your own, literature is supportive

Feedback and Redraft


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End result of a literature review

Identifying concepts and variables

Independent variables

Dependent variables

Control variables Methods used

Gaps identified

Hypotheses

Determining Method and Methodology


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How do I understand the world

Ontology Study of what exists, and how things that exist are

understood and categorized

Epistemology- How we come to have legitimate knowledge of the

world, rule of knowing


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Positivist Post Positivist

The world

Knowable, predictable, single truth Ambiguous, variable, multiple reality

The nature of Research

Empirical, reductionist Intuitive, Holistic

The Researcher

Objective, Removed Expert Subjective, Participatory & Collaborative

Methodology

Deductive, hypothesis driven, Reliable,

Reproducible

Inductive, exploratory, dependable,

auditable

Findings

Quantitative, Statistically Significant,

generalizable

Qualitative, Valuable, Idiographic or

transferable


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What is theory

A theory is a simplified representation of a limited part of reality

- An orderly depiction of some phenomenon in the real world in

a manner that reduces the complexity of the real phenomenon

to some extent

- Theory has its own scope and boundary conditions

- Presumed reality- researchers view of reality

- Test it to see how close it is to actual reality


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What is theory

The mission of theory generation is to challenge and extend

existing knowledge not simply to rewrite it

Theory can be the sole outcome of a research- source of a number

of empirical studies

Theory can be built for hypotheses testing

Research gives credibility to theory


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Aspects of Theory

What- concepts, constructs, variables

How- how are they connected, use arrows suggesting direction of

influence, causation etc., pictorial representation is helpful

Why- assumptions of the theory needs to be mentioned, glue that

connects the what and how

Relationships and not list of variables are the domain of theory

Definitions and arguments- Inputs of theory

Hypotheses- Outputs of theory


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Theory building helps to:

Extend existing theory

Develop new theory Test existing theory in another context

Helps in explanation and prediction


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Units of a Theory

Domain

Concepts

Variables

Definitional Statements

Premises

Propositions

Hypotheses


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Inputs of a Theory


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Domain

Range of real life phenomenon that a theory seeks to represent

What and How

Sets boundaries of theory through concept definition or

concept specification

Defines scope of theory

Wider the domain greater will be the number of concepts and

relationships


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Concepts

Labels or terms that seek to represent various aspects of the reality

under study

Aspect of realityconception in mindTerm or label used in

vocabulary of science

Concepts can vary in the amount of abstractness

Concepts are generalizations and therefore are abstract


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Gives an image in your mind eg: diligent employee

Concepts facilitate:

Description Classification

Economy or parsimony in representing reality

Imaging of an abstract reality

What you measure and how you measure go hand in hand


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Conceptsrelations with other conceptstheory

Greater the abstractness of a concept greater is the

generalizability


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Variables

Measurable aspect or indicators of reality

Can take on different values

Empirically observable aspect of the concept

Conceptsempirical plane to conceptual plane

Variablesconceptual plane to an empirical plane

Usually concepts and variables have similar labels

Variables: attributes of a concept measured through a scale


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Definitional Statements

Concept specification+ label + definitional statement

Constitutive definition- when a term is defined using otherterms

Operational definition- specification of operations or

procedures that the researcher will adopt in order to measurethe extent to which the attribute being represented in a term is

present in different objects


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Premises

Specify underlying assumptions

Assumptions about the nature of the phenomenon

Basically how different concepts in theory interact with each

other

Example: Organizational commitment & positive behavior

i. individuals actions toward an object are influenced by their

attitudes towards the object ii. Positive attitudes towards an object results in positive actions

towards the object


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Premises

Specifying Laws of Interaction

Bases of theorys conjectures or propositions: determines the

theoretical soundness of the theory

Based on:

Previous research

Accepted principles

Researchers assumptions


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Output of the theory


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Propositions

Statements specifying conjectural relationships between

concepts

Statement of relationships

Ex: Employees organizational commitment will be positively

associated with employees positive behavior

Statement of causality Ex: Employees organizational commitment results in or causes

employees positive behavior


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Hypotheses

Logical conjecture (hunch or educated guess) about the nature

of relationships between two or more variables expressed in the

form of a testable statement.

PropositionConcepts

HypothesesVariables

Both overlap when the labels used for concepts and variablesare the same

Conceptual versus an empirical paper


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Concepts and

Definitions

Premises

ariables and

definitions

Domain Specification

Propositions

Hypothesis

Logical Reasoning


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Critique of theory can be done at three levels:

a. Logical- Theory is not internally consistent

b. Empirical- predictions are inconsistent from data accumulatedover several studies

c. Epistemological- assumptions are invalid given information

from another field

Critiques should suggest alternatives

Documents

Building Theory From Literature-Session 2