The steps for conducting a literature

review.
Addresses
Step 6
Step 1
Write the
Select a topic
literature Specifies
Advocates and
and defines frames

Step 5 The Literature

Review Process Step 2 Search
Critique the the literature
literature

Documents Explores and

and catalogs
discovers
Step 4 Step 3
Survey the Organizes Develop the
literature and forms argument
 STEP THREE

Develop the argument

Collecting Cataloguing
Documenting data

Time to write the literature Review

Building the case for LR
 Organize the data into categories and
themes
 Analyse these findings to establish what is
known about your topic of study
 Build a case for what is known about the
subject and determine how this
knowledge addresses the research
question
 E.g. of Textual Commentary
02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 7
 ……the popular theories being used in ITO research is the economic theory (e.g.
Transaction Cost Theory & Agency Theory), followed by sociology theory (e.g.
Relational Exchange Theory & Social Exchange Theory) and lastly strategic
management theory (e.g. Resource-Based Theory, Resource Dependence Theory,
Knowledge-Based Theory). Prior to that, most researchers used multiple
theoretical approaches rather than single theoretical approach….

 Firstly, past scholars choose to integrate transaction cost economic theory when
the researcher’s aim is to measure cost effective factors of ITO decisions towards
the organization. Transaction costs arise from the activities of evaluating,
negotiating, communicating, and controlling vendors, and these costs definitely
impact the outsourcing decision. According to Subhankar and Balakrishnan (2006),
Transaction Cost Economic Theory (TCET) applicable to measure factors like
asset specificity, overall cost advantage, the threat of opportunistic vendor
behaviour, and the complexity of the transaction. Meanwhile, agency theory is
relevant if the research measure client and vendor commitment towards the ITO
partnership or relationship. Benedikt and Frank (2009) claimed that Agency Theory
applicable to measure factors like principal-agent conflicts, information asymmetry
and goal incongruence between the external vendor and the client.

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 8

Formative Work
 Organize the data into categories and
themes
 Analyse these findings to establish what is
known about your topic of study
 Build a case for what is known about the
subject and determine how this
knowledge addresses the research
question
 Literature review
2.3.2: Methodologies for Ontology
Development
Feature Uschold and Gruninger Bernaras METHONTOL SENSUS
King (1995) and Fox et al. OGY

Year 1995 1995 1996 1997 1997

Life cycle Non-proposed Evolving Evolving Evolving Non-

proposal prototypes prototypes prototypes proposed
and
incremental
Strategy Application Application Application Application Application
with independent semi- dependent independent semi-
respect to dependent dependent
the the
application

Strategy to Middle-out Middle-out Top-down Middle-out Bottom-up

identify
concepts 10
 Literature review
2.3.2: Methodologies for Ontology
Development ( cont…)
INTRODUCE about methodologies for ontology development
...there are some methodologies for ontology development that has been reported
by: Uschold and King (1995), Gruninger dan Fox (1995), Bernaras et. al
(1996), SENSUS (1997) and METHONTOLOGY (1997)…

ISSUE on methodologies for ontology development

Ontology development is dealing with the issues of knowledge acquisition.According
to Gomez-Perez et al. (2004), researchers in the field of ontology is also facing
problems because they have no methodology adequately tested and can recommend
the steps involved and the degree to which this ontology development must be
done.What can be seen in the ontology development is that each research team,
they usually have their own principles, design criteria and steps in the process of
developing ontology which is suitable to their studies. 11
 Literature review
2.3.2: Methodologies for Ontology
Development
( cont…)
SYNTHESIS
Based on the five types of methodologies for ontology development ,
METHONTOLOGY (1997) is the only methodology providing prototype life cycle.
However, the methodology proposed by Gruninger and Fox (1995) provide a
sequence of modeling activities that need to be implemented based on condition to
extend the ontology is constructed by first obtaining the prior scenario. For the
methodology proposed by Bernaras et al. (1996), they consider the life cycle of
ontology construction is the same as the life cycle used in modeling applications using
the ontology.The methodology proposed by Uschold and King (1995) and the
SENSUS (1997), did not have life cycles for the construction of ontology in their
methodologies.

12
 Literature review
2.3.2: Methodologies for Ontology Development
( cont…)

IMPLICATION to my study

Based on various types of methodologies for ontology development, the methodology

proposed by Uschold and King (1995) is the appropriate methodology to be
applied to the ontology development in this study. Process in ontology development
that proposed by Uschold and King are also much easier and clearer to understand
which consists of identifying the purposes of ontology development, perform the
development ontology, ontology evaluation and produced documentation.

Weak justification

13
Building the case for argument
 Compiling and arranging sets of facts in a
logical fashion that will prove the thesis
you have made about the research topic
 How to build the case the literature
review?
- develop argument.
 What is an argument?
- logical presentation of evidence that
leads to justifies a conclusion.
Argument
1. Argument of discovery
- Discuss and explain what is known about the
subject in question
- serves as foundation for the second argument

2. Deductive argument
- Argument of advocacy: analyzes and critique the
knowledge gained from the synthesis of the data produced
by the discovery argument to answer the research question

The answer to this argument is the

THESIS STATEMENT
Example: Interest area: Leadership
style for organization in the 21 st century
 Discovery argument: Produce findings
that documented many leadership styles
and their effective users.
 Advocacy argument: Use the above
findings to determine which, if any, of
these styles meets the needs of a 21 st
organization.
 You conclude: participatory leadership fit
style is the best fit for the 21st century
organization (Thesis statement)
Literature Survey
Aim: Gather prior knowledge about the
subject of study
1. Examine the information gain from
literature search
2. Transform it into findings
3. Build the findings into a story line that
describes about what is known about
the topic under study
Surveying requires 3 tasks
1. Assemble the collected data
Catalogue and document major work
2. Organize the information
3. Analyse the patterns of the data
Types of Knowledge in IT Outsourcing
 A variety of multidisciplinary knowledge and skills is
a key ingredient of outsourced IT project (e.g
Blumenberg et al., 2009).
 It involves integrating and coordinating knowledge
from many individuals of different disciplines and
backgrounds, with varied experiences and
expectations, located in different parts of the
organization (Peppard & Ward, 2004).
 Generally, past researchers have classified knowledge
poses by an IT professionals in two types of
knowledge: business domain knowledge and
technology specific knowledge

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 19

 Types of Knowledge in IT Outsourcing
 Basselier et al. (2003) classified knowledge in IT into two types:
“hard” (explicit) component and “soft” (tacit) component.
 Explicit IT outsourcing knowledge refers to the technical
knowledge while the tacit IT outsourcing knowledge refers to
managerial knowledge related to IT outsourcing project.
 Technical knowledge refers to knowledge about the technology
used to implement the project (e.g. programming languages,
network architecture, security, database architecture). Business
application domain knowledge refers to knowledge about client’s
business processes, business rules, activities, stakeholder needs,
and business objectives for the software.

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 20

Types of Knowledge in IT Outsourcing
 according to Tafti (2006), knowledge in IT outsourcing is not only
technical and business knowledge, but also in other modes of
knowledge.
 Past researchers classified knowledge into one dimension of
classification without take into consideration the metacognitive
level of knowledge
 Since knowledge transfer is bound under the learning themes,
mapping the types of knowledge within metacognitive level of
knowledge involved in the ITO project is important. Therefore, the
researcher develop a new classification of knowledge in ITO.

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 21

Types of Knowledge Using feature map in
analysing ideas

1. Lee et al. (1995)

2. Kirsch (2000)
3. Goles (2001)
4. Basseliar & Benbasat
(2003)
5. Tiwana (2004)
6. Tafti (2006)
7. Simon et al. (2007)
8. Goles et al. (2008)
9. Langer et al. (2008)
10. Chan et al. (2008)
11. Tesch et al. (2009)
12. Kang & Hahn (2009)
13. Tiwana (2009)
14. Zainuddin et al. (2010)

My Own Classification
02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing Seminar 22
Critique the Literature
What is critiquing?
- The art of interpreting the meaning of a
piece of literary, scientific and technical
work.
- A critique consist of well found argument
stemming form a detailed analysis and
assessment of that work.
- Interprets the current understanding of the
research topic and determines how this
knowledge answers the research questions,
given what I now know about the subject.
Summarizes of related theories

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 24

 In conclusion, this research chooses the underlying Implication to the study
theories through the lens of strategic management
views, sociology view and psychology view.
Multidisciplinary views have provided a rich and diverse
schema for developing future research conceptual
framework.
 …..Using tenets from the resource-based view,
resources that are critical to long-term organizational
performance could be identified. Resource-based
perspective provides a framework that highlights the
importance of (i) evaluating firms’ valuable and unique
knowledge and capabilities; (ii) identifying skilled human
resource; and (iii) assessing what resources and/or
capabilities should be extended and upgraded through
outsourcing partnership, in order to make firms gain
and/or sustain competitive advantage.
 …..knowledge-based views could prescribe the best
means for obtaining external knowledge from the
vendor in order to stay competitive and innovative.
Only with innovative capability could sustain the
relevance of each organization presence.

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 25

 …..the researcher need more than strategic management views;
the researcher need an understanding of the episodes of
information and knowledge exchange from sourcing partner,
which is later guided the researcher to incorporate Social
Exchange Theory (SET) to develop more holistic framework.
 ……knowledge transfer also need a learning capability at both
client and vendor site. All the exercises, routines, procedures
during the project must be stored in organizational memory
Implication to the study
system whereby the organization could later retrieve and reuse
back the knowledge to sustain the organizational learning curves.
Therefore, Organizational Learning Theory (OLT) is incorporated
to support the key constructs in this research.
Attempt made to
 Each of the principal theories reviewed in the above sections present previous
contributes in some way to explaining and justifying strategies of
work within an
cooperation and knowledge transfer in ITO. None of these
overall
explanations should be seen as being superior to another, and it
conceptual
cannot be assumed that knowledge transfer in alliances is always
prompted by single objective. In fact, it is helpful if we view these framework and in
explanations as being complementary that can support each other a systematic way?
view.

02/12/2010 SIS Thesis Writing 26

STRUCTURING YOUR
LITERATURE
LOGICAL ARRANGEMENTS
 Chronological arrangement- use to show the
historical arrangement of work on a topic.
 Familiar to unfamiliar ordering

 Both chronological and familiar-to unfamiliar

arrangement can be incorporated in:
- inductive/or
- deductive structure
 An Authoritative model for structuring literature
review
Introduce your framework as
an effort to build your
knowledge taxonomy

Category 1 – Explain the researches in

this category + how + why they are
important to the area being studied

Category II -- Explain the researches in

this category + how + why they are
important to the area being studied

Explain your research and how it can improve

and be of impact to the above researches
 Implication to the
 In conclusion, this research chooses the
underlying theories through the lens of strategic study
management views, sociology view and
psychology view. Multidisciplinary views have
provided a rich and diverse schema for
developing future research conceptual
framework.
 …..Using tenets from the resource-based view,
resources that are critical to long-term

Writing
organizational performance could be identified.
Resource-based perspective provides a
framework that highlights the importance of (i)
evaluating firms’ valuable and unique knowledge
and capabilities; (ii) identifying skilled human
resource; and (iii) assessing what resources
and/or capabilities should be extended and
upgraded through outsourcing partnership, in
order to make firms gain and/or sustain
competitive advantage.
 …..knowledge-based views could prescribe the
best means for obtaining external knowledge
from the vendor in order to stay competitive and
innovative. Only with innovative capability could
sustain the relevance of each organization
presence.
 …..the researcher need more than strategic management
views; the researcher need an understanding of the
episodes of information and knowledge exchange from
sourcing partner, which is later guided the researcher to
incorporate Social Exchange Theory (SET) to develop more

02/12/2010
holistic framework.
 ……knowledge transfer also need a learning capability at
both client and vendor site. All the exercises, routines,
procedures during the project must be stored in

SIS Thesis Writing

organizational memory system whereby the organization Implication to the
could later retrieve and reuse back the knowledge to study
sustain the organizational learning curves. Therefore,
Organizational Learning Theory (OLT) is incorporated to
support the key constructs in this research.
 Each of the principal theories reviewed in the above Attempt made
sections contributes in some way to explaining and to present
justifying strategies of cooperation and knowledge transfer
in ITO. None of these explanations should be seen as being previous work
superior to another, and it cannot be assumed that within an
knowledge transfer in alliances is always prompted by overall
single objective. In fact, it is helpful if we view these
explanations as being complementary that can support conceptual
each other view. framework and
in a systematic
way? 31

Introduce your framework as
an effort to build your
knowledge taxonomy
?
What are the main categories
that you have identified from
you readings?
Can the categories be
organized according to time,
geographic, theories?
Construct you framework and
integrate the results/analysis
from your readings into the
framework.
 Conceptual Framework :Use of Online Information
*
Type of Managers’ task Types of company

Information needs Information needs

Information source Information source

Methods in acquiring
inrernal external information internal external

printed Electronic media Personal sources

E-mail Online INTERNET Videotext

NSTP Sibexlink MASTIC Others

PRE-WRITING

Arrange your materials in three basic blocks

 Summary of existing work on the topic: different ways
in which the topic has being studied (methods and
methodology), issues different authors have
highlighted . Identify different terms & concepts.

 Critical evaluation of previous work : assess the

methodologies employed, strengths and weaknesses.

 General and specific conclusion about work done to

date on the topic: overall direction of the work, identify
gaps, fallacies and failures in previous work in order to
show the legitimacy of your own approach
 PREWRITING
1.Write down 2. Draft
aims for the
review.
Plan appropriate
structure.
Use sectioning
to arrange material
relevant to
Pre-writing: your points.
4. Summarise
main points, structuring your
especially review 3. Allocate
your conclusion appropriate
evidence to sections
Building up first draft

Writing the final draft

HOW CAN I WRITE A GOOD
LITERATURE REVIEW?

Read:
(Language Centre. Asian Institute of Technology)
 The Basics of Good Writing.

 Traps

 Example of good literature review

CONCLUSION
When you come to do your literature
review you need to check that the
review:
 Shows a clear understanding of the
topic
 All key landmark studies have been
cited and most discussed
 States clear conclusion about previous
research using appropriate evidence
 Shows the variety of definitions and
approaches to the topic area
 Reaches sound recommendations using
coherent argument that is based on
evidence
 Shows a gap in existing knowledge
 Academic Phraseology
Collocations to be found in academic writing

Recent research has focused on…,

Increasing demands are placed on…,
The contribution X has made to the field of…,
X’s hyphotesis is based on the premise…,
This definition implies that Y is concerned with…,
From the foregoing discussion it appears that…,etc.
Both quantitative & qualitative data were used in the
evaluation.
These data were analysed to identify issues related to…
…to develop an interview schedule for a random simple survey
on…
Broad categories were used to reduce the potential for any
changes in classification over time to influence results.
The structure of the interview schedule and the sampling
methods were similar to those employed by …
 Academic Phraseology
Collocations to be found in academic writing

This probably related to changes in…

.. it is difficult to draw conclusions from…
…a slight reduction in the mean number of…
.. There may have been a real decrease in the total number of … as
opposed to those …
The research evidence indicates that….
..a potentially significant factor
…a slight reduction in the mea number of…
…experienced large fluctuations…