Building Theory from Literature

Dr. M. V. Anuradha
PGPM
Why Literature Review?
Choosing your research topic

Developing your question

Arguing for rationale

Supporting with theory

Research design/Methods

Primary data source
Managing Literature

Knowing literature types- exploring a topic

Assessing relevance

Adequate coverage- informing your study with theory

Writing/referencing Systematically
How literature helps in designing methods

Learn relevant methodologies

Know what is the standard method used in your area of
research

Assess need for alternative methodology

Overcome shortcomings of existing methodology

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 in
nature)
Unpublished conference papers, Phd Theses, newspaper
articles, white papers etc
Official publications statistics and archives

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
How to document literature?
STEP 1: Check for relevance

STEP 2: Annotate References
Summarize: for your own eyes, author and audience
Critical comment not 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 gaps to be able to place your research rationale- eg:
study not done in India, method used inappropriate
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

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




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
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
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
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
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

Theory building helps to:

Extend existing theory
Develop new theory
Test existing theory in another context


Helps in explanation and prediction


Units of a Theory
Domain
Concepts
Variables
Definitional Statements
Premises
Propositions
Hypotheses


Inputs of a Theory
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

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

Aspect of reality conception in mind Term or label used in
vocabulary of science

Concepts can vary in the amount of abstractness


Concepts are generalizations and therefore are abstract




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





Concepts relations with other concepts theory



Greater the abstractness of a concept greater is the
generalizability




Variables
Measurable aspect or indicators of reality
Can take on different values

Empirically observable aspect of the concept

Concepts empirical plane to conceptual plane
Variables conceptual plane to an empirical plane

Usually concepts and variables have similar labels
Variables: attributes of a concept measured through a scale

Definitional Statements

Concept specification+ label + definitional statement

Constitutive definition- when a term is defined using other
terms

Operational definition- specification of operations or
procedures that the researcher will adopt in order to measure
the extent to which the attribute being represented in a term is
present in different objects
Example
Commitment is the level of acceptance of organizational goals by
the employee

Commitment is the amount of pay reduction an employee is
willing to accept in the current pay reduction scheme without
quitting the organization because of that reduced pay level

Commitment is the amount of pay rise that an employee declines
from alternative job offers in order to retain the membership of
the present organization.
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
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




Output of the theory
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

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.

Proposition Concepts
Hypotheses Variables

Both overlap when the labels used for concepts and variables
are the same

Conceptual versus an empirical paper


Concepts and
Definitions
Premises
Variables and
definitions
Domain Specification
Propositions
Hypothesis
Logical Reasoning
Critique of theory can be done at three levels:
a. Logical- Theory is not internally consistent

b. Empirical- predictions are inconsistent from data accumulated
over several studies

c. Epistemological- assumptions are invalid given information
from another field

Critiques should suggest alternatives