The research background of the Agile Literature Review Approach

The Agile Literature Review Approach (ALRA) was postulated by the writer in 2017, based on reflection on his experience of teaching and supervising part-time MBA students on Applied Business Research projects. The development of the approach also draws on the writer's research ventures in ManagerialIntellectual Learning (MIL) and the Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research. Briefly, MIL is about intellectual learning on management subjects with contemporary systems thinking while the MPSB Research primarily focuses on literature review of management subjects via the lens of critical systems thinking.  The pressing intellectual concerns that prompts the formulation of the ALRA are three. They are how to support students to cope with:

Student concern 1: More often than not, part-time MBA students in Hong Kong are busy people; thus, it is imperative to offer an agile and usable way to guide them doing their final year dissertation projects, which are applied business research in nature;

Student concern 2: Many of the part-time MBA students of the writer are still not quite capable nor used to think intellectually using academic concepts in the management fields to examine real-world management concerns in a holistic and critical way.

Student concern 3: These part-time MBA students also have no experience in writing up a dissertation report in 15,000 words, which requires research methods and literature review skills, among others and within a relatively tight time-constraint.

It stands to reason that, in spite of these key student concerns, these students expect to get a pass for their dissertation projects with the exertion of "reasonable efforts" by them on their dissertation projects.

From the pedagogical standpoint, the writer recognizes two major academic literature problems with the existing academic literature in the management field:

Academic literature problem 1: Many of the ideas and findings in the academic literature in management disciplines have not developed and expressed in a way that has high relevance, e.g., suggestive of actionable value, to practitioners in the management field.

Academic literature problem 2: Many of the ideas, approaches and findings in the management research literature endorse comprehensive and vigorous research and literature review practices that can only be afforded by researchers with a high level of time and academic contribution commitment.

A major consequence arising from these two academic literature problems is that they present tremendous hardship for study and application by the part-time MBA students doing applied business research projects. Evidently, these applied business research projects place much more importance on the generation of knowledge with high actionable value in a real-world business setting that is often complex, dynamic, idiosyncratic, value-full and turbulent. The research aim of applied business research projects to produce findings with academic value via vigorous research and literature review steps, in this case, is lower than that of the mainstream academic research works as reported in academic journals.

This discussion on the student concerns and academic literature problems clarifies the intellectual setting for the development of the Agile Literature Review Approach (ALRA). 

References

1.   Ho, J.K.K. 2017. “A systems thinking-based review of the topic on an applied business research project background (ABB)” European Academic Research 5(8) November: 4021-4040.

2.   Ho, J.K.K. 2018a. "On the Agile Literature Review Approach for Practising Managers: A Proposal" Systems Research and Behavioral Science (Published in Wiley Online Library)

3.    Ho, J.K.K. 2018b. “Some further conceptual clarification of the recently proposed agile literature review approach (ALRA)” European Academic Research 5(12) March: 6313-6328.