Literature
review with a high-level research task in ALRA theoretical framework level-0:
some guidelines
An example of a high-level
research task can be: To evaluate the
innovation capability of ABC Ltd.
When doing literature review on innovation capability, a student might come across specific academic ideas such as the 7-dimension model of innovation capability, employee-driven innovation, absorptive capacity and dynamic capability. There are also academic ideas about definitions on innovation capability and the relationship of innovation capability with business performance.
Literature
review scope should also cover the overall intellectual landscape of the topic
of innovation capability, e.g., what are the academics’ research interests,
points of agreements/ debates and knowledge gaps on the innovation capability
topic. A student’s review needs to demonstrate high-level intellectual
understanding of the innovation capability topic with regard to the specific
high-level research task on-hand. The literature review needs to be critical,
holistic and purpose-directed at addressing the chosen high-level research
task. To be holistic, the student needs to synthesize all the academic ideas examined
so that, together, these considered academic ideas enable the student to inform
the subsequent research design as well as to conduct the theory-driven analysis
for their dissertation projects.
The literature review for a specific high-level research task
should also pay attention to (i) the idiosyncratic problem-situation of the
client organization under investigation, (ii) overcoming the research-practice
gap in the academic literature, e.g., adapting the academic ideas from the
academic literature to make them more relevant to the student’s specific
research work, and (iii) how the literature review findings on such a specific
high-level research task inform the linkages of this high-level research task
to other research tasks in the theoretical framework.
References
