An example of a research-gap translation diagram

Under the the topic of the agile literature review approach (academic-oriented project type) for my MBA students, a research-gap translation diagram has three components:

Component A: the real-world domain (perceived).

This component is a phenomenon (main business-related and as perceived by the researcher), hinting at a current business concern (e.g. high barriers to adopt some new technology by small and medium enterprises) that is puzzling and needs to be addressed, for a particular business sector (e.g. the hotel sector) in a specific place (e.g. Hong Kong).

Component C: the academic literature domain

This component is mainly about certain research gaps, research practice gaps as well as the associated academic concepts on a specific business topic, as identified by the researcher, very often via previous study or some preliminary literature review in response to the phenomenon covered in component A.

Component B: a bundle of an overall research gap statement and an overall research objective statement, formulated via a theory-based translation effort on the content of components A and C.

This component consists of an overall research gap statement, as an output of the literature review effort on component C, response to component A. To be clear, such an overall research gap statement should be bundled with an overall research objective statement. The research gap statement and the research objective statement together reveals the triggering point of intellectual curiosity of the researcher. As such, the pair of the overall research gap statement and overall research objective statements represents a more localized and personal curiosity interest of the researcher as compared with the content in component C.

An example of a research-gap translation diagram is as follows:

The process model of launching an academic-oriented dissertation project, shown as follows, further clarify the underlying thinking of the research-gap translation diagram

Referring to the process model, the researcher's informal observation and personal experience on a specific topic (A) stimulates his/her academic literature study on the topic (A), subsequently reaching a triggering point of intellectual curiosity (the output being in the form of a pair of an overall research gap and objective statements). The whole process is, apparently, influenced by the researcher's own intellectual interest. Based on the pair of statements formulated, the researcher can employ the agile literature review approach to further guide his/her dissertation project work on the topic of A (in a more localized and personalized form). 

A localized and personalized translation exercise to arrive at a triggering point of intellectual curiosity: E.g., from A (staff retention in Human Resource Management (A0) --> staff retention in the Hotel sector (A1) --> staff retention of the young middle managers in the Hong Kong luxury hotel sector (A2)

A relevant reading: a note on the formulation of research gap and objective statements