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Literature review assignment
Powerpoint from librarian's class visit (May 15)
Watch Spying on a Conversation: Literature Review Assignments in Business for tips on how to approach this sort of assignment.
What are scholarly journals?
You will definitely need to find scholarly literature on your topic for your essay and your presentation. For a review of what scholarly literature means, start with: What is a Scholarly Journal?
Note that many databases have a feature that allows you to limit your results to scholarly/peer reviewed journals. Using this will remove most of the non-scholarly articles from your results, but not all of them. You still need to evaluate each article to be sure that it is truly scholarly.
How do I find scholarly articles?
Different databases provide access to journals in different subject areas. For your assignments, focus on searching in Business Source Complete and PsycInfo as those databases cover most consumer behaviour journals.
Feeling inefficient when you search the databases? Spend a few minutes watching this video to save hours of searching: Only 4 Steps: Researching in Academic Business Journals. (Note that the Library website has changed since this video was made, but the 4 Steps remain as time-saving as ever.)
Having difficulty reading the dense articles in such journals? Check out the resources in our Baffled by dense academic writing? Start here! blog post.
To get you started... below are some common consumer behaviour subject headings used in each database.
- Consumers - Attitudes
- Consumer behavior
- Consumers' preferences
- Attitude (Psychology)
- Consumer satisfaction
- Consumers
- Customer loyalty
- Advertising
- Consumer attitudes
- Consumer behavior
- Consumer psychology
- Consumer research
- Consumer satisfaction
- Consumer surveys
- Retailing
Analyzing the trends among citing articles
Finding books
Why use books
Old?
Books sometimes have a reputation of containing old information, but a quick subject heading search for "consumer behavior" in the SFU Library catalogue will find dozens of useful books and ebooks, many of which were written in the last few years. In addition, remember that consumers are people and human nature doesn't change much in the short term: older books aren't necessarily outdated!
Starting point!
A good book can give you a broad overview of your topic: a single source listing the key subtopics, issues, and relevant articles you need to start exploring.
Evaluating information from books
Be careful to evaluate the information you find in books. In particular, always ask where the information has come from: was it from the author's own experience, a detailed study, or a range of studies listed in a bibliography? Would you trust the information you found if you had to use it to make a million-dollar decision?
Searching for books
Start by searching with the following subjects in the SFU Library catalogue, but also try keyword searching to find books with just one chapter on your topic. For instance, "The Oxford handbook of consumption" has chapters on a number of key themes in consumer behaviour research, each of which could be an entry point into that part of the field. Similarly, see "The Routledge companion to consumer behavior analysis."
- Consumer behavior
- Consumers
- Consumers - Attitudes
- Consumers' preferences
- Customer loyalty
- Marketing research
- Market segmentation
- Minority consumers
- Women consumers
A few sample ebooks/books
Help with research, writing, citing, and more!
You will be researching, evaluating, citing, writing, and presenting information from the moment your instructor gives you an assignment to the day you hand it in. We have information and experts available in the library to help with all of those steps... and much more!
Start by checking to see if we have online tutorials & guides or workshops that will answer your questions. If you don't find what you need there, contact the library via online via chat or email.
For BUS 347 specifically, you may find the following presentation and literature review assistance useful:
- Presentations: SFU Library has many books and e-books on “business presentations” and “public speaking.” Start with this guide to such resources.
- Literature Reviews: The literature review guides from the Student Learning Commons will be particularly useful for this course. See also this detailed how-to guide.
You are also welcome to email me (Mark Bodnar: mbodnar@sfu.ca) with questions. It makes things much more efficient if you start your email by explaining...
- what class you are in;
- when the assignment is due;
- what exactly you are after (saying that you need research on "consumers & beer" is far too broad - saying that you need to know how to find "academic studies done on the effectiveness of beer advertising among Canadian Millennials" is better (though not necessarily simpler!));
- where you have you looked so far (have you tried the library catalogue, PsycInfo, Business Source Complete, etc.?);
- and what search terms you tried when you searched.
I always try to reply to emails within two business days. However, sometimes that reply will be a series of clarifying questions or a suggestion that we book a Zoom meeting to discuss complex topics. Don't wait to the last minute to start discussing your research!