Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
LITERATURE SEARCH
ISD 353: Business Research Methods
Class: SCM, BIT, Marketing, IB & Hospitality

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Purpose or Relevance of Searching:
-To narrow down to relevant articles needed
for your study
-To have an overview of the research trend
in a field

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Tools needed
-Excel
-Reference Managers; i.e. Mendeley, Mendeley Web Importer,
Zotero, etc.
Links:
https://www.mendeley.com/download-desktop-new/
https://www.zotero.org/
After installing Mendeley desktop, be sure to install the
MS Word plugin and the Web importer under the “Tools”
menu. You can visit youtube to lean how to use each of these
tool.
-VOSviewer: Link: https://www.vosviewer.com/

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Where to search
https://www.scopus.com/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
https://www.emerald.com/insight/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
https://www.tandfonline.com/
https://journals.sagepub.com/
https://www.jstor.org/
https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases?f%5B0%5D=market%3A1
https://scielo.org/
https://scholar.google.com/

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Search Strategies:
-Use keywords and their alternatives, or truncated words
-Use wild cards where relevant and applicable:
Character Description Example
* Matches any number of characters.
You can use the asterisk (*) anywhere
in a character string.
wh* finds what, white,
and why, but not
awhile or watch.
? Matches a single alphabet in a specific
position.
b?ll finds ball, bell,
and bill.
[ ] Matches characters within the
brackets.
b[ae]ll finds ball and
bell, but not bill.

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Search Strategies Conti…
Character Description Example
! Excludes characters inside the brackets. b[!ae]ll finds bill and bull,
but not ball or bell.
Like “[!a]*” finds all items
that do not begin with
the letter a.
- Matches a range of characters. Remember
to specify the characters in ascending
order (A to Z, not Z to A).
b[a-c]d finds bad, bbd,
and bcd.
# Matches any single numeric character. 1#3 finds 103, 113, and
123.

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Search Strategies Conti….
-Use filters if available on the search database (such as
searching within specific journals, subject areas, time/year
range, article type, etc.)

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Retrieving Search Results:
-First select the articles you want to download;
-then, indicate the format (e.g. csv, BibTex, RIS, Mendeley, Zotero
RDF, plain text, etc.)
-now you can view articles in excel (csv format only), Mendeley
(RIS and Mendeley only), or with Zotero (RIS, BibTex, and Zotero
RDF only)
-For visualisation (bibliometric networks), use VOS viewer, or
Excel

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Retrieving Search Results:
-Sort for duplicates and remove them; read titles to remove
irrelevant publications, and read abstracts to further exclude
irrelevant publications
-Settle on final list of articles and then you can download them
searching with the article title in google scholar search and then
downloading with sci-hub (link: https://sci-hub.st/ ). It would be
helpful to install the sci-hub addon in your browser

Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Instructor: Dominic Essuman (PhD)
Dept. Supply Chain & Information Systems
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi
Email: dominic.essuman@knust.edu.gh
@2021
ISD 353: Business Research Methods
Class: SCM, BIT, Marketing, IB & Hospitality
Lecture 4:
Theory, Concepts, Conceptual/Theoretical Framework, &
Hypothesis

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By the end of this lecture you should
• appreciate what theory is and why it’s important
• understand concepts, conceptual/theoretical
framework, and hypotheses
• know how to develop ‘basic’
conceptual/theoretical frameworks, theories, and
hypotheses
Learning Outcomes

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Read and make personal notes from these articles (COMPULSORY):
1. Crittenden, V. L., & Peterson, R. A. (2011). Ruminations about making a theoretical
contribution. AMS Review, 1(2), 67-71.
2. Imenda, S. (2014). Is there a conceptual difference between theoretical and
conceptual frameworks?. Journal of Social Sciences, 38(2), 185-195.
Further reading:
1. Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995). What theory is not. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 371-384.
2. DiMaggio, P. J. (1995). Comments on" What theory is not". Administrative Science
Quarterly, 40(3), 391-397.
3. Weick, K. E. (1995). What theory is not, theorizing is. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 40(3), 385-390.
4. Corley, K. G., & Gioia, D. A. (2011). Building theory about theory building: what
constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management Review, 36(1), 12-32
Reading assignment

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No standard definition for theory.
Consider the following questions:
• Why do happy people tend to live longer?
• Why are Ghanaians, compared to Americans, less entrepreneurial?
• Countries with more natural resources are poorer. Why?
• How does supply chain integration affect profitability?
• When does supply chain integration lead to competitive advantage?
• What level of attention to learning achieves optimal academic performance?
• What accounts for differences in job performance?
A well-thought-through, logically-based explanations (i.e., answers) to questions
of these nature constitute theory.
What is (not) theory

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Some useful descriptions of theory (see Crittenden & Peterson, 2011):
• A statement that postulates ordered relationships among natural phenomena
• An explanation or model used to account for observations
• An explanation of why and how a particular natural phenomenon occurs
A statement of concepts and their interrelationships that normally shows how,
why, or when such relationships occur.
What is (not) theory

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Components of theory or building blocks of theory
(development):
• WHAT: concepts/constructs/variables
• HOW: how are the concepts in the theory related?
• WHY: the underlying dynamics/mechanisms that connect
the concepts in the theory in a particular way (HOW)
• WHO, WHERE, WHEN. Conditions that place limitation on
the propositions generated from a theoretical model.
What is (not) theory

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WHAT: Religiosity, resilience
HOW: Nature of the relationship between religiosity and resilience. Possibilities:
• I expect religiosity to enhance resilience or
• I expect religiosity to reduce resilience or
• I expect low and extreme religiosity to lower resilience
WHY: the logical arguments underlying any of the possibilities in HOW
WHO, WHERE, WHEN: the context, instance, or condition (e.g., early career
employees, Africa, poor people) under which any of the possibilities in HOW may
(not) occur.
What is (not) theory
Religiosity Resilience
Example:

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What is not theory (Sutton & Staw,1995):
• References
• Diagram (e.g., conceptual/theoretical framework)
• Data/facts/evidence
• List of variables/constructs
• Hypothesis (bridge theory and data)
What is (not) theory

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• Theories enable us to organize our thought, generate coherent
explanations and improve our predictions (Hambrick, 2007).
• In the absence of ‘good’ theory, data is useless; evidence could mean
anything and everything.
• Productive organizations/societies are those that value and apply
theory.
• It is only when we understand how, why, when/where things work that
we can deal with them effectively and efficiently.
• Thus, theory should inform practice and vice versa.
Why should we care about theory?

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• Concepts (Merriam Webster online dictionary)
• Something conceived in the mind: thought, notion
• An abstract or generic idea generalized from particular
instances.
• They are the WHAT aspect (or building blocks) of theory
• They represent the abstract ideas within a theory
• E.g. Gender, learning process, God, age, weight, income,
profit, performance, poverty, social capital, innovation,
cyber crime, insecurity, marriage, family size.
Concepts

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Concepts that can be conceptually defined are called
constructs; they can be observed directly (e.g., skin color,
weight) or indirectly (e.g., life satisfaction, intelligence)
Concepts/constructs that can vary or be allowed to vary are
called variables.
• This is done through measurement, which first requires us
to define a concept in a way that enables it to vary across
elements within a particular population.
Concepts

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Researchers think about these two terms differently. Let’s
consider these terms as follows:
Theoretical framework is a model (i.e., a representation of
something) derived from (an existing) theory. It “is the application of a
theory, or a set of concepts drawn from one and the same theory, to offer
an explanation of an event, or shed some light on a particular
phenomenon or research problem” (Imenda, 2014, p. 189). E.g.
A model linking IT resource to profitability can be termed theoretical
framework as both concepts and the logic connecting them might fit well
within a single theory, e.g., resource-based theory or dynamic capability
theory.
Conceptual vs theoretical frameworks

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Conceptual framework is a model derived from concepts. It captures the
use of related concepts, often drawn from different theories, to explain or
predict a particular phenomenon. E.g.
IT resource  attention to competitor actions  profitability
The above model is developed based on the integration of two theories:
Resource based theory (RBT) and attention-based view of the firm (ABV).
IT resource and profitability are drawn from RBT while attention to
competitor actions and profitability are drawn from ABV.
Conceptual vs theoretical frameworks

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Summary (Imenda, 2014):
Conceptual vs theoretical frameworks

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Direct/main effect framework focuses on the direct, casual link between
two concepts. E.g.
Basic conceptual/theoretical frameworks
IT resource Profitability
Independent variable:
IT resource
Dependent variable:
Profitability

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Mediation effect framework focuses on the indirect, casual link between
two concepts. E.g. The solid path is a mediation or indirect effect path.
Basic conceptual/theoretical frameworks
IT resource Profitability
Attention to
competitor
actions
Independent variable:
IT resource
Dependent variable:
Profitability
Mediating variable:
attention to competitor
actions

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Moderation effect framework focuses on the boundaries of or conditions
underlying a particular casual link between two or more concepts. The model
below is a moderating model. The solid paths capture moderating effect.
Basic conceptual/theoretical frameworks
IT resource Profitability
Competitive
intensity
Firm industry
(service vs.
manufacturing)
Independent variable:
IT resource
Dependent variable:
Profitability
Moderating variables:
firm industry,
competitive intensity

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Correlational framework focuses on the association between two
concepts. E.g.
Basic conceptual/theoretical frameworks
Innovation Profitability
There is no dependent variable or independent
variables.
We only occur about whether the two concepts move
together in the same or opposite direction

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• Hypotheses are derived from theories
• They bridge theory and data
• They are (logic-backed) guesses, expectations, predictions
• They represent testable, verifiable, or falsifiable statements or
propositions informed by a particular theory or theories. E.g.,
• IT resource is positively related to profitability
• IT resource enhances profitability through attention to competitor
actions
• CEO gender affects firm environment performance
Hypothesis

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Further reading:
• Null versus alternate hypotheses
• Direct versus non-directional hypotheses
Hypothesis

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• Crittenden, V. L., & Peterson, R. A. (2011). Ruminations about making a theoretical
contribution. AMS Review, 1(2), 67-71.
• Corley, K. G., & Gioia, D. A. (2011). Building theory about theory building: what
constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management Review, 36(1), 12-32.
• Imenda, S. (2014). Is there a conceptual difference between theoretical and conceptual
frameworks?. Journal of Social Sciences, 38(2), 185-195.
• Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995). What theory is not. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 371-384.
• Hambrick, D. C. (2007). The field of management’s devotion to theory: Too much of a
good thing? Academy of Management Journal, 59(6), 1346–1352
Key References

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Research methodology: choosing and
justifying
Next Lecture