LITERATURE REVIEW: FINAL ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW A critical skill at the doctoral level is the ability to conduct scholarly research guided by clearly articulated research questions that address a specifi

LITERATURE REVIEW: FINAL ASSIGNMENT

OVERVIEW

A critical skill at the doctoral level is the ability to conduct scholarly research guided by clearly

articulated research questions that address a specific issue or problem. It is important that you include

and address the research questions provided. Changing the research question changes the focus of the

study, and the resulting document will not meet the requirements for the literature review. For this

literature review, your research will be guided by the following three research questions:

1. How do individual and group decision processes aid or impede business decision making?

2. What are the latest developments in the process of strategy development and execution?

3. How can my academic discipline (see note below), as a function within the organization,

influence the process of business strategy development and execution?

The first two questions are explored from a broad business perspective, while the third question

gives you the opportunity to change your frame of reference to your specific cognate in the

Doctoral Program.

Note: The third research question deals with your Cognate (from your DCP) as a function that is

performed in a business. This is not exploring your degree program, the courses you have taken, or

higher education in any way. You will replace the words ‘my academic discipline’ in Research

Question 3 with your actual academic discipline from your DCP. Examples of academic disciplines

include Finance, Marketing, Accounting, Information Systems, International Business

Management.

What are we looking for in this literature review?

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area and sometimes

information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. This literature review will be

more than just a simple summary of information from various sources as it will include an

organizational pattern that provides a synthesis of information from multiple sources to support

areas of research. Please keep in mind that a summary is a re‐encapsulation of the important

information found in the source, while a synthesis is a re‐organization and combining of that

information with other sources to present a more complete picture. Finally, the literature review

will evaluate the sources and advise the reader of the most pertinent or relevant points.

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How will this literature review be evaluated?

Your work will be evaluated in the areas listed below. Be sure to review the grading rubric to

ensure that you have addressed all areas that will be evaluated. If you are uncertain or have

questions reach out to your professor right away for clarification.

Content

Required page count

Relevance of Information

Academic Level of Information

Quality of Information

Sources of Information

Structure

Organization of Information

Adherence to Formatting Instructions and APA Style Guide

Important note regarding required page count: Assignments must meet the minimum page

count indicated in the instructions. The content area scores will be reduced as described below for

documents that are short of the required page count as well as documents that address the wrong

subject matter. This could be the result of student altering the research questions and researching

the wrong subject, or using the correct research question but providing information that does not

address the research question.

For documents that fail to meet the content word/page count called for in the instructions, the

professor will multiply the score in each Content area by the percentage correctly provided.

Example:

• The instructions call for 10 pages of content and the student provides 5 pages of content.

• Content score for Academic Level of Information is determined to be 16 out of 20.

• That Content score is multiplied by 0.5 for a final Content score of 8 out of 20 for Academic

Level of Information. This is done for each Content area in the rubric.

• The professor will provide an explanation in the Comments section of the rubric.

Are there differences between plagiarism, paraphrasing, and quoting?

Paraphrasing is when you take a source or someone else’s idea and say it in your own words or

even combine the ideas of several authors as well as your own. When you paraphrase, you will still

give the author credit through the use of an in‐text citation connected to the idea as well as a

reference at the end of the paper.

A direct quote from a source has quotation marks around the quote. If 40 words or more in length,

it must be set in block quotation format. You can refer to the APA guide for more information on

this.

At the doctoral level, you should be relying almost exclusively on the use of paraphrasing to

allow synthesis of the original author’s views with your own. A direct quotation should only be

used in this literature review (or most other documents you will produce) when paraphrasing

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would change the author’s intended meaning. In other words, you should only use a quotation

when it is the only way to convey what the author intended to convey.

Plagiarism on the other hand exists when the writer simply copies the words directly from the

source without giving credit with an in‐text citation and a reference. Plagiarism is not permitted

and the paper will not be accepted for grading.

Specific Instructions:

• Follow the outline generated in the Literature Review: Outline Assignment to include any

feedback from your instructor.

• Use the Research Questions as provided in the instructions

• Minimum of 24 pages of total written content, not including introduction, conclusion, front

matter, reference section, and any tables or figures provided.

• No less than 8 pages of content addressing each research question

• Minimum of 24 current sources not including course texts

• No less than 8 current sources for each research question not including the course texts

• 1 inch margins, Double Spaced, 12 point font

• Include Cover Page, Abstract, Table of Contents, and Reference Section

• Follow APA (Professional Version) current edition for all formatting

Note: Your Literature Review: Final Assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin

plagiarism tool.