1. Introduction

 

Regardless of your field of study, every research must begin with and build upon a foundation of prior knowledge. Therefore, it is imperative that all scholars place a premium on doing this correctly. However, the difficulty of doing this is rising. The business research community is producing new information at a dizzying rate, yet that information is scattered and doesn't adhere to any one discipline. This makes it difficult to stay abreast of cutting-edge research and evaluate the body of evidence in a certain field. This is why, more than ever, it is important to do a literature review as part of your study. According to some definitions (Baumeister & Leary, 1997; Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003), a literature review is "a more or less systematic way of collecting and synthesizing previous research." Webster and Watson (2002) note that reviews that are both thorough and efficient create a solid foundation on which to build new theories. A literature review may answer research questions more effectively than any one study by synthesizing the results and viewpoints of several empirical studies.

 

It may also be useful for giving an overall picture of topics where research is scattered and cross-disciplinary. An additional important part of developing theoretical frameworks and conceptual models is synthesis of research results to provide evidence on a meta-level and to reveal gaps in knowledge. While the literature is regularly described and portrayed, it is not always done so thoroughly or methodically (Tranfield et al., 2003). This leads to confusion about the conclusions drawn from the research taken together. Therefore, there is a high probability that writers base their studies on incorrect premises. Serious issues might arise when academics cherry-pick the facts on which to develop their study, neglecting evidence that goes in the other direction. Furthermore, there are sometimes concerns with what makes a good contribution even when the process of the evaluations is sound.

 

Of course, there already exist some guidelines for conducting literature reviews that suggest different types of reviews, such as narrative or integrative reviews (e.g., Baumeister & Leary, 1997; Wong, Greenhalgh, Westhorp, Buckingham, & Pawson, 2013), systematic reviews, and meta-analysis (e.g., Davis, Mengersen, Bennett, & Mazerolle, 2014; Liberati et al., 2009; Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, & Altman, 2009) or integrative reviews (e.g., Torraco, 2005). There have also been efforts to formulate recommendations tailored to the needs of management and business studies (see, for example, Palmatier, Houston, & Hulland (2018) and Tranfield et al. This study provides a larger perspective by expanding on and combining these many literature evaluations, and by summarizing and integrating the various criteria, including how to use them in business research.

 

 This work sets the stage for academics interested in using literature reviews to synthesize research in their own fields, enrich their own studies, and guide social policy decisions. Finally, the purpose of this study is to present some principles for assessing the quality of review papers, which should be useful for editors, reviewers, authors, and readers.

 

2 Justifications for doing a literature review

 

Literature reviews are an integral part of the research process across all fields and types of studies. The first step in understanding the purpose of the study, as well as the rationale for the research question and hypotheses, is reading a description of prior research conducted by the author in order to map and appraise the research area. In academia, this section is called variously the "literature review," "theoretical framework," and "research background." A literature review may be a useful research tool, but like any other kind of study, it requires careful planning and execution to guarantee reliability and validity. Academic reviews are only as useful as the work that went into them (Moher et al., 2009) and the clarity with which their findings were reported. The researcher may choose from a variety of approaches, criteria, and guidelines designed specifically for performing a literature review, all of which should be taken into account in light of the review's intended goal. 

 

2.1 Methods for Completing a Literature Review 

 

Several rules have already been established for conducting literature reviews, as was previously indicated. All categories may be useful and suitable to obtain a given aim (for examples, see Table 1), but this will depend on the approach required to complete the review.

 The phase of the review determines whether a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method approach is appropriate. Below, we'll outline three major categories of approaches that are often used. There are many sorts that will be introduced and examined, the most comprehensive being the systematic review. All of these methods of literature evaluation may be quite useful when applied to the correct research issue. While synthesis of many methods is common, it is important to highlight that synthesis is only one of many types of literature reviews. Given the breadth of these methods, it's important to keep in mind that they may need to be modified for a given study.