Advice on Literature Reviews, Research Approaches for MBA Projects

This assignment provides guidance on conducting literature reviews, focusing on the importance of broadening the search area, choosing relevant keywords, and critically analyzing research materials. It also advises on selecting the most appropriate research approach, recommending a deductive approach for hypothesis development related to customer relationship management (CRM) and business performance in telecom organizations. Furthermore, it suggests a cross-sectional method for assessing the impact of CRM, emphasizing observational studies to understand the significance of CRM for organizational success and providing insights for future improvements. The assignment utilizes references from academic sources to support its recommendations.

Task 1-W4:
A. Advice on carrying out literature reviews:
A colleague has been asked to generate the literature review section for a management
research paper to be published by associates. He is not quite sure of what to do and has
turned to you for guidance. What advice will you give?
A literature review essentially consists of an evaluation of existing research about a particular
topic. Therefore, the first step for conducting an accurate literature review is by broadening the
search area about the chosen topic. This would help in identifying the problems faced in this
research along with its scope. As asserted by Hart (2018), choosing the right keywords helps in
narrowing down the core information required for the presenting the literature review in an
adequate manner. The next step consists of finding relevant articles regarding the management
topic. A thorough assessment of these topics would help in the identification of appropriate
models and theories through which the research could be given a strong base. This aspect
followed by critical analysis of the research materials would help in addressing the strength and
weakness of the topic of the paper.
B. Information sources for literature reviews:
What types of publications and other information sources do you intend to work with when
carrying out the literature review for your research proposal?
The base of a literature review consists of a thorough analysis of existing research materials.
Therefore, it consists of various resources upon which the analysis is carried out. Publications
and another kind of written or printed information are required in the process of secondary
research method (Hamari, Koivisto and Sarsa, 2014). These publications which are used for the
purpose of the literature review should be not more than 5 years old, then only it will prove to be
reliable and valid for present use. Another one of the most important things needed to be kept in
mind that the publications regarding the given topic are needed to be authentic and are needed to
be acquired by ethical methods.
Task 2-W5:

A. What Research Approach is best for Research Topic: The impact of customer
relationship management on business performance of telecom organizations.
Given the choice between using an Inductive, Abductive (hybrid) or a Deductive Research
Approach, which do you think would work best for your own planned MBA Project?
The process of deductive research approach would be the best suited for the research topic which
is stated in this section. As opined by Colucci et al. (2014), a deductive approach is best used for
the development of a hypothesis. This hypothesis helps in the assessment of the existing theory
of the given topic and aid in designing a research strategy. Not only will the deductive theory of
approach help in generalizing the research aspect for the study to a given extent but also help in
measurements of concepts in the research. Therefore, through the aid of a deductive approach, a
hypothesis about customer relationship management can be formed for the conduction of the
study.
B. Advice Research Study Choices:
Indicate, with reasons, what choices you will be making from the following research study
options for MBA Dissertation with topic: The impact of customer relationship management
on business performance of telecom organizations.
For the given topic, the cross-sectional method would be the best for an assessment of the
research materials. As per the view of Sallis et al. (2016), a cross-sectional study focuses on
observational studies through which researchers are able to access the importance of the study.
This aspect of research would aid in understanding the important areas needed to be evaluated in
this research. Important aspect such as the positive or negative impact of customer relationship
management on business performance can be accessed through the aid of such observational
study. It would provide the scope to understand the significance CRM plays for an organization
and thus, would help in the assessment of effective solution of how the aspect could be made
better for the future performance of telecom organization.

References
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. California Sage.
Hamari, J., Koivisto, J. and Sarsa, H., 2014, January. Does gamification work?--a literature
review of empirical studies on gamification. In 2014 47th Hawaii international conference on
system sciences (HICSS),3(2), pp.3025-3034.
Colucci, S., Giannini, S., Donini, F.M. and Di Sciascio, E., 2014, August. A deductive approach
to the identification and description of clusters in Linked Open Data. In ECAI, 4(2), pp.987-988.
Sallis, J.F., Cerin, E., Conway, T.L., Adams, M.A., Frank, L.D., Pratt, M., Salvo, D.,
Schipperijn, J., Smith, G., Cain, K.L. and Davey, R., 2016. Physical activity in relation to urban
environments in 14 cities worldwide: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet, 387(10034), pp.2207-
2217.