Report on Literature Review The development and production of knowledge

Creating research and relating it to the prevalent or existing information is considered a foundational block of all processes and activities which are related to academic research. However, with time, this process has become quite difficult and complicated. The development and production of knowledge are increasing in almost every field. However, within this field, it remains not only fragmented but also interdisciplinary. It is considered one of the most important reasons why literature review is considered significant in this research.

A literature review is actually a systematic way of collecting existing and previous information and synthesizing it. An effective literature review as a research method is capable of developing a strong foundation which facilitates the development of a new theory and advancing the existing knowledge. Through the incorporation of findings and different perspectives from different empirical findings, objectives of research can be accomplished with a power that is not possessed by individual processes of research(Galvan & Galvan, 2017).

It can also help in offering a brief overview of different aspects in which the research is disparate and interdisciplinary. Moreover, it is a reliable method of synthesizing research findings for indicating evidence and unveiling different aspects in which more research is necessary. It facilitates the development of both theoretical and conceptual models. However, traditional techniques of explaining and representing the literature normally lack thoroughness and description. This results in the lack of knowledge of what different researches are indicating and saying. Due to it, there is a significant likelihood that studies might be created by authors or erroneous assumptions. When researchers select the evidence on which they develop their research while ignoring opposing arguments, they face some significant issues. In addition to it, although methodology is valid, there are some issues with what is actually making a good contribution to the research.

Recognizing prior and relevant information is considered important for all types of research projects. In general, whenever an author is reading a journal article, he begins by describing previous studies for assessing and mapping the area of research for emphasizing the objectives of study and justifying the research questions. This is referred to as research background or a literature review. However, for a literature review to be a part of methodology, there are some steps which need to be considered. And those steps have been considered in this research.

Similar to all researches, the value of a review depends mostly on the clarity of report, what was determined, and what was performed. According to the purpose of review, different strategies, standards, and guidelines can be used for performing a literature review. The process of this review can be either narrow or broad. In this paper, previous concepts and researches on lunchboxes have been analyzed and studied. Literature reviews are considered very useful when it comes to providing a brief overview of different concepts. In general, this type of literature review conducted for the evaluation of a knowledge state of a certain topic or theory. For instance, it is capable of being utilized for the development of research agendas, identification of gaps in a study, or for the explanation of a certain problem.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that literature reviews can be useful as well when the objective of research is concerned with theory development. In cases similar to this one, the foundation of research is provided by a literature review. It is, however, quite important to understand that in accordance with the objective of research, the type of literature review will change. In this research, two types of literature reviews are utilized.

3.4.3 Historical Review

The objective of a historical literature review is concerned with examining a certain concept or aspect throughout a selected time duration. Generally, this type of literature review is considered because the problem of effective and efficient lunchboxes has been considered and researched by several authors. In order to understand the issue and objectives of this research better, it was quite important to conduct a historical literature review.

3.4.4 Theoretical Review

Meanwhile, the objective of a theoretical review is all about examining a specific idea of theory which was created with respect to an issue. It plays an important role in establishing what ideas are already existing and what types of issues or gaps exist in the research. Theoretical literature review, in this case, has helped in the development of a sleek thermal lunchbox which is capable of keeping the food of people warm and fresh for a long period of time.

Whenever it comes to writing literature, it is important to consider why this literature review is being carried out. For instance, it should be asked whether there is a need for literature review in this field or not. Answering questions similar to this one can help in creating a strong foundation for research. With respect to this research, conducting a literature review was important because the research context is suitable for this method. Additionally, there is a need for a review because thermal lunchboxes in order to keep the food of working people safe hasn’t been studied extensively by people. This literature review would undoubtedly be a significant contribution to the existing knowledge and information because the existing research is not sufficient enough for the development of new studies(Hart, 2018).

For writing a literature, it is important to prefer both books and peer-reviewed articles since both of them are authentic and are capable of providing the researchers with testable information. In order to conduct this research, both peer-reviewed articles and books have been considered. They have provided enough information on thermal lunchboxes for conducting the research and forming the objectives of this study. With the use of this method, only authentic information has been utilized in this study and it has enabled the researcher to accomplish the research objectives.

The motivation and need for the literature, when creating a literature review, has to be communicated in a clear manner. According to the approach, the final review of article should be structured in a manner which can complement the research. There are different standards and guidelines which address how a literature review should be reported and structured. Although it is possible to structure a literature review in a number of ways, generalizations can also be made. In this case, for instance, the literature review is constructed in such a manner in which the concept of lunchboxes is explored and then different theories associated with it are also explained.

For each and every type of research, the literature review plays an important role as a base. They are able to serve as a basis of knowledge development, offering evidence of a certain aspect or effect, and it can also have the ability of engendering new ideas and directions for a specific field. That is why they serve as a ground for future research and theory but it can be quite tough to properly perform a literature review.

For ensuring the relevance of this literature, a systematic approach was utilized for finding the books and journal articles related to lunchboxes. For instance, only databases or libraries were utilized for finding these information sources. In addition to it, relevant keywords were also used to make sure that only relevant sources could be found. This approach enabled the identification of research sources which were not only relevant but also latest.

3.5 Quantitative Methods

There is a stark difference between secondary and primary methods. Primary methods are also referred to as quantitative methods and these methods generally include statistics for conducting research. They are completely different from qualitative methods which depend on the existing information. As explained above, literature reviews and case studies help in obtaining the existing or historical information about a specific topic. However, the same cannot be said about quantitative methods. These methods don’t involve the analysis of existing information. Instead of it, they depend on the ability of research to conduct analyses and unveil a new aspect of a theory.

In this case, two quantitative methods have been considered. One of the quantitative methods is a survey while the other method is market research. These are the two methods have been considered in this research for finding relevant information to create a new thermal lunchbox which is capable of meeting the expectations of working people and keeping their food fresh and warm even for a long period of time.

3.5.1 Survey

Survey is actually a primary method of research and it is usually conducted for collecting new information about a specific topic. It is quite different from literature reviews in which previous or historical information is analyzed and relevant concepts are collected for explaining accomplishing the research objectives. When it comes to clarifying ideas about a certain theory or idea, literature reviews are utilized as they are concerned with collecting prior or past information. Meanwhile, when it comes to the development of a new practical idea, surveys are utilized because they play an important role in justifying the research conclusions.

In this case, survey is considered suitable for conducting the research because it enables the researcher to analyze the use of lunchboxes from the perspectives of both working and non-working people. In order to conduct the survey, a questionnaire has been developed which was distributed among the participants of survey. This allowed us to obtain the perspectives of different people and look at lunchboxes from a new perspective. The questionnaire was close-ended which means that the questions were fixed. For each and every participant, the questionnaire was the same. For instance, if the question for one participant was about his name, then the same goes for every other participant.

Open-ended questionnaires are utilized when the research is willing to consider broader perspectives. They are often considered when the objective of research is to analyze different points of views and the differences between them. In contrast, close-ended questionnaires are utilized when the research is narrow and the focus is only on one aspect. In this case, for instance, the topic of focus has only been lunchboxes and that is the reason why close-ended questionnaires have been utilized. This research could have utilized open-ended questionnaires but it wouldn’t have been suitable and the results would have been ambiguous. In order to avoid this situation, close-ended questionnaires were utilized. They facilitated the process of survey and allowed the researchers to collect the necessary data(McCusker & Gunaydin, 2015).

Some of the questions in the questionnaire were: how often do you typically use a lunchbox? Where do you primarily use a lunchbox? What color scheme would you use on a lunchbox? And what size would you prefer for a lunchbox? These are only some of the questions which have been included in the questionnaire. Seven other questions similar to these questions have been considered in the questionnaire as well. The objective of these questions is quite simple. It is to understand what type of lunchbox is preferred by working people. These are the questions which seek answers from participants. There were some other questions as well and in these questions, options were given to be selected by the participants.

These questions were concerned with the age of participants, their occupation, and their gender. In the questionnaire, they were given the options for selecting the right one and proceeding to the questions which had to be answered manually. Overall, these were the questions which were considered in the questionnaire. And they enable the analysis of a broader perspective of lunchboxes.