Blog
Differences between a Narrative and Critical Literature Reviews
A literature review is a thorough overview of earlier studies on a subject. It examines academic books, journals, and other materials pertinent to a particular field. Its goal is to comprehend the current research and discussions relevant to a specific topic or field of study and to deliver that information in a written report. The structure of a literature review may differ across domains and assignments; thus, the kind of literature review you write will depend on your field of study. This blog highlights the differences between narrative and critical literature reviews.
This kind of review identifies and studies published materials on a broad subject. Usually, it uses a narrative style to present the review's results. It may also encompass a variety of related topics. It is a crucial step in the research process that aids in establishing a project's theoretical framework, emphasis, and context.
This literature review type is analytical and includes a critical discussion of factual claims. It requires a researcher to gather data from various sources to enrich it. It often contains the key points or arguments from the book or article and the author's assessment.
The following table illustrates the differences between a narrative and a critical literature review
Narrative literature review
Critical literature review
This literature review heavily depends on earlier studies connected to that literary work, and there is no room for the researcher to present their results or impose their points of view.
On the other hand, in a critical review, the researchers are more active in expressing their thoughts and points of view concerning a particular literary work.
Here, the researcher primarily provides background data about other research that looked at the same subject being reviewed. These details comprise the objectives, analysis, and conclusions of the work under examination.
This literature review type welcomes the idea of analysing literary works by highlighting their flaws and strengths, virtues and merits, etc.
It is often done to gain a general understanding of a subject and possibly spot gaps in the body of knowledge.
It demonstrates that the reviewer has an in-depth knowledge of the literature and can generate hypotheses related to the subject of the review.
In other to highlight these differences in a real study, let us consider the following example:
Example 1:
Topic: The role of gender in workplace stress
Narrative Literature Review
Stress in the workplace is a major problem for both organisations and employees, and it has been estimated that approximately 13.4 million working days in Britain are lost per year due to stress, depression or anxiety. Research suggests that working is generally related to positive health for women and men (Matud et al., 2019). However, workplace stress is a major problem, and it has been suggested that gender may be an important demographic characteristic to consider in the experience of stress. While on the one hand, it has been reported that there are no differences between women and men in relation to workplace stress (Osman, 2022; Bakano?lu, 2020), it has also been noted that there are differences in both stressors and the severity of stress between the sexes (Hamaideh, 2010; Day & Livingstone, 2003; Costa et al., 2021). Furthermore, it has been reported that although women and men are exposed to the same stressors, women also face unique stressors (Viertiö et al., 2021). Indeed, Hofboll, Geller & Dunahooll (2015) suggest that it is essential to consider the stressors unique to employed women, as this can increase the understanding of the specific needs of working women. This is particularly important as several studies have found that the provision of workplace support was more effective in reducing occupational stress in men than in women (Rivera-Torres et al., 2013; Bhui et al., 2016; Greenglass, 2002).
Critical Literature Review
There has been limited research investigating women and workplace stress - many studies of occupational stress have only included male participants (Miller et al., 2000; Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005; Freedman & Bisesi, 1988). Failure to incorporate women in the research has led to impairment of the accuracy of conceptual models and research findings. Consequently, it is impossible to draw firm conclusions regarding the role of gender in workplace stress as there is not yet enough research (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005; Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). In addition, most research treats women as a homogenous group and rarely includes analyses of race or socioeconomic differences. Remarkably, it has been argued that it is important to disaggregate the population of women to gain a clear picture of stressors.
Example 2:
Topic: Hotel revenue management
Revenue (yield) management (RM) is an essential instrument for matching supply and demand by dividing customers into different segments based on their purchase intentions and allocating capacity to the different segments in a way that maximises a particular firm's revenues (El Haddad, Roper & Jones, 2008). Kimes (1989) and Kimes and Wirtz (2003) define RM as the application of information systems and pricing strategies to allocate the right capacity to the right customer at the right price at the right time. This puts RM practice into marketing management, where it plays a key role in demand creation (Cross, Higbie & Cross, 2009) and managing consumer behaviour (Anderson & Xie, 2010). RM theory has benefited strongly from marketing management research and more profoundly from operations (e.g. Talluri & van Ryzin, 2005) and pricing research (Shy, 2008).
When the customer places a booking request, it is registered by the hotel's RM system (Talluri & van Ryzin, 2005). The operational results from the RM process are the specific booking elements of the particular booking request – e.g. booking status (confirmed/rejected), number of rooms, types and categories of rooms, duration of stay, price, cancellation and amendment terms and conditions, etc. (Anderson & Xie, 2010). The booking details and the operation of the whole RM system influence customers' perceptions of the fairness of the hotel's RM system and his/her intentions for future bookings with the same hotel/hotel chain (Shy, 2008). The RM system experiences the constant influences of the external (macro- and micro-) and internal environmental factors in which the hotel operates (e.g. company's goals, its financial situation, legislation, competition, changes in demand, destination's image, or force majeure events among others) and revenue manager's decisions have to take all these into considerations (Shy, 2008).
Revenue (yield) management (RM), which classifies consumers into distinct categories based on their purchase intents and distributes power to the various sections in a way that maximises a particular firm's revenues, is a crucial tool for balancing supply and demand (El Haddad et al., 2008). As a result, marketing management incorporates RM practice, which is crucial for regulating customer behaviour and creating demand (Cross, Higbie, & Cross, 2009). Customers' opinions of the hotel's RM system's equity and their plans to make additional reservations at the same hotel or with the same hotel chain are influenced by the specifics of their current bookings as well as how the entire RM system functions. However, balancing demand and supply with RM could be tricky – nonetheless, it is achievable. For instance, when a hotel chain has several substitutable properties in terms of location, services and category in one destination, it can coordinate the individual properties' RM practices to maximise the chain's revenues as a whole, not the revenues of individual properties. The hotel can achieve that by directing the booking of unavailable hotels to other chain properties. In this case, the chain's overbooking policy treats chain hotels as one property, not as single separate units.
Secondly, RM theory would benefit significantly if special events were included in the mathematical models. During special events, demand for rooms is much higher than on normal business days, and historical booking data might not be suitable (or even available if it is a first-of-a-kind event in the destination). Nevertheless, regression models and neural networks could be adjusted to account for special events. In this direction for future research, practice is again ahead of theory, as special events are already incorporated in RM software.
Example 3:
Topic: Can ageing be programmed?
Longevity varies not only between species but is sometimes also affected by environmental and genetic factors within a species. Theories on the evolution of ageing need, therefore, to be able to explain the controllability of the lifespan. Goldsmith (2012, 2013) argued that the ability of an organism to fine-tune its lifespan in response to temporary changes in the environment (e.g. caloric restriction) is incompatible with nonprogrammed theories and therefore speaks for programming. In both publications, he referred to a diagram showing the selection pressure to increase lifespan as a function of the current lifespan. Many advocates of programmed ageing propose that a species which ages has a selective advantage because it evolves faster. For example, Skulachev (1997) wrote: Death caused by ageing clears the population of ancestors and frees space for progeny carrying new useful traits. According to Goldsmith (2008), if ageing shortens the mean lifespan, it also shortens the mean generation time, and thus more genetic variants are 'tested' in the same time interval through sexual recombination.
Many advocates of programmed ageing propose that a species which ages has a selective advantage because it evolves faster. For example, Skulachev (1997) wrote: Death caused by ageing clears the population of ancestors and frees space for progeny carrying new useful traits. Skulachev argued that ageing removes otherwise perfectly healthy individuals from the population in the hope that this is compensated by newborns carrying advantageous mutations. The problem with this idea is that most mutations are deleterious, so the next generation is not automatically better adapted. In the absence of ageing (which must be assumed to be the original state if the theory is not circular), it is unclear how Skulachev's death mechanism can target 'ancestors'. Even if it could, the removal of chronologically old individuals would be a process that selectively eliminates organisms of higher average fitness because survival to higher ages would, on average, be a sign that the individual was endowed with a genotype of above-average fitness.
According to Goldsmith (2008), if ageing shortens the mean lifespan, it also shortens the mean generation time, and thus more genetic variants are 'tested' in the same time interval through sexual recombination. This hypothesis involves different selective forces (negative effect of lifespan shortening vs hypothetical positive effect on genetic variation) acting in opposite directions and thus requires a mathematical model to visualise and understand its feasibility. Unfortunately, Goldsmith (2008) formulated his idea only verbally, but we decided to study its plausibility by developing an agent-based computer simulation of its consequences.
I hope this helps, if you have any question, do not hesitate to leave a comment below.
No comments added
Your one-stop website for academic resources, tutoring, writing, editing, study abroad application, cv writing & proofreading needs.
