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.
