Question and Instructions: read carefully

Coursework: Literature Review

Based upon a focused research question(online marketing) derived by yourself undertake a literature review on Marketing and ethics

Your literature review should have a word limit1 of 2,000 words excluding your references, tables or diagrams. You should focus on the latest developments in the subject, so will refer to at least 20 (and no more than 25) research papers published in marketing journals since 2000. Critically evaluate the academic literature from the period 2000-2015(important)?  It is not necessary to review earlier works and all articles cited in the review should be papers that you have actually downloaded and read. (Please keep this material as you may be asked to hand it in to the class lectures).  Do not use earlier works in this review.

Please note students must use the plagiarism software “Turnitin” in advance of the submission of their assignment.

The word limit does not include tables/figures/appendices/references.
Please also be very clear, that by ‘Marketing Journals’ we mean journals in which original research, reviewed by peers, is published. We do not mean magazines such as ‘the Economist’.   You may also, in addition to including at least 20 recent journal articles, draw upon textbooks. Bear in mind that textbooks are most useful for establishing definitions.  Remember though that you need to review at least 20 recent research papers, for instance as published in the journals listed at the end of this brief. The crucial part of this assignment is that your review at least 20 recent articles published in marketing journals.

You should organise your assignment into sections, beginning with an introduction to define your subject, with a short explanation to explain why this is important, and a brief summary of the remainder of your assignment.

Following your introduction, we recommend strongly that you have three main sections within the main body of your assignment, each focussing on a main theme that you have identified in your literature review. A crucial part of a successful literature review is that you identify important themes, which may be organised around, for example, controversies, schools of thought, methods, or types of empirical finding. We cannot say exactly what your themes are going to be; that is up to you as authors and forms an important part of your task in this assignment. You will have a particular interpretation of the written work and thus, you will link published ideas, arguments, empirical evidence, etc. in your unique way.

Try to go beyond stating the obvious by discussing ideas side-by-side in isolation. Step away from the articles – what do you see? You will have to add value, highlight key points that clearly go beyond the existing literature to push the academic debate forward. An uncritical listing of viewpoints (e.g., “Kotler says XXX, Miller highlights YYY, and Keller argues ZZZ”) will not be enough (e.g., what is your assessment and interpretation of the debate between Kotler, Miller, and Keller? What have we learned from reading the original sources?) Do not miss an opportunity to add value by comparing and contrasting viewpoints, results, ideas, etc. (e.g., tables, diagrams, etc. work well to convey your thoughts).

Finally, your assignment should include a conclusion, in which you state the main lessons learned from your literature review, both in terms of business practice and in terms of further research (ie, what if you were to develop this into your dissertation?). Again, this should be a ‘conclusion’ and not merely a summary. Here you will have the opportunity to excel in your critical thinking and to clearly demonstrate that you have the ability to map out a path that leads you and the reader beyond the existing body of knowledge.

As guidance, we recommend that your introduction section be about 250 words, the three main sections focussing on themes that you identify in your review be around 1,500 words each and the conclusions about 250 words (remember, bibliography and diagrams and tables are not included in your word count). Think about the suitable balance between your written text, tables, and visuals. Remember that you will have to rhetorically integrate ALL tables, figures, etc. in the text (i.e., you will have to explain what the table, figure, etc. shows and how the key message relates to proceeding/preceding text. Do not leave it for the reader to speculate why the table, figure, etc. is important to include). Again, take the opportunity to add value by interpreting the figure, table, etc. – go beyond the obvious and write something new.

An indicative list of marketing journals is included below. These may be accessed either through the EBSCO host or through the University Library’s Supremo search or Emerald data and other on line resources available from the University library.

Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Research
Journal of Consumer Research

Journal of Business Ethics
Marketing Science
Journal of Retailing
International Journal of Research in Marketing
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
European Journal of Marketing
Journal of International Marketing
Industrial Marketing Management
Psychology and Marketing
International Marketing Review
Journal of Advertising
Journal of Business Research
Marketing Letters
Journal of Advertising Research
Journal of Marketing Management
Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing
Quantitative Marketing and Economics
Journal of Interactive Marketing
International Journal of Advertising
Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing
International Journal of Market Research
Journal of Strategic Marketing
Journal of Services Marketing
Consumption, Markets and Culture
Advances in Consumer Research
Journal of Consumer Behaviour
Journal of Marketing Communications
Marketing Theory
Journal of Macromarketing
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
Academy of Marketing Science Review