CONSIDERATION THREE:
What to consider when reading review articles

Review articles vary considerably in their scope and presentation. However, there are a number of things to look out for in these articles that can help you to get a good understanding of the broader literature and the place of your main journal article in it: (a) the use of definitions; (b) perspectives or dimensions; (c) antecedents of a construct or sub-field; (d) measurement procedures and measures; and (e) conceptual frameworks.

• The use of definitions

  A definition is a useful way of understanding a sub-field or specific construct (e.g., customer loyalty, job satisfaction, switching costs, etc.). Irrespective of the route you have adopted (i.e., Route A: Duplication, Route B: Generalisation or Route C: Extension), you will inevitably have to critically analyse the definitions used in your main journal article. We discuss this in STEP TWO: Critically evaluate the main journal article and its component parts. If you have taken on Route C: Extension or certain approaches to Route B: Generalisation, you will likely have to draw on the literature to set your own definitions, but we discuss this in STEP THREE: Justify the route you have chosen, and the approach within that route. You will also have to include definitions when you write up your Literature Review chapter.
  
  When it comes to definitions, review articles help to: (a) provide one or more definitions that you may use to describe the constructs in your dissertation; (b) categorise definitions, drawing out their various nuances and perspectives, rather than accepting one definition for a single, broad sub-field or construct; and (c) explain the various component parts of the definitions and their meaning, as opposed to stating (and at most, justifying the use of) such definitions, which is more common in research-based journal articles.

• Perspectives or dimensions

  Review articles are effective at helping you to assess (a) the various perspectives of the sub-fields you are interested in, as well as (b) the various dimensions of the constructs in your main journal article, which you are also likely to draw on in your dissertation.
  
  The sub-field that you are interested in can often be viewed from more than one perspective. For example, a sub-field such as disability can be viewed from a number of perspectives, including a bio-medical approach (perspective one), a functional approach (perspective two) and a rights-outcome approach (perspective three). The bio-medical approach views disability as a medical or physical condition that can be prevented or reduced through interventions that are biological, medical or genetic in nature. The functional approach again views disability as an individual condition, but focus is placed on ways to treat the functional incapacity this creates. Alternately, the rights-outcome approach views disability as a consequence of the way in which society is organised, and the relationship between society and the individual (Rioux, 1997). Putting your dissertation in context, as well as your main journal article and chosen route will require you to (a) understand the different perspectives that can be taken within the sub-field(s) you are interested in, and (b) firmly place your dissertation within one or more of these perspectives.
  
  Similar to perspectives, the specific constructs that you are interested in can also have more than one dimension. This is because not all constructs are the same in nature. Simple constructs such as weight and height are fairly one-dimensional, but other more complex constructs are multi-dimensional. By multi-dimensional, we mean that these more complex constructs (e.g., anger, depression, motivation, sleep quality, organizational commitment, etc.) consist of a number of components, each of which describe a different aspect of the construct. For example, take the construct, sleep quality, which is thought to consist of seven components: (1) subjective sleep quality, (2) sleep latency, (3) sleep duration, (4) habitual sleep efficiency, (5) sleep disturbances, (6) use of sleeping medication, and (7) daytime dysfunction (Buysse et al., 1989). Each of these 7 components aims to measure a different dimension of the construct, sleep quality. Similarly, the construct, organisational commitment, is often viewed as consisting of three dimensions: affective commitment (i.e., the emotional attachment that employees have to the organisation, as well as their identification and involvement with it), continuance commitment (i.e., the perceived costs of leaving the organisation), and normative commitment (i.e., the obligation that employees feel to stay at the organisation). Each of these three dimensions is a construct in its own right, but is also part of the broader construct, organisational commitment (Meyer et al., 1991). Again, as with the perspectives, you will need to understand the constructs in your dissertation, and which dimensions of these constructs are being used in the main journal article.

• Antecedents of a construct or sub-field

  In review articles, you will often see authors referring to antecedents of a particular construct or sub-field. Take the example of e-loyalty, which is customer loyalty in an online environment. The question arises: What makes customers loyal in an online environment? In other words, what causes or drives customer loyalty in an online environment? These factors are called antecedents. For example, Srinivasan et al. (2002) present eight antecedents for e-loyalty: (1) customization; (2) contact interactivity; (3) cultivation; (4) care; (5) community; (6) choice; (7) convenience; and (8) character. Each of these antecedents of e-loyalty can be viewed as constructs in their own right, with each being measured using a number of variables. If you are unsure about the differences between constructs and variables, or the different types of variables, the following section should offer a useful starting point: Concepts, constructs and variables.
  
  Review articles are helpful because your main journal article and the route you adopt will consist of a number of constructs and antecedents. These sections of the review article should help you learn more about these constructs and antecedents, which is important when it comes to critically evaluating the main journal article and its component parts (i.e., STEP TWO), as well as using the literature to explain and justify the route you have chosen, and the approach within that route (i.e., STEP THREE).

• Measurement procedures and measures

  Some review articles, although this can be less common, compare the various measurement procedures used within a sub-field, as well as the measures used for a particular construct. Think about (a) measurement procedures as the research methods used within a sub-field (e.g., whether researchers interested in customer loyalty have more often used survey research as opposed to observational methods or interviews), and (b) measures as the variables used to measure particular constructs (e.g., the questions used in a survey to measure affective commitment in an organisation, or more specifically, the way that the age of participants has been recorded, whether the actual age (e.g., 27 years) or using categories (e.g., within the 25-31 year age group)). Again, understanding what measurement procedures are used within a sub-field in order to measure particular constructs is important when it comes to critically evaluating the main journal article and its component parts (i.e., STEP TWO), as well as using the literature to explain and justify the route you have chosen, and the approach within that route (i.e., STEP THREE).

• Conceptual frameworks

  When you read a review article about one or more sub-fields (e.g., organisational commitment), there can be a number of moving parts: (a) constructs and the dimensions that make up such constructs (e.g., affective, continuance and normative commitment); (b) different perspectives held towards those constructs; (c) antecedents that directly or indirectly affect such constructs, including information about the relationship between such constructs (e.g., the strength of the relationship between two constructs, such as their being a very strong correlation between affective commitment - the emotional attachment that employees have to the organisation, as well as their identification and involvement with it - and normative commitment - the obligation that employees feel to stay at the organisation); and (d) the boundaries explaining where these different moving parts start and finish. Conceptual frameworks are diagrams that you'll often find in review articles that help to provide an overall picture of these moving parts so that they can be more easily understood. You can use them to identify where your main journal article and the route you have chosen for your dissertation fit within the broader literature.

Review articles can help with one further task: making sure that very similar research has not already been conducted and published; research that is very similar to your main journal article. If such research does exist, these journal articles will be particularly important when it comes to STEP TWO: Critically evaluating the main journal article and its components, which we discuss next.