How to write a literature review introduction (+ examples)

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The introduction to a literature review serves as your reader’s guide through your academic work and thought process. Explore the significance of literature review introductions in review papers, academic papers, essays, theses, and dissertations. We delve into the purpose and necessity of these introductions, explore the essential components of literature review introductions, and provide step-by-step guidance on how to craft your own, along with examples.

Why you need an introduction for a literature review

When you need an introduction for a literature review, what to include in a literature review introduction, examples of literature review introductions, steps to write your own literature review introduction.

A literature review is a comprehensive examination of the international academic literature concerning a particular topic. It involves summarizing published works, theories, and concepts while also highlighting gaps and offering critical reflections.

In academic writing , the introduction for a literature review is an indispensable component. Effective academic writing requires proper paragraph structuring to guide your reader through your argumentation. This includes providing an introduction to your literature review.

It is imperative to remember that you should never start sharing your findings abruptly. Even if there isn’t a dedicated introduction section .

Instead, you should always offer some form of introduction to orient the reader and clarify what they can expect.

There are three main scenarios in which you need an introduction for a literature review:

  • Academic literature review papers: When your literature review constitutes the entirety of an academic review paper, a more substantial introduction is necessary. This introduction should resemble the standard introduction found in regular academic papers.
  • Literature review section in an academic paper or essay: While this section tends to be brief, it’s important to precede the detailed literature review with a few introductory sentences. This helps orient the reader before delving into the literature itself.
  • Literature review chapter or section in your thesis/dissertation: Every thesis and dissertation includes a literature review component, which also requires a concise introduction to set the stage for the subsequent review.

You may also like: How to write a fantastic thesis introduction (+15 examples)

It is crucial to customize the content and depth of your literature review introduction according to the specific format of your academic work.

In practical terms, this implies, for instance, that the introduction in an academic literature review paper, especially one derived from a systematic literature review , is quite comprehensive. Particularly compared to the rather brief one or two introductory sentences that are often found at the beginning of a literature review section in a standard academic paper. The introduction to the literature review chapter in a thesis or dissertation again adheres to different standards.

Here’s a structured breakdown based on length and the necessary information:

Academic literature review paper

The introduction of an academic literature review paper, which does not rely on empirical data, often necessitates a more extensive introduction than the brief literature review introductions typically found in empirical papers. It should encompass:

  • The research problem: Clearly articulate the problem or question that your literature review aims to address.
  • The research gap: Highlight the existing gaps, limitations, or unresolved aspects within the current body of literature related to the research problem.
  • The research relevance: Explain why the chosen research problem and its subsequent investigation through a literature review are significant and relevant in your academic field.
  • The literature review method: If applicable, describe the methodology employed in your literature review, especially if it is a systematic review or follows a specific research framework.
  • The main findings or insights of the literature review: Summarize the key discoveries, insights, or trends that have emerged from your comprehensive review of the literature.
  • The main argument of the literature review: Conclude the introduction by outlining the primary argument or statement that your literature review will substantiate, linking it to the research problem and relevance you’ve established.
  • Preview of the literature review’s structure: Offer a glimpse into the organization of the literature review paper, acting as a guide for the reader. This overview outlines the subsequent sections of the paper and provides an understanding of what to anticipate.

By addressing these elements, your introduction will provide a clear and structured overview of what readers can expect in your literature review paper.

Regular literature review section in an academic article or essay

Most academic articles or essays incorporate regular literature review sections, often placed after the introduction. These sections serve to establish a scholarly basis for the research or discussion within the paper.

In a standard 8000-word journal article, the literature review section typically spans between 750 and 1250 words. The first few sentences or the first paragraph within this section often serve as an introduction. It should encompass:

  • An introduction to the topic: When delving into the academic literature on a specific topic, it’s important to provide a smooth transition that aids the reader in comprehending why certain aspects will be discussed within your literature review.
  • The core argument: While literature review sections primarily synthesize the work of other scholars, they should consistently connect to your central argument. This central argument serves as the crux of your message or the key takeaway you want your readers to retain. By positioning it at the outset of the literature review section and systematically substantiating it with evidence, you not only enhance reader comprehension but also elevate overall readability. This primary argument can typically be distilled into 1-2 succinct sentences.

In some cases, you might include:

  • Methodology: Details about the methodology used, but only if your literature review employed a specialized method. If your approach involved a broader overview without a systematic methodology, you can omit this section, thereby conserving word count.

By addressing these elements, your introduction will effectively integrate your literature review into the broader context of your academic paper or essay. This will, in turn, assist your reader in seamlessly following your overarching line of argumentation.

Introduction to a literature review chapter in thesis or dissertation

The literature review typically constitutes a distinct chapter within a thesis or dissertation. Often, it is Chapter 2 of a thesis or dissertation.

Some students choose to incorporate a brief introductory section at the beginning of each chapter, including the literature review chapter. Alternatively, others opt to seamlessly integrate the introduction into the initial sentences of the literature review itself. Both approaches are acceptable, provided that you incorporate the following elements:

  • Purpose of the literature review and its relevance to the thesis/dissertation research: Explain the broader objectives of the literature review within the context of your research and how it contributes to your thesis or dissertation. Essentially, you’re telling the reader why this literature review is important and how it fits into the larger scope of your academic work.
  • Primary argument: Succinctly communicate what you aim to prove, explain, or explore through the review of existing literature. This statement helps guide the reader’s understanding of the review’s purpose and what to expect from it.
  • Preview of the literature review’s content: Provide a brief overview of the topics or themes that your literature review will cover. It’s like a roadmap for the reader, outlining the main areas of focus within the review. This preview can help the reader anticipate the structure and organization of your literature review.
  • Methodology: If your literature review involved a specific research method, such as a systematic review or meta-analysis, you should briefly describe that methodology. However, this is not always necessary, especially if your literature review is more of a narrative synthesis without a distinct research method.

By addressing these elements, your introduction will empower your literature review to play a pivotal role in your thesis or dissertation research. It will accomplish this by integrating your research into the broader academic literature and providing a solid theoretical foundation for your work.

Comprehending the art of crafting your own literature review introduction becomes significantly more accessible when you have concrete examples to examine. Here, you will find several examples that meet, or in most cases, adhere to the criteria described earlier.

Example 1: An effective introduction for an academic literature review paper

To begin, let’s delve into the introduction of an academic literature review paper. We will examine the paper “How does culture influence innovation? A systematic literature review”, which was published in 2018 in the journal Management Decision.

introduction in a literature review example

The entire introduction spans 611 words and is divided into five paragraphs. In this introduction, the authors accomplish the following:

  • In the first paragraph, the authors introduce the broader topic of the literature review, which focuses on innovation and its significance in the context of economic competition. They underscore the importance of this topic, highlighting its relevance for both researchers and policymakers.
  • In the second paragraph, the authors narrow down their focus to emphasize the specific role of culture in relation to innovation.
  • In the third paragraph, the authors identify research gaps, noting that existing studies are often fragmented and disconnected. They then emphasize the value of conducting a systematic literature review to enhance our understanding of the topic.
  • In the fourth paragraph, the authors introduce their specific objectives and explain how their insights can benefit other researchers and business practitioners.
  • In the fifth and final paragraph, the authors provide an overview of the paper’s organization and structure.

In summary, this introduction stands as a solid example. While the authors deviate from previewing their key findings (which is a common practice at least in the social sciences), they do effectively cover all the other previously mentioned points.

Example 2: An effective introduction to a literature review section in an academic paper

The second example represents a typical academic paper, encompassing not only a literature review section but also empirical data, a case study, and other elements. We will closely examine the introduction to the literature review section in the paper “The environmentalism of the subalterns: a case study of environmental activism in Eastern Kurdistan/Rojhelat”, which was published in 2021 in the journal Local Environment.

introduction in a literature review example

The paper begins with a general introduction and then proceeds to the literature review, designated by the authors as their conceptual framework. Of particular interest is the first paragraph of this conceptual framework, comprising 142 words across five sentences:

“ A peripheral and marginalised nationality within a multinational though-Persian dominated Iranian society, the Kurdish people of Iranian Kurdistan (a region referred by the Kurds as Rojhelat/Eastern Kurdi-stan) have since the early twentieth century been subject to multifaceted and systematic discriminatory and exclusionary state policy in Iran. This condition has left a population of 12–15 million Kurds in Iran suffering from structural inequalities, disenfranchisement and deprivation. Mismanagement of Kurdistan’s natural resources and the degradation of its natural environmental are among examples of this disenfranchisement. As asserted by Julian Agyeman (2005), structural inequalities that sustain the domination of political and economic elites often simultaneously result in environmental degradation, injustice and discrimination against subaltern communities. This study argues that the environmental struggle in Eastern Kurdistan can be asserted as a (sub)element of the Kurdish liberation movement in Iran. Conceptually this research is inspired by and has been conducted through the lens of ‘subalternity’ ” ( Hassaniyan, 2021, p. 931 ).

In this first paragraph, the author is doing the following:

  • The author contextualises the research
  • The author links the research focus to the international literature on structural inequalities
  • The author clearly presents the argument of the research
  • The author clarifies how the research is inspired by and uses the concept of ‘subalternity’.

Thus, the author successfully introduces the literature review, from which point onward it dives into the main concept (‘subalternity’) of the research, and reviews the literature on socio-economic justice and environmental degradation.

While introductions to a literature review section aren’t always required to offer the same level of study context detail as demonstrated here, this introduction serves as a commendable model for orienting the reader within the literature review. It effectively underscores the literature review’s significance within the context of the study being conducted.

Examples 3-5: Effective introductions to literature review chapters

The introduction to a literature review chapter can vary in length, depending largely on the overall length of the literature review chapter itself. For example, a master’s thesis typically features a more concise literature review, thus necessitating a shorter introduction. In contrast, a Ph.D. thesis, with its more extensive literature review, often includes a more detailed introduction.

Numerous universities offer online repositories where you can access theses and dissertations from previous years, serving as valuable sources of reference. Many of these repositories, however, may require you to log in through your university account. Nevertheless, a few open-access repositories are accessible to anyone, such as the one by the University of Manchester . It’s important to note though that copyright restrictions apply to these resources, just as they would with published papers.

Master’s thesis literature review introduction

The first example is “Benchmarking Asymmetrical Heating Models of Spider Pulsar Companions” by P. Sun, a master’s thesis completed at the University of Manchester on January 9, 2024. The author, P. Sun, introduces the literature review chapter very briefly but effectively:

introduction in a literature review example

PhD thesis literature review chapter introduction

The second example is Deep Learning on Semi-Structured Data and its Applications to Video-Game AI, Woof, W. (Author). 31 Dec 2020, a PhD thesis completed at the University of Manchester . In Chapter 2, the author offers a comprehensive introduction to the topic in four paragraphs, with the final paragraph serving as an overview of the chapter’s structure:

introduction in a literature review example

PhD thesis literature review introduction

The last example is the doctoral thesis Metacognitive strategies and beliefs: Child correlates and early experiences Chan, K. Y. M. (Author). 31 Dec 2020 . The author clearly conducted a systematic literature review, commencing the review section with a discussion of the methodology and approach employed in locating and analyzing the selected records.

introduction in a literature review example

Having absorbed all of this information, let’s recap the essential steps and offer a succinct guide on how to proceed with creating your literature review introduction:

  • Contextualize your review : Begin by clearly identifying the academic context in which your literature review resides and determining the necessary information to include.
  • Outline your structure : Develop a structured outline for your literature review, highlighting the essential information you plan to incorporate in your introduction.
  • Literature review process : Conduct a rigorous literature review, reviewing and analyzing relevant sources.
  • Summarize and abstract : After completing the review, synthesize the findings and abstract key insights, trends, and knowledge gaps from the literature.
  • Craft the introduction : Write your literature review introduction with meticulous attention to the seamless integration of your review into the larger context of your work. Ensure that your introduction effectively elucidates your rationale for the chosen review topics and the underlying reasons guiding your selection.

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  • How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

  • Search for relevant literature
  • Evaluate sources
  • Identify themes, debates, and gaps
  • Outline the structure
  • Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

  • Quick Run-through
  • Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

  • Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
  • Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
  • Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
  • Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
  • Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Literature review guide

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introduction in a literature review example

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

  • Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
  • Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
  • Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
  • Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

  • Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
  • Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
  • Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

  • Your university’s library catalogue
  • Google Scholar
  • Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
  • Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
  • EconLit (economics)
  • Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

  • What question or problem is the author addressing?
  • What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
  • What are the key theories, models, and methods?
  • Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
  • What are the results and conclusions of the study?
  • How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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introduction in a literature review example

To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

  • Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
  • Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
  • Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
  • Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
  • Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

  • Most research has focused on young women.
  • There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
  • But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

  • Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
  • Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
  • Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

  • Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
  • Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
  • Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
  • Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • Sampling methods
  • Simple random sampling
  • Stratified sampling
  • Cluster sampling
  • Likert scales
  • Reproducibility

 Statistics

  • Null hypothesis
  • Statistical power
  • Probability distribution
  • Effect size
  • Poisson distribution

Research bias

  • Optimism bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Implicit bias
  • Hawthorne effect
  • Anchoring bias
  • Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

  • To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
  • To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
  • To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
  • To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
  • To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved February 12, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

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Grad Coach

How To Structure Your Literature Review

3 options to help structure your chapter.

By: Amy Rommelspacher (PhD) | Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | November 2020 (Updated May 2023)

Writing the literature review chapter can seem pretty daunting when you’re piecing together your dissertation or thesis. As  we’ve discussed before , a good literature review needs to achieve a few very important objectives – it should:

  • Demonstrate your knowledge of the research topic
  • Identify the gaps in the literature and show how your research links to these
  • Provide the foundation for your conceptual framework (if you have one)
  • Inform your own  methodology and research design

To achieve this, your literature review needs a well-thought-out structure . Get the structure of your literature review chapter wrong and you’ll struggle to achieve these objectives. Don’t worry though – in this post, we’ll look at how to structure your literature review for maximum impact (and marks!).

The function of the lit review

But wait – is this the right time?

Deciding on the structure of your literature review should come towards the end of the literature review process – after you have collected and digested the literature, but before you start writing the chapter. 

In other words, you need to first develop a rich understanding of the literature before you even attempt to map out a structure. There’s no use trying to develop a structure before you’ve fully wrapped your head around the existing research.

Equally importantly, you need to have a structure in place before you start writing , or your literature review will most likely end up a rambling, disjointed mess. 

Importantly, don’t feel that once you’ve defined a structure you can’t iterate on it. It’s perfectly natural to adjust as you engage in the writing process. As we’ve discussed before , writing is a way of developing your thinking, so it’s quite common for your thinking to change – and therefore, for your chapter structure to change – as you write. 

Need a helping hand?

introduction in a literature review example

Like any other chapter in your thesis or dissertation, your literature review needs to have a clear, logical structure. At a minimum, it should have three essential components – an  introduction , a  body   and a  conclusion . 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

1: The Introduction Section

Just like any good introduction, the introduction section of your literature review should introduce the purpose and layout (organisation) of the chapter. In other words, your introduction needs to give the reader a taste of what’s to come, and how you’re going to lay that out. Essentially, you should provide the reader with a high-level roadmap of your chapter to give them a taste of the journey that lies ahead.

Here’s an example of the layout visualised in a literature review introduction:

Example of literature review outline structure

Your introduction should also outline your topic (including any tricky terminology or jargon) and provide an explanation of the scope of your literature review – in other words, what you  will   and  won’t   be covering (the delimitations ). This helps ringfence your review and achieve a clear focus . The clearer and narrower your focus, the deeper you can dive into the topic (which is typically where the magic lies). 

Depending on the nature of your project, you could also present your stance or point of view at this stage. In other words, after grappling with the literature you’ll have an opinion about what the trends and concerns are in the field as well as what’s lacking. The introduction section can then present these ideas so that it is clear to examiners that you’re aware of how your research connects with existing knowledge .

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2: The Body Section

The body of your literature review is the centre of your work. This is where you’ll present, analyse, evaluate and synthesise the existing research. In other words, this is where you’re going to earn (or lose) the most marks. Therefore, it’s important to carefully think about how you will organise your discussion to present it in a clear way. 

The body of your literature review should do just as the description of this chapter suggests. It should “review” the literature – in other words, identify, analyse, and synthesise it. So, when thinking about structuring your literature review, you need to think about which structural approach will provide the best “review” for your specific type of research and objectives (we’ll get to this shortly).

There are (broadly speaking)  three options  for organising your literature review.

The body section of your literature review is the where you'll present, analyse, evaluate and synthesise the existing research.

Option 1: Chronological (according to date)

Organising the literature chronologically is one of the simplest ways to structure your literature review. You start with what was published first and work your way through the literature until you reach the work published most recently. Pretty straightforward.

The benefit of this option is that it makes it easy to discuss the developments and debates in the field as they emerged over time. Organising your literature chronologically also allows you to highlight how specific articles or pieces of work might have changed the course of the field – in other words, which research has had the most impact . Therefore, this approach is very useful when your research is aimed at understanding how the topic has unfolded over time and is often used by scholars in the field of history. That said, this approach can be utilised by anyone that wants to explore change over time .

Adopting the chronological structure allows you to discuss the developments and debates in the field as they emerged over time.

For example , if a student of politics is investigating how the understanding of democracy has evolved over time, they could use the chronological approach to provide a narrative that demonstrates how this understanding has changed through the ages.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you structure your literature review chronologically.

  • What is the earliest literature published relating to this topic?
  • How has the field changed over time? Why?
  • What are the most recent discoveries/theories?

In some ways, chronology plays a part whichever way you decide to structure your literature review, because you will always, to a certain extent, be analysing how the literature has developed. However, with the chronological approach, the emphasis is very firmly on how the discussion has evolved over time , as opposed to how all the literature links together (which we’ll discuss next ).

Option 2: Thematic (grouped by theme)

The thematic approach to structuring a literature review means organising your literature by theme or category – for example, by independent variables (i.e. factors that have an impact on a specific outcome).

As you’ve been collecting and synthesising literature , you’ll likely have started seeing some themes or patterns emerging. You can then use these themes or patterns as a structure for your body discussion. The thematic approach is the most common approach and is useful for structuring literature reviews in most fields.

For example, if you were researching which factors contributed towards people trusting an organisation, you might find themes such as consumers’ perceptions of an organisation’s competence, benevolence and integrity. Structuring your literature review thematically would mean structuring your literature review’s body section to discuss each of these themes, one section at a time.

The thematic structure allows you to organise your literature by theme or category  – e.g. by independent variables.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when structuring your literature review by themes:

  • Are there any patterns that have come to light in the literature?
  • What are the central themes and categories used by the researchers?
  • Do I have enough evidence of these themes?

PS – you can see an example of a thematically structured literature review in our literature review sample walkthrough video here.

Option 3: Methodological

The methodological option is a way of structuring your literature review by the research methodologies used . In other words, organising your discussion based on the angle from which each piece of research was approached – for example, qualitative , quantitative or mixed  methodologies.

Structuring your literature review by methodology can be useful if you are drawing research from a variety of disciplines and are critiquing different methodologies. The point of this approach is to question  how  existing research has been conducted, as opposed to  what  the conclusions and/or findings the research were.

The methodological structure allows you to organise your chapter by the analysis method  used - e.g. qual, quant or mixed.

For example, a sociologist might centre their research around critiquing specific fieldwork practices. Their literature review will then be a summary of the fieldwork methodologies used by different studies.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when structuring your literature review according to methodology:

  • Which methodologies have been utilised in this field?
  • Which methodology is the most popular (and why)?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various methodologies?
  • How can the existing methodologies inform my own methodology?

3: The Conclusion Section

Once you’ve completed the body section of your literature review using one of the structural approaches we discussed above, you’ll need to “wrap up” your literature review and pull all the pieces together to set the direction for the rest of your dissertation or thesis.

The conclusion is where you’ll present the key findings of your literature review. In this section, you should emphasise the research that is especially important to your research questions and highlight the gaps that exist in the literature. Based on this, you need to make it clear what you will add to the literature – in other words, justify your own research by showing how it will help fill one or more of the gaps you just identified.

Last but not least, if it’s your intention to develop a conceptual framework for your dissertation or thesis, the conclusion section is a good place to present this.

In the conclusion section, you’ll need to present the key findings of your literature review and highlight the gaps that exist in the literature. Based on this, you'll  need to make it clear what your study will add  to the literature.

Example: Thematically Structured Review

In the video below, we unpack a literature review chapter so that you can see an example of a thematically structure review in practice.

Let’s Recap

In this article, we’ve  discussed how to structure your literature review for maximum impact. Here’s a quick recap of what  you need to keep in mind when deciding on your literature review structure:

  • Just like other chapters, your literature review needs a clear introduction , body and conclusion .
  • The introduction section should provide an overview of what you will discuss in your literature review.
  • The body section of your literature review can be organised by chronology , theme or methodology . The right structural approach depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your research.
  • The conclusion section should draw together the key findings of your literature review and link them to your research questions.

If you’re ready to get started, be sure to download our free literature review template to fast-track your chapter outline.

Literature Review Course

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling Udemy Course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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Literature review 101 - how to find articles

27 Comments

Marin

Great work. This is exactly what I was looking for and helps a lot together with your previous post on literature review. One last thing is missing: a link to a great literature chapter of an journal article (maybe with comments of the different sections in this review chapter). Do you know any great literature review chapters?

ISHAYA JEREMIAH AYOCK

I agree with you Marin… A great piece

Qaiser

I agree with Marin. This would be quite helpful if you annotate a nicely structured literature from previously published research articles.

Maurice Kagwi

Awesome article for my research.

Ache Roland Ndifor

I thank you immensely for this wonderful guide

Malik Imtiaz Ahmad

It is indeed thought and supportive work for the futurist researcher and students

Franklin Zon

Very educative and good time to get guide. Thank you

Dozie

Great work, very insightful. Thank you.

KAWU ALHASSAN

Thanks for this wonderful presentation. My question is that do I put all the variables into a single conceptual framework or each hypothesis will have it own conceptual framework?

CYRUS ODUAH

Thank you very much, very helpful

Michael Sanya Oluyede

This is very educative and precise . Thank you very much for dropping this kind of write up .

Karla Buchanan

Pheeww, so damn helpful, thank you for this informative piece.

Enang Lazarus

I’m doing a research project topic ; stool analysis for parasitic worm (enteric) worm, how do I structure it, thanks.

Biswadeb Dasgupta

comprehensive explanation. Help us by pasting the URL of some good “literature review” for better understanding.

Vik

great piece. thanks for the awesome explanation. it is really worth sharing. I have a little question, if anyone can help me out, which of the options in the body of literature can be best fit if you are writing an architectural thesis that deals with design?

S Dlamini

I am doing a research on nanofluids how can l structure it?

PATRICK MACKARNESS

Beautifully clear.nThank you!

Lucid! Thankyou!

Abraham

Brilliant work, well understood, many thanks

Nour

I like how this was so clear with simple language 😊😊 thank you so much 😊 for these information 😊

Lindiey

Insightful. I was struggling to come up with a sensible literature review but this has been really helpful. Thank you!

NAGARAJU K

You have given thought-provoking information about the review of the literature.

Vakaloloma

Thank you. It has made my own research better and to impart your work to students I teach

Alphonse NSHIMIYIMANA

I learnt a lot from this teaching. It’s a great piece.

Resa

I am doing research on EFL teacher motivation for his/her job. How Can I structure it? Is there any detailed template, additional to this?

Gerald Gormanous

You are so cool! I do not think I’ve read through something like this before. So nice to find somebody with some genuine thoughts on this issue. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This site is one thing that is required on the internet, someone with a little originality!

kan

I’m asked to do conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature, and i just don’t know how to structure it

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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Literature Reviews

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

Introduction

OK. You’ve got to write a literature review. You dust off a novel and a book of poetry, settle down in your chair, and get ready to issue a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” as you leaf through the pages. “Literature review” done. Right?

Wrong! The “literature” of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. “Literature” could be anything from a set of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn ACL. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked these sources.

What is a literature review, then?

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?

The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper is likely to contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

Why do we write literature reviews?

Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.

Who writes these things, anyway?

Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself.

Let’s get to it! What should I do before writing the literature review?

If your assignment is not very specific, seek clarification from your instructor:

  • Roughly how many sources should you include?
  • What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites)?
  • Should you summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
  • Should you evaluate your sources?
  • Should you provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history?

Find models

Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review. You can simply put the word “review” in your search engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the Internet or in an electronic database. The bibliography or reference section of sources you’ve already read are also excellent entry points into your own research.

Narrow your topic

There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Your instructor will probably not expect you to read everything that’s out there on the topic, but you’ll make your job easier if you first limit your scope.

Keep in mind that UNC Libraries have research guides and to databases relevant to many fields of study. You can reach out to the subject librarian for a consultation: https://library.unc.edu/support/consultations/ .

And don’t forget to tap into your professor’s (or other professors’) knowledge in the field. Ask your professor questions such as: “If you had to read only one book from the 90’s on topic X, what would it be?” Questions such as this help you to find and determine quickly the most seminal pieces in the field.

Consider whether your sources are current

Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. In the sciences, for instance, treatments for medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies. Information even two years old could be obsolete. However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed, because what is important is how perspectives have changed through the years or within a certain time period. Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to consider what is currently of interest to scholars in this field and what is not.

Strategies for writing the literature review

Find a focus.

A literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organized. This means that you will not just simply list your sources and go into detail about each one of them, one at a time. No. As you read widely but selectively in your topic area, consider instead what themes or issues connect your sources together. Do they present one or different solutions? Is there an aspect of the field that is missing? How well do they present the material and do they portray it according to an appropriate theory? Do they reveal a trend in the field? A raging debate? Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review.

Convey it to your reader

A literature review may not have a traditional thesis statement (one that makes an argument), but you do need to tell readers what to expect. Try writing a simple statement that lets the reader know what is your main organizing principle. Here are a couple of examples:

The current trend in treatment for congestive heart failure combines surgery and medicine. More and more cultural studies scholars are accepting popular media as a subject worthy of academic consideration.

Consider organization

You’ve got a focus, and you’ve stated it clearly and directly. Now what is the most effective way of presenting the information? What are the most important topics, subtopics, etc., that your review needs to include? And in what order should you present them? Develop an organization for your review at both a global and local level:

First, cover the basic categories

Just like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section; the body of the review containing the discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the paper. The following provides a brief description of the content of each:

  • Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central theme or organizational pattern.
  • Body: Contains your discussion of sources and is organized either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see below for more information on each).
  • Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what you have drawn from reviewing literature so far. Where might the discussion proceed?

Organizing the body

Once you have the basic categories in place, then you must consider how you will present the sources themselves within the body of your paper. Create an organizational method to focus this section even further.

To help you come up with an overall organizational framework for your review, consider the following scenario:

You’ve decided to focus your literature review on materials dealing with sperm whales. This is because you’ve just finished reading Moby Dick, and you wonder if that whale’s portrayal is really real. You start with some articles about the physiology of sperm whales in biology journals written in the 1980’s. But these articles refer to some British biological studies performed on whales in the early 18th century. So you check those out. Then you look up a book written in 1968 with information on how sperm whales have been portrayed in other forms of art, such as in Alaskan poetry, in French painting, or on whale bone, as the whale hunters in the late 19th century used to do. This makes you wonder about American whaling methods during the time portrayed in Moby Dick, so you find some academic articles published in the last five years on how accurately Herman Melville portrayed the whaling scene in his novel.

Now consider some typical ways of organizing the sources into a review:

  • Chronological: If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials above according to when they were published. For instance, first you would talk about the British biological studies of the 18th century, then about Moby Dick, published in 1851, then the book on sperm whales in other art (1968), and finally the biology articles (1980s) and the recent articles on American whaling of the 19th century. But there is relatively no continuity among subjects here. And notice that even though the sources on sperm whales in other art and on American whaling are written recently, they are about other subjects/objects that were created much earlier. Thus, the review loses its chronological focus.
  • By publication: Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on biological studies of sperm whales if the progression revealed a change in dissection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies.
  • By trend: A better way to organize the above sources chronologically is to examine the sources under another trend, such as the history of whaling. Then your review would have subsections according to eras within this period. For instance, the review might examine whaling from pre-1600-1699, 1700-1799, and 1800-1899. Under this method, you would combine the recent studies on American whaling in the 19th century with Moby Dick itself in the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century apart.
  • Thematic: Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For instance, the sperm whale review could focus on the development of the harpoon for whale hunting. While the study focuses on one topic, harpoon technology, it will still be organized chronologically. The only difference here between a “chronological” and a “thematic” approach is what is emphasized the most: the development of the harpoon or the harpoon technology.But more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. For instance, a thematic review of material on sperm whales might examine how they are portrayed as “evil” in cultural documents. The subsections might include how they are personified, how their proportions are exaggerated, and their behaviors misunderstood. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made.
  • Methodological: A methodological approach differs from the two above in that the focusing factor usually does not have to do with the content of the material. Instead, it focuses on the “methods” of the researcher or writer. For the sperm whale project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of whales in American, British, and French art work. Or the review might focus on the economic impact of whaling on a community. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed. Once you’ve decided on the organizational method for the body of the review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out. They should arise out of your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period. A thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue.

Sometimes, though, you might need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. Put in only what is necessary. Here are a few other sections you might want to consider:

  • Current Situation: Information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature review.
  • History: The chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
  • Methods and/or Standards: The criteria you used to select the sources in your literature review or the way in which you present your information. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and journals.

Questions for Further Research: What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

Begin composing

Once you’ve settled on a general pattern of organization, you’re ready to write each section. There are a few guidelines you should follow during the writing stage as well. Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate the following discussion:

However, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones (Gastil, 1990). Hamilton (1988) asked students to complete sentences that required them to fill in pronouns that agreed with gender-neutral antecedents such as “writer,” “pedestrian,” and “persons.” The students were asked to describe any image they had when writing the sentence. Hamilton found that people imagined 3.3 men to each woman in the masculine “generic” condition and 1.5 men per woman in the unbiased condition. Thus, while ambient sexism accounted for some of the masculine bias, sexist language amplified the effect. (Source: Erika Falk and Jordan Mills, “Why Sexist Language Affects Persuasion: The Role of Homophily, Intended Audience, and Offense,” Women and Language19:2).

Use evidence

In the example above, the writers refer to several other sources when making their point. A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid.

Be selective

Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the review’s focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological.

Use quotes sparingly

Falk and Mills do not use any direct quotes. That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. Some short quotes here and there are okay, though, if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Notice that Falk and Mills do quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. But if you find yourself wanting to put in more quotes, check with your instructor.

Summarize and synthesize

Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. The authors here recapitulate important features of Hamilton’s study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study’s significance and relating it to their own work.

Keep your own voice

While the literature review presents others’ ideas, your voice (the writer’s) should remain front and center. Notice that Falk and Mills weave references to other sources into their own text, but they still maintain their own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with their own ideas and their own words. The sources support what Falk and Mills are saying.

Use caution when paraphrasing

When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author’s information or opinions accurately and in your own words. In the preceding example, Falk and Mills either directly refer in the text to the author of their source, such as Hamilton, or they provide ample notation in the text when the ideas they are mentioning are not their own, for example, Gastil’s. For more information, please see our handout on plagiarism .

Revise, revise, revise

Draft in hand? Now you’re ready to revise. Spending a lot of time revising is a wise idea, because your main objective is to present the material, not the argument. So check over your review again to make sure it follows the assignment and/or your outline. Then, just as you would for most other academic forms of writing, rewrite or rework the language of your review so that you’ve presented your information in the most concise manner possible. Be sure to use terminology familiar to your audience; get rid of unnecessary jargon or slang. Finally, double check that you’ve documented your sources and formatted the review appropriately for your discipline. For tips on the revising and editing process, see our handout on revising drafts .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Jones, Robert, Patrick Bizzaro, and Cynthia Selfe. 1997. The Harcourt Brace Guide to Writing in the Disciplines . New York: Harcourt Brace.

Lamb, Sandra E. 1998. How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You’ll Ever Write . Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Rosen, Leonard J., and Laurence Behrens. 2003. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook , 5th ed. New York: Longman.

Troyka, Lynn Quittman, and Doug Hesse. 2016. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers , 11th ed. London: Pearson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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  • What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 7 June 2022.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

  • Search for relevant literature
  • Evaluate sources
  • Identify themes, debates and gaps
  • Outline the structure
  • Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarise sources – it analyses, synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

Why write a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1: search for relevant literature, step 2: evaluate and select sources, step 3: identify themes, debates and gaps, step 4: outline your literature review’s structure, step 5: write your literature review, frequently asked questions about literature reviews, introduction.

  • Quick Run-through
  • Step 1 & 2

When you write a dissertation or thesis, you will have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

  • Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and scholarly context
  • Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
  • Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
  • Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Literature review guide

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

  • Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
  • Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
  • Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
  • Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research objectives and questions .

If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list if you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

  • Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
  • Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
  • Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some databases to search for journals and articles include:

  • Your university’s library catalogue
  • Google Scholar
  • Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
  • Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
  • EconLit (economics)
  • Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

Read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your questions.

For each publication, ask yourself:

  • What question or problem is the author addressing?
  • What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
  • What are the key theories, models and methods? Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
  • What are the results and conclusions of the study?
  • How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
  • How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can find out how many times an article has been cited on Google Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using!

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct, consistent citations.

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introduction in a literature review example

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To begin organising your literature review’s argument and structure, you need to understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

  • Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
  • Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
  • Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
  • Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
  • Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

  • Most research has focused on young women.
  • There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
  • But there is still a lack of robust research on highly-visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat – this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organising the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarising sources in order.

Try to analyse patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organise your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

  • Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
  • Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
  • Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, make sure to follow these tips:

  • Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.
  • Analyse and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole.
  • Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources.
  • Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts.

In the conclusion, you should summarise the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasise their significance.

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your methodology section.

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a dissertation , thesis, research paper , or proposal .

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

  • To familiarise yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
  • To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
  • To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
  • To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
  • To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your  dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

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Introduction

Literature reviews take time. here is some general information to know before you start.  .

  •  VIDEO -- This video is a great overview of the entire process.  (2020; North Carolina State University Libraries) --The transcript is included --This is for everyone; ignore the mention of "graduate students" --9.5 minutes, and every second is important  
  • OVERVIEW -- Read this page from Purdue's OWL. It's not long, and gives some tips to fill in what you just learned from the video.  
  • NOT A RESEARCH ARTICLE -- A literature review follows a different style, format, and structure from a research article.  

Steps to Completing a Literature Review

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Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Introduction

  • Getting Started
  • How to Pick a Topic
  • Strategies to Find Sources
  • Evaluating Sources & Lit. Reviews
  • Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
  • Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
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  • Other Academic Writings

What are Literature Reviews?

So, what is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries." Taylor, D.  The literature review: A few tips on conducting it . University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.

Goals of Literature Reviews

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?  A literature could be written to accomplish different aims:

  • To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
  • To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
  • Identify a problem in a field of research 

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews .  Review of General Psychology , 1 (3), 311-320.

What kinds of sources require a Literature Review?

  • A research paper assigned in a course
  • A thesis or dissertation
  • A grant proposal
  • An article intended for publication in a journal

All these instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic.

Types of Literature Reviews

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.

  • Example : Predictors and Outcomes of U.S. Quality Maternity Leave: A Review and Conceptual Framework:  10.1177/08948453211037398  

Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L. K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . Plural Publishing.

  • Example : The effect of leave policies on increasing fertility: a systematic review:  10.1057/s41599-022-01270-w

Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M. C., & Ilardi, S. S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Blackwell Publishing.

  • Example : Employment Instability and Fertility in Europe: A Meta-Analysis:  10.1215/00703370-9164737

Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts .  Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318.

  • Example : Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis:  10.1177/05390184221113735

Literature Reviews in the Health Sciences

  • UConn Health subject guide on systematic reviews Explanation of the different review types used in health sciences literature as well as tools to help you find the right review type
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  • How to write a literature review

This example shows how a literature review from a PhD thesis can be analysed for its structure, purpose and content.

Three sections of the thesis are analysed to show the:

  • relationship between the introduction and the literature review
  • structure and purpose of dedicated literature review chapters
  • inclusion of literature review in other chapters of the thesis.

Access the thesis

Co-witnesses and the effects of discussion on eyewitness memory by Helen M Paterson

Overview of thesis (introduction)

This introductory section is less than two pages long.

The first paragraph:

  • states the overall objective of the thesis
  • defines the introduced term
  • provides broad motivation for interest in the area
  • introduces the sections of the thesis that will address the overall objective.

The other paragraphs describe the content and purpose of each section of the thesis.

Literature review

The literature review is made of up of two chapters.

Chapter 1: Literature review of relevant research

The overall goals of this chapter are to firstly establish the significance of the general field of study, and then identify a place where a new contribution could be made.

The bulk of the chapter critically evaluates the methodologies used in this field to identify the appropriate approach for investigating the research questions.

Chapter 2: Theoretical explanations of memory conformity

Chapter 5, study 3: co-witness contamination.

This chapter has the following structure:

  • Introduction
  • Discussion.

The introduction introduces the particular study to be reported on, and includes a three-and-a-half page literature review.

The literature review in this chapter:

  • links back to the relevant general findings of the earlier literature review chapters
  • briefly reviews the broad motivation for this study
  • identifies that two previously used methodologies in this field will be compared to resolve questions about the findings of previous studies which had only used a single methodology
  • uses previous literature to generate specific hypotheses to test
  • reviews additional literature to provide a justification for a second objective to be investigated in the study reported on in this chapter.

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Literature Review Guide: Examples of Literature Reviews

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All good quality journal articles will include a small Literature Review after the Introduction paragraph.  It may not be called a Literature Review but gives you an idea of how one is created in miniature.

Sample Literature Reviews as part of a articles or Theses

  • Sample Literature Review on Critical Thinking (Gwendolyn Reece, American University Library)
  • Hackett, G and Melia, D . The hotel as the holiday/stay destination:trends and innovations. Presented at TRIC Conference, Belfast, Ireland- June 2012 and EuroCHRIE Conference

Links to sample Literature Reviews from other libraries

  • Sample literature reviews from University of West Florida

Standalone Literature Reviews

  • Attitudes towards the Disability in Ireland
  • Martin, A., O'Connor-Fenelon, M. and Lyons, R. (2010). Non-verbal communication between nurses and people with an intellectual disability: A review of the literature. Journal of Intellectual Diabilities, 14(4), 303-314.

Irish Theses

  • Phillips, Martin (2015) European airline performance: a data envelopment analysis with extrapolations based on model outputs. Master of Business Studies thesis, Dublin City University.
  • The customers’ perception of servicescape’s influence on their behaviours, in the food retail industry : Dublin Business School 2015
  • Coughlan, Ray (2015) What was the role of leadership in the transformation of a failing Irish Insurance business. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Writing: Literature Review Basics

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The Most Important Thing

The best time to write an introduction is AFTER you write the body of your paper.

Well, how do you know what to introduce until after you've figured out what you want to say?

The best time to write an introduction is as one of the last things you do.

Basic Introduction Template

For any other sort of scholarly writing, the following basic structure works well for an introduction:

  • What has been said or done on this topic?  
  • What is the problem with what has been said or done?
  • What will you offer to solve the problem?  (The answer to this is your thesis statement.)
  • How does your solution address necessary change?

Writing an Introduction

The job of an introduction is to preview what you are going to say so the audience knows what is coming.  A good introduction starts out generally and works towards a specific statement of what you intend to discuss in your writing. 

The introduction explains the focus and establishes the importance of the subject. It discusses what kind of work has been done on the topic and identifies any controversies within the field or any recent research which has raised questions about earlier assumptions. It may provide background or history, and it indicates why the topic is important, interesting, problematic, or relevant in some way.  It concludes with a purpose or thesis statement. In a stand-alone literature review, this statement will sum up and evaluate the state of the art in this field of research; in a review that is an introduction or preparatory to a larger work, such as the Culminating Project, it will suggest how the review findings will lead to the research the writer proposes to undertake.

In a literature review, an introduction may contain the following:

  • A concise definition of a topic under consideration (this may be a descriptive or argumentative thesis, or proposal), as well as the scope of the related literature being investigated. (Example: If the topic under consideration is ‘women’s wartime diaries’, the scope of the review may be limited to published or unpublished works, works in English, works from a particular location, time period, or conflict, etc.)  
  • The introduction should also note what topics are being included and what are intentional exclusions. (Example: “This review will not explore the diaries of adolescent girls.”)
  • A final sentence should signal the list of key topics that will be used to discuss the selected sources.

Many theories have been proposed to explain what motivates human behavior. Although the literature covers a wide variety of such theories, this review will focus on five major themes which emerge repeatedly throughout the literature reviewed. These themes are incorporation of the self-concept into traditional theories of motivation, the influence of rewards on motivation, the increasing importance of internal forces of motivation, autonomy and self-control as sources of motivation, and narcissism as an essential component of motivation. Although the literature presents these themes in a variety of contexts, this paper will primarily focus on their application to self-motivation.

Let's break that apart.

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Writing Research Papers

  • Writing a Literature Review

When writing a research paper on a specific topic, you will often need to include an overview of any prior research that has been conducted on that topic.  For example, if your research paper is describing an experiment on fear conditioning, then you will probably need to provide an overview of prior research on fear conditioning.  That overview is typically known as a literature review.  

Please note that a full-length literature review article may be suitable for fulfilling the requirements for the Psychology B.S. Degree Research Paper .  For further details, please check with your faculty advisor.

Different Types of Literature Reviews

Literature reviews come in many forms.  They can be part of a research paper, for example as part of the Introduction section.  They can be one chapter of a doctoral dissertation.  Literature reviews can also “stand alone” as separate articles by themselves.  For instance, some journals such as Annual Review of Psychology , Psychological Bulletin , and others typically publish full-length review articles.  Similarly, in courses at UCSD, you may be asked to write a research paper that is itself a literature review (such as, with an instructor’s permission, in fulfillment of the B.S. Degree Research Paper requirement). Alternatively, you may be expected to include a literature review as part of a larger research paper (such as part of an Honors Thesis). 

Literature reviews can be written using a variety of different styles.  These may differ in the way prior research is reviewed as well as the way in which the literature review is organized.  Examples of stylistic variations in literature reviews include: 

  • Summarization of prior work vs. critical evaluation. In some cases, prior research is simply described and summarized; in other cases, the writer compares, contrasts, and may even critique prior research (for example, discusses their strengths and weaknesses).
  • Chronological vs. categorical and other types of organization. In some cases, the literature review begins with the oldest research and advances until it concludes with the latest research.  In other cases, research is discussed by category (such as in groupings of closely related studies) without regard for chronological order.  In yet other cases, research is discussed in terms of opposing views (such as when different research studies or researchers disagree with one another).

Overall, all literature reviews, whether they are written as a part of a larger work or as separate articles unto themselves, have a common feature: they do not present new research; rather, they provide an overview of prior research on a specific topic . 

How to Write a Literature Review

When writing a literature review, it can be helpful to rely on the following steps.  Please note that these procedures are not necessarily only for writing a literature review that becomes part of a larger article; they can also be used for writing a full-length article that is itself a literature review (although such reviews are typically more detailed and exhaustive; for more information please refer to the Further Resources section of this page).

Steps for Writing a Literature Review

1. Identify and define the topic that you will be reviewing.

The topic, which is commonly a research question (or problem) of some kind, needs to be identified and defined as clearly as possible.  You need to have an idea of what you will be reviewing in order to effectively search for references and to write a coherent summary of the research on it.  At this stage it can be helpful to write down a description of the research question, area, or topic that you will be reviewing, as well as to identify any keywords that you will be using to search for relevant research.

2. Conduct a literature search.

Use a range of keywords to search databases such as PsycINFO and any others that may contain relevant articles.  You should focus on peer-reviewed, scholarly articles.  Published books may also be helpful, but keep in mind that peer-reviewed articles are widely considered to be the “gold standard” of scientific research.  Read through titles and abstracts, select and obtain articles (that is, download, copy, or print them out), and save your searches as needed.  For more information about this step, please see the Using Databases and Finding Scholarly References section of this website.

3. Read through the research that you have found and take notes.

Absorb as much information as you can.  Read through the articles and books that you have found, and as you do, take notes.  The notes should include anything that will be helpful in advancing your own thinking about the topic and in helping you write the literature review (such as key points, ideas, or even page numbers that index key information).  Some references may turn out to be more helpful than others; you may notice patterns or striking contrasts between different sources ; and some sources may refer to yet other sources of potential interest.  This is often the most time-consuming part of the review process.  However, it is also where you get to learn about the topic in great detail.  For more details about taking notes, please see the “Reading Sources and Taking Notes” section of the Finding Scholarly References page of this website.

4. Organize your notes and thoughts; create an outline.

At this stage, you are close to writing the review itself.  However, it is often helpful to first reflect on all the reading that you have done.  What patterns stand out?  Do the different sources converge on a consensus?  Or not?  What unresolved questions still remain?  You should look over your notes (it may also be helpful to reorganize them), and as you do, to think about how you will present this research in your literature review.  Are you going to summarize or critically evaluate?  Are you going to use a chronological or other type of organizational structure?  It can also be helpful to create an outline of how your literature review will be structured.

5. Write the literature review itself and edit and revise as needed.

The final stage involves writing.  When writing, keep in mind that literature reviews are generally characterized by a summary style in which prior research is described sufficiently to explain critical findings but does not include a high level of detail (if readers want to learn about all the specific details of a study, then they can look up the references that you cite and read the original articles themselves).  However, the degree of emphasis that is given to individual studies may vary (more or less detail may be warranted depending on how critical or unique a given study was).   After you have written a first draft, you should read it carefully and then edit and revise as needed.  You may need to repeat this process more than once.  It may be helpful to have another person read through your draft(s) and provide feedback.

6. Incorporate the literature review into your research paper draft.

After the literature review is complete, you should incorporate it into your research paper (if you are writing the review as one component of a larger paper).  Depending on the stage at which your paper is at, this may involve merging your literature review into a partially complete Introduction section, writing the rest of the paper around the literature review, or other processes.

Further Tips for Writing a Literature Review

Full-length literature reviews

  • Many full-length literature review articles use a three-part structure: Introduction (where the topic is identified and any trends or major problems in the literature are introduced), Body (where the studies that comprise the literature on that topic are discussed), and Discussion or Conclusion (where major patterns and points are discussed and the general state of what is known about the topic is summarized)

Literature reviews as part of a larger paper

  • An “express method” of writing a literature review for a research paper is as follows: first, write a one paragraph description of each article that you read. Second, choose how you will order all the paragraphs and combine them in one document.  Third, add transitions between the paragraphs, as well as an introductory and concluding paragraph. 1
  • A literature review that is part of a larger research paper typically does not have to be exhaustive. Rather, it should contain most or all of the significant studies about a research topic but not tangential or loosely related ones. 2   Generally, literature reviews should be sufficient for the reader to understand the major issues and key findings about a research topic.  You may however need to confer with your instructor or editor to determine how comprehensive you need to be.

Benefits of Literature Reviews

By summarizing prior research on a topic, literature reviews have multiple benefits.  These include:

  • Literature reviews help readers understand what is known about a topic without having to find and read through multiple sources.
  • Literature reviews help “set the stage” for later reading about new research on a given topic (such as if they are placed in the Introduction of a larger research paper). In other words, they provide helpful background and context.
  • Literature reviews can also help the writer learn about a given topic while in the process of preparing the review itself. In the act of research and writing the literature review, the writer gains expertise on the topic .

Downloadable Resources

  • How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [ PDF ]
  • Tips for Writing APA Style Research Papers (a brief summary) [ PDF ]
  • Example APA Style Research Paper (for B.S. Degree – literature review) [ PDF ]

Further Resources

How-To Videos     

  • Writing Research Paper Videos
  • UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide: Literature Reviews

External Resources

  • Developing and Writing a Literature Review from N Carolina A&T State University
  • Example of a Short Literature Review from York College CUNY
  • How to Write a Review of Literature from UW-Madison
  • Writing a Literature Review from UC Santa Cruz  
  • Pautasso, M. (2013). Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review. PLoS Computational Biology, 9 (7), e1003149. doi : 1371/journal.pcbi.1003149

1 Ashton, W. Writing a short literature review . [PDF]     

2 carver, l. (2014).  writing the research paper [workshop]. , prepared by s. c. pan for ucsd psychology.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Learning objectives.

At the conclusion of this chapter, you will be able to:

  • Identify the purpose of the literature review in  the research process
  • Distinguish between different types of literature reviews

1.1 What is a Literature Review?

Pick up nearly any book on research methods and you will find a description of a literature review.  At a basic level, the term implies a survey of factual or nonfiction books, articles, and other documents published on a particular subject.  Definitions may be similar across the disciplines, with new types and definitions continuing to emerge.  Generally speaking, a literature review is a:

  • “comprehensive background of the literature within the interested topic area…” ( O’Gorman & MacIntosh, 2015, p. 31 ).
  • “critical component of the research process that provides an in-depth analysis of recently published research findings in specifically identified areas of interest.” ( House, 2018, p. 109 ).
  • “written document that presents a logically argued case founded on a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge about a topic of study” ( Machi & McEvoy,  2012, p. 4 ).

As a foundation for knowledge advancement in every discipline, it is an important element of any research project.  At the graduate or doctoral level, the literature review is an essential feature of thesis and dissertation, as well as grant proposal writing.  That is to say, “A substantive, thorough, sophisticated literature review is a precondition for doing substantive, thorough, sophisticated research…A researcher cannot perform significant research without first understanding the literature in the field.” ( Boote & Beile, 2005, p. 3 ).  It is by this means, that a researcher demonstrates familiarity with a body of knowledge and thereby establishes credibility with a reader.  An advanced-level literature review shows how prior research is linked to a new project, summarizing and synthesizing what is known while identifying gaps in the knowledge base, facilitating theory development, closing areas where enough research already exists, and uncovering areas where more research is needed. ( Webster & Watson, 2002, p. xiii )

A graduate-level literature review is a compilation of the most significant previously published research on your topic. Unlike an annotated bibliography or a research paper you may have written as an undergraduate, your literature review will outline, evaluate and synthesize relevant research and relate those sources to your own thesis or research question. It is much more than a summary of all the related literature.

It is a type of writing that demonstrate the importance of your research by defining the main ideas and the relationship between them. A good literature review lays the foundation for the importance of your stated problem and research question.

Literature reviews:

  • define a concept
  • map the research terrain or scope
  • systemize relationships between concepts
  • identify gaps in the literature ( Rocco & Plathotnik, 2009, p. 128 )

The purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that your research question  is meaningful. Additionally, you may review the literature of different disciplines to find deeper meaning and understanding of your topic. It is especially important to consider other disciplines when you do not find much on your topic in one discipline. You will need to search the cognate literature before claiming there is “little previous research” on your topic.

Well developed literature reviews involve numerous steps and activities. The literature review is an iterative process because you will do at least two of them: a preliminary search to learn what has been published in your area and whether there is sufficient support in the literature for moving ahead with your subject. After this first exploration, you will conduct a deeper dive into the literature to learn everything you can about the topic and its related issues.

Literature Review Tutorial

A video titled "Literature Reviews: An overview for graduate students." Video here: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/litreview/. Transcript available here: https://siskel.lib.ncsu.edu/RIS/instruction/litreview/litreview.txt

1.2 Literature Review Basics

An effective literature review must:

  • Methodologically analyze and synthesize quality literature on a topic
  • Provide a firm foundation to a topic or research area
  • Provide a firm foundation for the selection of a research methodology
  • Demonstrate that the proposed research contributes something new to the overall body of knowledge of advances the research field’s knowledge base. ( Levy & Ellis, 2006 ).

All literature reviews, whether they are qualitative, quantitative or both, will at some point:

  • Introduce the topic and define its key terms
  • Establish the importance of the topic
  • Provide an overview of the amount of available literature and its types (for example: theoretical, statistical, speculative)
  • Identify gaps in the literature
  • Point out consistent finding across studies
  • Arrive at a synthesis that organizes what is known about a topic
  • Discusses possible implications and directions for future research

1.3 Types of Literature Reviews

There are many different types of literature reviews, however there are some shared characteristics or features.  Remember a comprehensive literature review is, at its most fundamental level, an original work based on an extensive critical examination and synthesis of the relevant literature on a topic. As a study of the research on a particular topic, it is arranged by key themes or findings, which may lead up to or link to the  research question.  In some cases, the research question will drive the type of literature review that is undertaken.

The following section includes brief descriptions of the terms used to describe different literature review types with examples of each.   The included citations are open access, Creative Commons licensed or copyright-restricted.

1.3.1 Types of Review

1.3.1.1 conceptual.

Guided by an understanding of basic issues rather than a research methodology. You are looking for key factors, concepts or variables and the presumed relationship between them. The goal of the conceptual literature review is to categorize and describe concepts relevant to your study or topic and outline a relationship between them. You will include relevant theory and empirical research.

Examples of a Conceptual Review:

  • Education : The formality of learning science in everyday life: A conceptual literature review. ( Dohn, 2010 ).
  • Education : Are we asking the right questions? A conceptual review of the educational development literature in higher education. ( Amundsen & Wilson, 2012 ).

Figure 1.1 shows a diagram of possible topics and subtopics related to the use of information systems in education. In this example, constructivist theory is a concept that might influence the use of information systems in education. A related but separate concept the researcher might want to explore are the different perspectives of students and teachers regarding the use of information systems in education.

1.3.1.2 Empirical

An empirical literature review collects, creates, arranges, and analyzes numeric data reflecting the frequency of themes, topics, authors and/or methods found in existing literature. Empirical literature reviews present their summaries in quantifiable terms using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Examples of an Empirical Review:

  • Nursing : False-positive findings in Cochrane meta-analyses with and without application of trial sequential analysis: An empirical review. ( Imberger, Thorlund, Gluud, & Wettersley, 2016 ).
  • Education : Impediments of e-learning adoption in higher learning institutions of Tanzania: An empirical review ( Mwakyusa & Mwalyagile, 2016 ).

1.3.1.3 Exploratory

Unlike a synoptic literature review, the purpose here is to provide a broad approach to the topic area. The aim is breadth rather than depth and to get a general feel for the size of the topic area. A graduate student might do an exploratory review of the literature before beginning a synoptic, or more comprehensive one.

Examples of an Exploratory Review:

  • Education : University research management: An exploratory literature review. ( Schuetzenmeister, 2010 ).
  • Education : An exploratory review of design principles in constructivist gaming learning environments. ( Rosario & Widmeyer, 2009 ).

introduction in a literature review example

1.3.1.4 Focused

A type of literature review limited to a single aspect of previous research, such as methodology. A focused literature review generally will describe the implications of choosing a particular element of past research, such as methodology in terms of data collection, analysis and interpretation.

Examples of a Focused Review:

  • Nursing : Clinical inertia in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A focused literature review. ( Khunti, Davies, & Khunti, 2015 ).
  • Education : Language awareness: Genre awareness-a focused review of the literature. ( Stainton, 1992 ).

1.3.1.5 Integrative

Critiques past research and draws overall conclusions from the body of literature at a specified point in time. Reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way. Most integrative reviews are intended to address mature topics or  emerging topics. May require the author to adopt a guiding theory, a set of competing models, or a point of view about a topic.  For more description of integrative reviews, see Whittemore & Knafl (2005).

Examples of an Integrative Review:

  • Nursing : Interprofessional teamwork and collaboration between community health workers and healthcare teams: An integrative review. ( Franklin,  Bernhardt, Lopez, Long-Middleton, & Davis, 2015 ).
  • Education : Exploring the gap between teacher certification and permanent employment in Ontario: An integrative literature review. ( Brock & Ryan, 2016 ).

1.3.1.6 Meta-analysis

A subset of a  systematic review, that takes findings from several studies on the same subject and analyzes them using standardized statistical procedures to pool together data. Integrates findings from a large body of quantitative findings to enhance understanding, draw conclusions, and detect patterns and relationships. Gather data from many different, independent studies that look at the same research question and assess similar outcome measures. Data is combined and re-analyzed, providing a greater statistical power than any single study alone. It’s important to note that not every systematic review includes a meta-analysis but a meta-analysis can’t exist without a systematic review of the literature.

Examples of a Meta-Analysis:

  • Education : Efficacy of the cooperative learning method on mathematics achievement and attitude: A meta-analysis research. ( Capar & Tarim, 2015 ).
  • Nursing : A meta-analysis of the effects of non-traditional teaching methods on the critical thinking abilities of nursing students. ( Lee, Lee, Gong, Bae, & Choi, 2016 ).
  • Education : Gender differences in student attitudes toward science: A meta-analysis of the literature from 1970 to 1991. ( Weinburgh, 1995 ).

1.3.1.7 Narrative/Traditional

An overview of research on a particular topic that critiques and summarizes a body of literature. Typically broad in focus. Relevant past research is selected and synthesized into a coherent discussion. Methodologies, findings and limits of the existing body of knowledge are discussed in narrative form. Sometimes also referred to as a traditional literature review. Requires a sufficiently focused research question. The process may be subject to bias that supports the researcher’s own work.

Examples of a Narrative/Traditional Review:

  • Nursing : Family carers providing support to a person dying in the home setting: A narrative literature review. ( Morris, King, Turner, & Payne, 2015 ).
  • Education : Adventure education and Outward Bound: Out-of-class experiences that make a lasting difference. ( Hattie, Marsh, Neill, & Richards, 1997 ).
  • Education : Good quality discussion is necessary but not sufficient in asynchronous tuition: A brief narrative review of the literature. ( Fear & Erikson-Brown, 2014 ).
  • Nursing : Outcomes of physician job satisfaction: A narrative review, implications, and directions for future research. ( Williams & Skinner, 2003 ).

1.3.1.8 Realist

Aspecific type of literature review that is theory-driven and interpretative and is intended to explain the outcomes of a complex intervention program(s).

Examples of a Realist Review:

  • Nursing : Lean thinking in healthcare: A realist review of the literature. ( Mazzacato, Savage, Brommels, 2010 ).
  • Education : Unravelling quality culture in higher education: A realist review. ( Bendermacher, Egbrink, Wolfhagen, & Dolmans, 2017 ).

1.3.1.9 Scoping

Tend to be non-systematic and focus on breadth of coverage conducted on a topic rather than depth. Utilize a wide range of materials; may not evaluate the quality of the studies as much as count the number. One means of understanding existing literature. Aims to identify nature and extent of research; preliminary assessment of size and scope of available research on topic. May include research in progress.

Examples of a Scoping Review:

  • Nursing : Organizational interventions improving access to community-based primary health care for vulnerable populations: A scoping review. ( Khanassov, Pluye, Descoteaux, Haggerty,  Russell, Gunn, & Levesque, 2016 ).
  • Education : Interdisciplinary doctoral research supervision: A scoping review. ( Vanstone, Hibbert, Kinsella, McKenzie, Pitman, & Lingard, 2013 ).
  • Nursing : A scoping review of the literature on the abolition of user fees in health care services in Africa. ( Ridde, & Morestin, 2011 ).

1.3.1.10 Synoptic

Unlike an exploratory review, the purpose is to provide a concise but accurate overview of all material that appears to be relevant to a chosen topic. Both content and methodological material is included. The review should aim to be both descriptive and evaluative. Summarizes previous studies while also showing how the body of literature could be extended and improved in terms of content and method by identifying gaps.

Examples of a Synoptic Review:

  • Education : Theoretical framework for educational assessment: A synoptic review. ( Ghaicha, 2016 ).
  • Education : School effects research: A synoptic review of past efforts and some suggestions for the future. ( Cuttance, 1981 ).

1.3.1.11 Systematic Review

A rigorous review that follows a strict methodology designed with a presupposed selection of literature reviewed.  Undertaken to clarify the state of existing research, the evidence, and possible implications that can be drawn from that.  Using comprehensive and exhaustive searching of the published and unpublished literature, searching various databases, reports, and grey literature.  Transparent and reproducible in reporting details of time frame, search and methods to minimize bias.  Must include a team of at least 2-3 and includes the critical appraisal of the literature.  For more description of systematic reviews, including links to protocols, checklists, workflow processes, and structure see “ A Young Researcher’s Guide to a Systematic Review “.

Examples of a Systematic Review:

  • Education : The potentials of using cloud computing in schools: A systematic literature review ( Hartmann, Braae, Pedersen, & Khalid, 2017 )
  • Nursing : Is butter back? A systematic review and meta-analysis of butter consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and total mortality. ( Pimpin, Wu, Haskelberg, Del Gobbo, & Mozaffarian, 2016 ).
  • Education : The use of research to improve professional practice: a systematic review of the literature. ( Hemsley-Brown & Sharp, 2003 ).
  • Nursing : Using computers to self-manage type 2 diabetes. ( Pal, Eastwood, Michie, Farmer, Barnard, Peacock, Wood, Inniss, & Murray, 2013 ).

1.3.1.12 Umbrella/Overview of Reviews

Compiles evidence from multiple systematic reviews into one document. Focuses on broad condition or problem for which there are competing interventions and highlights reviews that address those interventions and their effects. Often used in recommendations for practice.

Examples of an Umbrella/Overview Review:

  • Education : Reflective practice in healthcare education: An umbrella review. ( Fragknos, 2016 ).
  • Nursing : Systematic reviews of psychosocial interventions for autism: an umbrella review. ( Seida, Ospina, Karkhaneh, Hartling, Smith, & Clark, 2009 ).

For a brief discussion see “ Not all literature reviews are the same ” (Thomson, 2013).

1.4 Why do a Literature Review?

The purpose of the literature review is the same regardless of the topic or research method. It tests your own research question against what is already known about the subject.

1.4.1 First – It’s part of the whole. Omission of a literature review chapter or section in a graduate-level project represents a serious void or absence of critical element in the research process.

The outcome of your review is expected to demonstrate that you:

  • can systematically explore the research in your topic area
  • can read and critically analyze the literature in your discipline and then use it appropriately to advance your own work
  • have sufficient knowledge in the topic to undertake further investigation

1.4.2 Second – It’s good for you!

  • You improve your skills as a researcher
  • You become familiar with the discourse of your discipline and learn how to be a scholar in your field
  • You learn through writing your ideas and finding your voice in your subject area
  • You define, redefine and clarify your research question for yourself in the process

1.4.3 Third – It’s good for your reader. Your reader expects you to have done the hard work of gathering, evaluating and synthesizes the literature.  When you do a literature review you:

  • Set the context for the topic and present its significance
  • Identify what’s important to know about your topic – including individual material, prior research, publications, organizations and authors.
  • Demonstrate relationships among prior research
  • Establish limitations of existing knowledge
  • Analyze trends in the topic’s treatment and gaps in the literature

1.4.4 Why do a literature review?

  • To locate gaps in the literature of your discipline
  • To avoid reinventing the wheel
  • To carry on where others have already been
  • To identify other people working in the same field
  • To increase your breadth of knowledge in your subject area
  • To find the seminal works in your field
  • To provide intellectual context for your own work
  • To acknowledge opposing viewpoints
  • To put your work in perspective
  • To demonstrate you can discover and retrieve previous work in the area

1.5 Common Literature Review Errors

Graduate-level literature reviews are more than a summary of the publications you find on a topic.  As you have seen in this brief introduction, literature reviews are a very specific type of research, analysis, and writing.  We will explore these topics more in the next chapters.  Some things to keep in mind as you begin your own research and writing are ways to avoid the most common errors seen in the first attempt at a literature review.  For a quick review of some of the pitfalls and challenges a new researcher faces when he/she begins work, see “ Get Ready: Academic Writing, General Pitfalls and (oh yes) Getting Started! ”.

As you begin your own graduate-level literature review, try to avoid these common mistakes:

  • Accepts another researcher’s finding as valid without evaluating methodology and data
  • Contrary findings and alternative interpretations are not considered or mentioned
  • Findings are not clearly related to one’s own study, or findings are too general
  • Insufficient time allowed to define best search strategies and writing
  • Isolated statistical results are simply reported rather than synthesizing the results
  • Problems with selecting and using most relevant keywords, subject headings and descriptors
  • Relies too heavily on secondary sources
  • Search methods are not recorded or reported for transparency
  • Summarizes rather than synthesizes articles

In conclusion, the purpose of a literature review is three-fold:

  • to survey the current state of knowledge or evidence in the area of inquiry,
  • to identify key authors, articles, theories, and findings in that area, and
  • to identify gaps in knowledge in that research area.

A literature review is commonly done today using computerized keyword searches in online databases, often working with a trained librarian or information expert. Keywords can be combined using the Boolean operators, “and”, “or” and sometimes “not”  to narrow down or expand the search results. Once a list of articles is generated from the keyword and subject heading search, the researcher must then manually browse through each title and abstract, to determine the suitability of that article before a full-text article is obtained for the research question.

Literature reviews should be reasonably complete, and not restricted to a few journals, a few years, or a specific methodology or research design. Reviewed articles may be summarized in the form of tables, and can be further structured using organizing frameworks such as a concept matrix.

A well-conducted literature review should indicate whether the initial research questions have already been addressed in the literature, whether there are newer or more interesting research questions available, and whether the original research questions should be modified or changed in light of findings of the literature review.

The review can also provide some intuitions or potential answers to the questions of interest and/or help identify theories that have previously been used to address similar questions and may provide evidence to inform policy or decision-making. ( Bhattacherjee, 2012 ).

introduction in a literature review example

Read Abstract 1.  Refer to Types of Literature Reviews.  What type of literature review do you think this study is and why?  See the Answer Key for the correct response.

Nursing : To describe evidence of international literature on the safe care of the hospitalised child after the World Alliance for Patient Safety and list contributions of the general theoretical framework of patient safety for paediatric nursing.

An integrative literature review between 2004 and 2015 using the databases PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Scopus, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library, and the descriptors Safety or Patient safety, Hospitalised child, Paediatric nursing, and Nursing care.

Thirty-two articles were analysed, most of which were from North American, with a descriptive approach. The quality of the recorded information in the medical records, the use of checklists, and the training of health workers contribute to safe care in paediatric nursing and improve the medication process and partnerships with parents.

General information available on patient safety should be incorporated in paediatric nursing care. ( Wegner, Silva, Peres, Bandeira, Frantz, Botene, & Predebon, 2017 ).

Read Abstract 2.  Refer to Types of Literature Reviews.  What type of lit review do you think this study is and why?  See the Answer Key for the correct response.

Education : The focus of this paper centers around timing associated with early childhood education programs and interventions using meta-analytic methods. At any given assessment age, a child’s current age equals starting age, plus duration of program, plus years since program ended. Variability in assessment ages across the studies should enable everyone to identify the separate effects of all three time-related components. The project is a meta-analysis of evaluation studies of early childhood education programs conducted in the United States and its territories between 1960 and 2007. The population of interest is children enrolled in early childhood education programs between the ages of 0 and 5 and their control-group counterparts. Since the data come from a meta-analysis, the population for this study is drawn from many different studies with diverse samples. Given the preliminary nature of their analysis, the authors cannot offer conclusions at this point. ( Duncan, Leak, Li, Magnuson, Schindler, & Yoshikawa, 2011 ).

Test Yourself

See Answer Key for the correct responses.

The purpose of a graduate-level literature review is to summarize in as many words as possible everything that is known about my topic.

A literature review is significant because in the process of doing one, the researcher learns to read and critically assess the literature of a discipline and then uses it appropriately to advance his/her own research.

Read the following abstract and choose the correct type of literature review it represents.

Nursing: E-cigarette use has become increasingly popular, especially among the young. Its long-term influence upon health is unknown. Aim of this review has been to present the current state of knowledge about the impact of e-cigarette use on health, with an emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe. During the preparation of this narrative review, the literature on e-cigarettes available within the network PubMed was retrieved and examined. In the final review, 64 research papers were included. We specifically assessed the construction and operation of the e-cigarette as well as the chemical composition of the e-liquid; the impact that vapor arising from the use of e-cigarette explored in experimental models in vitro; and short-term effects of use of e-cigarettes on users’ health. Among the substances inhaled by the e-smoker, there are several harmful products, such as: formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acroleine, propanal, nicotine, acetone, o-methyl-benzaldehyde, carcinogenic nitrosamines. Results from experimental animal studies indicate the negative impact of e-cigarette exposure on test models, such as ascytotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, airway hyper reactivity, airway remodeling, mucin production, apoptosis, and emphysematous changes. The short-term impact of e-cigarettes on human health has been studied mostly in experimental setting. Available evidence shows that the use of e-cigarettes may result in acute lung function responses (e.g., increase in impedance, peripheral airway flow resistance) and induce oxidative stress. Based on the current available evidence, e-cigarette use is associated with harmful biologic responses, although it may be less harmful than traditional cigarettes. (J ankowski, Brożek, Lawson, Skoczyński, & Zejda, 2017 ).

  • Meta-analysis
  • Exploratory

Education: In this review, Mary Vorsino writes that she is interested in keeping the potential influences of women pragmatists of Dewey’s day in mind while presenting modern feminist re readings of Dewey. She wishes to construct a narrowly-focused and succinct literature review of thinkers who have donned a feminist lens to analyze Dewey’s approaches to education, learning, and democracy and to employ Dewey’s works in theorizing on gender and education and on gender in society. This article first explores Dewey as both an ally and a problematic figure in feminist literature and then investigates the broader sphere of feminist pragmatism and two central themes within it: (1) valuing diversity, and diverse experiences; and (2) problematizing fixed truths. ( Vorsino, 2015 ).

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  • Published: 15 February 2024

Factors influencing continuance intention to use mobile banking: an extended expectation-confirmation model with moderating role of trust

  • Giang-Do Nguyen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2583-3282 1 , 2 &
  • Thu-Hien Thi Dao   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-0154-1255 1 , 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  276 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

  • Business and management
  • Information systems and information technology
  • Science, technology and society

This study explores the impacts of user adaptation and its antecedents, including perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, and subjective norm on continuance intention towards mobile banking. Based on (1) extended expectation-confirmation model, (2) adaptive structuration theory for individuals, and (3) decomposed theory of planned behavior, and by incorporating user adaptation and trust perspectives, this study proposes and validates a research model by using convenient and snowball sampling techniques, face-to-face survey with a sample of 523 consumers of large banks in Vietnam. The partial least squares structural equation modeling SmartPLS 4.0 software is employed for data analysis. The research findings reveal that (1) except for subjective norm, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, adaptation, and self-efficacy significantly impact continuance intention; (2) trust moderates the relationship between adaptation and continuance intention. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided to broaden the information technology continuance literature, suggesting how banks should sustain strong relationships with mobile banking customers.

Introduction

As a result of the rapid growth of information technology (IT) systems, internet-mobile communications and smartphones, mobile commerce (m-commerce) is experiencing a huge breakthrough. Mobile banking (m-banking), or MB for short, is now exceptionally popular in the m-commerce sector (Lee et al., 2023 ; Naruetharadhol et al., 2021 ; Ngai and Gunasekaran, 2007 ; Tiwari et al., 2006 ). Financial institutions and banks (hereafter banks) provide their customers with ubiquitous services such as transferring money, online payment, financial transactions, and checking account balances by using installed m-banking applications on smartphones, anytime and anywhere. Mobile banking services have gradually attracted individual users and are expected to become corporate customers’ primary payment channels (Khoa, 2021 ).

MB refers to a host of banking services performed by users through specific bank applications installed on their smartphones (Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015 ; Tang, 2019 ). It is different from Internet banking (IB) in that users can access the service through MB applications (or platforms) on mobile devices, while IB services are only accessible through web browsers (Filotto et al., 2021 ). Meanwhile, online banking is an umbrella term that is often used interchangeably with IB to distinguish it from traditional banks (Khan et al., 2022 ).

M-bank services bring benefits for both the customers and the banks. While m-banking benefits banks by reducing their operating costs, expanding new services, and improving service quality (Foroughi et al., 2019 ), it enables customers to do banking services with greater convenience, at suitable times and places, prompt information and interaction (Abbasi et al., 2022 ; Shao et al., 2019 ).

Juniper research estimated that m-banking users would increase drastically over the next 5 years and the growth rate is predicted to be 53%, with the number of users reaching over 4.2 billion in 2026, up from 2.1 billion in 2021 (Smith, 2021 ). Statista reported that the worldwide transaction value in digital payment is expected to reach US$9.47tn in 2023, up from US$8.38tn in 2022, and projected to be US$14.79tn by 2027, with an average annual growth rate of 11.79%. China and the United States are the two best performers from the five largest digital banking service markets, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany (Statista, 2022 ).

With its number of banking consumers exceeding 600 million, the Southeast Asia region (SEA) is expected to be the fourth-largest economy globally. The digital transaction volume will more than double by 2030, with an estimated annual growth rate of 15.7% (Vo and Dinh, 2021 ). Statista figures have also shown that the country’s transaction value in the digital payments segment is estimated to be US$17.5bn in 2022 and US$40.52bn by 2027.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also described that Vietnam, as the second best of the rising e-economies of SEA, has enormous potential for digital banking and digital economy (PwC, 2018 ). Prior scholars have studied m-banking from various perspectives and theoretical frameworks. For example, Tiwari et al. ( 2006 ) studied m-banking strategy and how mobile technologies affect customer behavior in banks. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989 ; Mohammadi, 2014 ) examined the influences of user perceptions and attitudes to intention toward using mobile banking. Susanto et al. ( 2016 ) applied the expected-confirmation model (ECM) (Bhattacherjee, 2001 ) to examine the post-consumption phase of smartphone banking. Hsiao et al. ( 2016 ) utilized the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003 ) to investigate how the millennial generation adopted mobile banking services and an extended version of UTAUT. Khoa ( 2021 ), based on the theory of privacy calculus, focuses on the impacts of user data disclosure tradeoff on trust and loyalty in m-banking services. Thus, the literature is incoherent, and its findings are mixed in that the studies applied a variety of constructs and theoretical frameworks to suit a specific research objective and service context (Ashique Ali and Subramanian, 2022 ; Poromatikul et al., 2020 ; Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015 ). Despite its benefits and dissemination, the level of m-banking adoption is not up to the expectation, and its development is still in a nascent stage, customers are reluctant to accept, and even have resistance to innovative banking services (Chaouali et al., 2019 ; Foroughi et al., 2019 ; Khoa, 2021 ; Thakur and Srivastava, 2013 ). While a considerable number of studies examined m-banking adoption, there is limited research on continuance intention (Naruetharadhol et al., 2021 ; Poromatikul et al., 2020 ). Moreover, there is a complete lack of empirical research on the impacts of user adaptation, an indispensable behavior in IT usage (Nguyen and Ha, 2022 ), on continuance intention in m-banking service settings, and surprisingly, up to now very little research has been carried out on mobile banking in Vietnam context (Ashique Ali and Subramanian, 2022 ; Franque et al., 2021 ; Ha et al., 2022 ; Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015 ; Yan et al., 2021 ). Likewise, trust is considered as an antecedent or outcome construct in many studies on continuance intention in mobile banking (Franque et al., 2021 ; Kourouthanassis et al., 2015 ; Shaikh et al., 2023 ), there are quite a few studies on trust as a moderator.

Recognizing these gaps in IT continuance literature, this study attempts to apply the ECM, decomposed theory of planned behavior (DTPB) (Taylor and Todd, 1995 ), and adaptive structuration theory for individuals (ASTI) (Schmitz et al., 2016 ) and integrates with trust perspective to investigate user continuance intention to use m-banking in Vietnam context. This research seeks to answer three questions: (1) What are the determinants of user behavioral adaptation, and user continuance intention to use m-banking? (2) How do these determinants affect user adaptation, and lead to continuance intention? And (3) How does user trust moderate the impact of adaptation and satisfaction on continuance intention?

The study contributes to IT continuance literature in multiple ways. First, this study is the first to integrate three theoretical frameworks ECM, DTPB, and ASTI, and user adaptation and trust perspectives to provide a novel extended ECM model to predict user CI in a mobile banking setting. Second, the model is a pioneer in assessing the moderating role of trust in two important relationships between SA and CI, and ADP and CI. The connection between SA and CI has enriched the literature with the importance of user adaptation and trust in the formation of continuance intention. Third, this study is among the first to utilize DTPB to decompose its monolithic belief structures of normative belief (SN) and control belief (SE) (Taylor and Todd, 1995 ) and evaluate how these decomposed factors affect directly CI and user adaptation, leading to CI in the emerging context of Vietnam (Nguyen and Ha, 2022 ).

The study has been structured as follows. The theoretical background review and hypotheses development are presented in the next section. This is followed by the methodology in Section 3. The key findings from the data analysis of this research are in Section 4. A detailed discussion of the findings, implications, and finally directions for future research are positioned in the last section.

Literature review and hypotheses development

Mobile banking service.

According to Barnes and Corbitt ( 2003 ), the first m-banking application was deployed for users in Europe to make bill payments and check their account balance, as early as 1990. Barnes and Corbitt ( 2003 ) determined “m-banking as a channel whereby the customer interacts with a bank via a mobile device” (p.3). Tiwari et al. ( 2006 ) claimed that m-banking is the cornerstone of mobile commerce and is seen as the availability of banking- and financial-related services via smartphones. The scholars stated that “mobile banking refers to provision and availment of bank-related financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices” (Tiwari et al., 2006 ). The study by Ngai and Gunasekaran ( 2007 ) argued that mobile banking and payments were the most popular mobile commerce applications that support financial activities. As explained by Yuan et al. ( 2016 ), “m-banking means that users adopt mobile terminals such as cell phones to access payment services including account inquiry, transference, and bill payment” (p.20). Shaikh and Karjaluoto ( 2015 ) posited that m-banking was a type of mobile commerce that was an essential business model based on the mobile application service system. Researchers use interchangeable terms to refer to mobile banking, including mobile banking, mobile payments, mobile transfers, mobile finance, and smartphone banking (Ashique Ali and Subramanian, 2022 ; Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015 ; Susanto et al., 2016 ). These terminologies are targeted services of various studies; while they are slightly different in features (e.g., money transaction), they combine to form the family of m-banking services. One of the most popular m-banking services is mobile payment. Mobile payment is a set of financial services performed by installing an application on a smartphone, for customers to pay sellers (e.g., bank, corporate, individual) for products, services, and bills.

Continuance intention and expectation-confirmation model

Continuance intention.

The term “IS continuation” refers to the user’s decision to continue using the information system (IS) after initial acceptance (Bhattacherjee and Barfar, 2011 ). Bhattacherjee ( 2001 ) defined IS continuance intention as a user’s intention to continue to use an IS, and continuance could happen just after acceptance (first usage) to distinguish between the two concepts of behavioral acceptance and continuance (Bhattacherjee and Lin, 2015 ). Nabavi et al. ( 2016 ) described it as the user’s post-adoption behavioral patterns, which included both continuation intention (CI) and continuance usage (CU).

The majority of the IS literature over the past two decades has focused on user adoption and initial usage of IS (Nabavi et al., 2016 ; Susanto et al., 2016 ). In contrast to the number of studies on initial adoption, continuation intention has attracted comparatively little attention (Hong et al., 2017 ). There is a shift in focus from user adoption to the continued use of individual behavior at the post-adoption stage. (Bhattacherjee and Lin, 2015 ; Tam et al., 2020 ; Yan et al., 2021 ). As a result, research on IT continuance has increased rapidly in recent years and spread to various contexts (Franque et al., 2021 ), such as continuance intention in mobile information systems (e.g., mobile payment), social network systems (e.g., social networking) (Sullivan and Koh, 2019 ) and electronic business information systems (e.g., mobile commerce) (Gao et al., 2015 ).

Yan et al. ( 2021 ) posited that the three theories that researchers use frequently to explain CI are the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989 ), expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) (Oliver, 1980 ), and IS continuance model or expectation-confirmation model (ECM) (Bhattacherjee, 2001 ). TAM was initially used to predict the possibility of new IS, assuming the influence of perceived ease of use and the perception of usefulness on attitude toward technology acceptance (Davis et al., 1989 ). An expansion of the ECT and TAM is the ECM that has posited that after initial adoption, a user’s satisfaction with the technology and assessment of the system’s value may develop, leading him/her to use the technology (Bhattacherjee and Lin, 2015 ).

Expectation-confirmation model

Rooted on the ECT, Bhattacherjee ( 2001 ) has suggested the expectation-confirmation model to predict user IS continuance intention. While ECT has been extensively utilized in consumer behavior to examine user satisfaction, repurchase behavior, and service marketing as a whole (Yuan et al., 2016 ), ECM is the foundation of a post-acceptance model used in IS literature to investigate the impacts of user perceptions and expectation in technology continuance (Bhattacherjee, 2001 ). The ECM has posited that confirmation from a previous use of technology substantially influences satisfaction and perceived usefulness (PU), which were strong determinants of CI. Confirmation refers to the agreement between the IT product’s actual and expected performance. ECM has discussed the distinction between the initial adoption and continuance behavior of IT products/services (Sreelakshmi and Prathap, 2020 ). According to ECM, consumers may have expectations before using items. After using these items, they assess the performance to gauge their satisfaction and continuance intention. Scholars have argued that other important factors have a direct or indirect impact on the continuation intention (Nguyen and Ha, 2022 ).

The ECM has been used in research to analyze users’ continuous use of IS contexts such as ride-hailing (Malik and Rao, 2019 ); food delivery services (Ramos, 2022 ), and mobile payment (Purohit et al., 2022 ; Sasongko et al., 2022 ). Thanks to ECM’s capability to examine continuation intention in the context of mobile apps and financial services, the model is used in this study to predict users’ continuance intention in the m-banking context.

Confirmation and PU are the factors that determine whether customers are satisfied with the IT. In many contexts, such as those involving the internet, information systems, and m-commerce, PU is a significant predictor of behavioral intention (Nabavi et al., 2016 ). Furthermore, confirmation may be used to express the perceived usefulness of IS, particularly when the users’ first perception of usefulness is not definite since they are unsure of what to expect from utilizing the IS.

Prior studies identify various antecedents of CI, which are divided into four basic categories: technological, psychological, social, and behavioral factors (Yan et al., 2021 ). Poromatikul et al. ( 2020 ) studied the post-adoption of m-banking and found that continued usage is strengthened by satisfaction, perceived usefulness, trust, and confirmation.

As this study is grounded in ECM, our research model has inherited the original ECM’s five factors (i.e., confirmation, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intention) and its generic hypotheses. Based on the ECM and the aforementioned prior published studies (Ha et al., 2022 ; Tam et al., 2020 ; Yuan et al., 2016 ), this research proposes the following hypotheses:

H1: Users’ satisfaction is positively associated with continuance intention to use m-banking.

H2: Perceived usefulness is positively associated with continuance intention to use m-banking.

H3: Perceived usefulness is positively associated with users’ satisfaction.

H4: Confirmation is positively associated with users’ satisfaction.

H5: Confirmation is positively associated with the perceived usefulness of m-banking.

Decomposed theory of planned behavior

The work by Taylor and Todd ( 1995 ) applies the TPB to technological innovations by decomposing its monolithic or unidimensional belief structures into a set of multidimensional constructs that explain user behaviors in various IT-enabled contexts (p.140). While TPB (Ajzen, 1991 ) includes unidimensional belief structures, including attitudes, subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) (e.g., self-efficacy), decomposed TPB disintegrates these structures into multidimensional contextual variables. According to DTPB, (1) behavioral belief or TPB’s attitude is fragmented into three factors compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage; (2) normative belief is a subjective norm; (3) control beliefs are divided into the efficacy and facilitating conditions. Researchers have largely employed DTPB to predict user pre-adoptive (i.e., adoption) and post-adoptive usage of IT-enabled services in numerous settings. Rodríguez Del Bosque and Herrero Crespo ( 2011 ) have investigated users’ acceptance of e-commerce. While Lau and Kwok ( 2007 ) investigated how e-government strategies impact small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Ajjan et al. ( 2014 ) inspected employees’ continued usage of a company’s instant messaging applications. Regarding the app-based business context, researchers have studied the associations of SN, PBC with CI on m-commerce acceptance (Khoi et al., 2018 ), the impacts of PU and SN on user satisfaction and continued usage intention towards ride-hailing applications (Joia and Altieri, 2018 ). In mobile banking, a few researchers have applied DTPB (Souiden et al., 2021 ), for example, Zhou ( 2014 ) examined continuance usage. Thus, the DTPB’s application can enlighten the behavioral usage and intention in the mobile banking setting. Three DTPB’s belief structures are prospective determinants of customer behavioral adaptation and continuance usage (Taylor and Todd, 1995 ).

Subjective norm

TPB and DTPB view subjective norm (SN) as a key social determinant encouraging user intention to specific actions (Bhattacherjee and Lin, 2015 ; Mouakket, 2015 ). SN is denoted as the perceived external pressures (e.g., from important people) on whether to conduct a specific action in a certain situation (Lee and Kim, 2021 ). In our study, the subjective norm is regarded as recommendations, guidance, or opinions from key persons (i.e., colleagues, friends, or family members) for users to use mobile banking (Mohammadi, 2015 ). The influence of SN on user behavioral intention has been recognized by previous studies, including Fu and Juan ( 2017 ) in transportation service, Liébana-Cabanillas et al. ( 2015 ) in m-payment, Marinkovic and Kalinic ( 2017 ) in e-shopping, Zhao and Bacao ( 2020 ) in food-delivery services, and (Hamilton et al., 2021 ) for e-health services. The more the customers accept suggestions, the more likely it is that they will decide to use mobile applications. Recently, the importance of the associations between SN and satisfaction, behavioral intention, and actual use of m-application services has been reported in fintech and mobile banking studies (Daragmeh et al., 2021 ). Hence, the study suggests two following hypotheses:

H8: Subjective norm is positively associated with continuance intention to use m-banking.

H10: Subjective norm is positively associated with behavioral adaptation to m-banking.

Self-efficacy

According to the DTPB, facilitating conditions and self-efficacy (SE) that are distinct from a user control belief, influence both behavioral intention and actual usage behavior. Bandura ( 2010 ) explained SE as users’ beliefs in their abilities to act effectively and stated that self-efficacy judges “how people feel, think and behave” (p. 1). A prior study by Gupta et al. ( 2020 ) examined user SE and its significant impact on behavioral intention in Internet banking and payment. While Thakur ( 2018 ) denoted that SE is linked to continuance intention in m-commerce, Kang and Lee ( 2015 ) posited that SE is a determinant of CI towards online services. In e-learning, Rekha et al. ( 2023 ) argued that SE impacts users’ behavioral usage activities. For the ride-hailing service, while Malik and Rao ( 2019 ) examined the linkage between SE and continuance intention, Nguyen and Ha ( 2022 ) advanced to study further how SE influences user behavioral adaptation and continuance intention. Thus, we hypothesize the following hypotheses:

H7: Self-efficacy is positively associated with continuance intention to use m-banking.

H11: Self-efficacy is positively associated with behavioral adaptation to m-banking.

IT adaptation and adaptive structuration theory for individuals

There are various definitions of IT adaptation (Nguyen and Ha, 2022 ), such as reinvention (Rogers, 1983 ), mutual adaptation (Leonard-Barton, 1988 ), appropriation (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994 ), post-adoption (Jasperson et al., 2005 ), and so on. Researchers claim that technological adaptation refers to modifications and changes made once a new technology is installed in a specific organizational context (Orlikowski, 2000 ). Leonard-Barton ( 1988 ) stated that adaptation is mutual adaptation because of that technology features and users’ behaviors need to adapt to each other simultaneously and efficiently. Rogers ( 1983 ) argued that users could continue to use IT when the spread of an IT reaches the confirmation phase as it is adopted. IT implementation literature (Jasperson et al., 2005 ) has classified the process into six phases (i.e., initiation, adoption, adaptation, acceptance, usage, and incorporation). Amongst these phases, adaptation is considered to be one in which users perform actions on the IT to assimilate it appropriately into their workplace.

According to Ha et al. ( 2022 ), there is a prevailing framework for exploring IT adaptation that involves a pair of theories including adaptive structuration theory (AST) (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994 ) and adaptive structuration theory for individual (ATSI) (Schmitz et al., 2016 ). The difference between the two theories is that while the AST is generally applied to study organizational and group adaptation, the ASTI is applied at the individual level. In contrast, the commonality is that both theories defined the adaptation process as a consequence of a “structure episode”, the mutual interaction between IT and the user’s task in the workplace. The adaptation process has three characteristic input blocks, including technological, task, and personal characteristics, that create the output of better decision outcomes (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994 ; Schmitz et al., 2016 ). Accordingly, when implementing IT into group or individual activities, users try, modify, and adapt the IT to achieve better outputs or make decisions. Additionally, the task-technology fit (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995 ) considered IT utilization as an integrated concept having three adaptive elements (i.e., technology, task, and individual actions with both). Inspired by TTF, Barki et al. ( 2007 ) formed the Information System Use-Related Activity Model (ISURA) that defined individual adaptation as a combination of three factors including interaction, task-technology adaptation, and self-adaptation. Furthermore, according to Beaudry and Pinsonneault ( 2005 ), user adaptation is coping behaviors that are employees’ efforts relevant to technology, work, and personal factors. Thus, IT adaptation is explained as user behaviors that show how people use and change technology, how decisions are made, how well they perform, and whether they continue working with the IT (Barki et al., 2007 ; Beaudry and Pinsonneault, 2005 ; Nguyen and Ha, 2022 ). Considering prior seminal research, this article has defined user adaptations as activities performed by users that adjust the features of m-banking applications and practices of doing banking to meet their preferences, necessities, and circumstances. Therefore, behavioral adaptation for a mobile banking service can increase customer satisfaction and encourage customers to keep using it in the future.

Even though studies have identified IT adaptation as a determinant in post-adoptive behavior or continuation, research on this topic has not yet been completed. (Bhattacherjee and Barfar, 2011 ; Nguyen and Ha, 2021 ). Very few researches confirm the impact of user adaptation on CI and investigate it in the context of mobile banking. To address this gap, this study intends to investigate the correlations of behavioral adaptation with user satisfaction and continuance by hypothesizing the following:

H6: Behavioural adaptation is positively associated with continuance intention to use m-banking.

H12: Behavioural adaptation is positively associated with user satisfaction.

In addition, the construct of perceived compatibility towards a specific behavior is considered comparable to expected performance or PU (Taylor and Todd, 1995 ; Venkatesh et al., 2003 ). Thus, it is the user’s perceived usefulness of the m-banking app characteristics and its service advantages over traditional financial payment methods that combine to encourage users to utilize the m-banking service (Susanto et al., 2016 ). Based on these theories and the aforementioned argument, we propose the following:

H9: Perceived usefulness is positively associated with behavioral adaptation to m-banking.

Trust is studied in many different contexts and has various definitions, reflecting the meaningful nature of trust (Soleimani, 2022 ). One of the most acceptable definitions in the marketing and information technology literature of trust is proposed by Mayer et al. ( 1995 ), who claim that trust is understood as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer et al., 1995 ). In the e-commerce environment, researchers argued that trust helps users to overcome their perception of risk and unwillingness, and users are likely to conduct the following actions: accepting recommendations from e-commerce vendors, sharing information online, and, most importantly, purchasing from e-commerce applications (McKnight et al., 2002 ). Trust is seen as consisting of three belief components, including ability, integrity, and benevolence.

While ability means that m-commerce providers have the knowledge and skills to accomplish their duties, integrity means that they will maintain their commitments and not betray the consumers, and benevolence means that online commerce businesses prioritize and care for their consumers’ benefits, not just their own. In mobile payment, scholars have claimed that trust is the faith that encourages online buyers to become willingly susceptible to the m-payment providers after realizing the characteristics of the payment from which they are dealing (Al-Adwan et al., 2020 ). Another point is that in m-commerce, while Wei et al. ( 2009 ) denoted that trust is a belief in the safety of using m-commerce, Sasongko et al. ( 2022 ) referred to trust as the willingness of users to take risks caused by the transactions of another party (e.g., a bank), believing in the expectation that the bank will take beneficial action in favor of the bank users. Researchers also posited trust as an essential direct influencer of continuance intention in the online shopping context and mobile payment settings (Poromatikul et al., 2020 ).

Drawing on prior studies, in our study, trust is the belief that enables users to engage in m-banking service voluntarily, while considering its susceptible mutual features. Trust likely reduces the user’s perception of risk and reluctance and encourages user initial usage (i.e., pre-adoption), enables users to make use of m-banking services and leads to continuance usage (Gao et al., 2015 ; Nguyen and Ha, 2021 ). While trust is inspected as a contingent factor in limited contexts such as human resources (Zhou et al., 2022 ), online hospitality (Han et al., 2022 ), and e-government (Lee and Kim, 2022 ), very few explored its moderating role in the financial sector such as mobile banking (Ashique Ali and Subramanian, 2022 ). For e-wallet services, Senali et al. ( 2022 ) have investigated the role of trust as a moderator in the interactions between users’ perceptions of the service (e.g. perceived usefulness) on intentions to use. Chong et al. ( 2023 ) have investigated the moderating effect of trust on CI in the e-commerce context in Malaysia. As such, based on previous studies, we propose the following:

H13: Trust moderates the relationships between adaptation and users’ continuance intention in using m-banking.

H14: Trust moderates the relationships between satisfaction and users’ continuance intention in using m-banking.

Thus, based on the above theoretical references, the research model including theoretical hypotheses is presented in Fig. 1 .

figure 1

Source: authors based on the theoretical references.

Methodology

Data collection and sample.

Our research involves a questionnaire-based survey conducted with m-banking service customers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang, the three busiest megacities of Vietnam (World Population Review, 2022 ). The m-banking respondents were selected from Vietcombank, Vietinbank, and Techcombank, which are ranked the largest banks in the country (Vietnam Credit, 2021 ). The selection was based on the following three criteria suggested by Shaikh et al. ( 2023 ): (1) being a mobile banking account holder, (2) being a mobile banking account holder, (2) having downloaded an m-banking app, and (3) having experience in using at least one m-banking service, such as bill payment and money transfers. The pre-test for questionnaire items was also carried out using group discussions with twenty ( n  = 20) bank officials, experts in financial, and banking and management information system sectors, and m-banking users. The purpose of the pre-test was to gauge if any items used unfamiliar language or wording in the questionnaire (Colton and Covert, 2007 ).

The questionnaire was finalized with three parts, including (1) a screening questions part and a brief explanation of mobile banking services (as suggested by the pre-test), (2) the second part comprised 30 observed items, and (3) items designed to gather the participants’ demographic details. A total of 700 questionnaires were distributed using convenience and snowball sampling approaches, which were considered appropriate methods given the context of our research model regarding a novel e-service (i.e., mobile banking) and the challenge of limited business data availability of an emerging market such as Vietnam (Calder et al., 1981 ; Sarstedt et al., 2017 ). The data was collected between January and June 2022, primarily through face-to-face interviews, as numerous respondents suggested on the day of the interview that they could respond later using various electronic media.

Of the 700 questionnaires delivered, 523 were completed and valid, which accounted for 74.7%. Face-to-face interviews and online responses accounted for 69% and 31%, respectively. To reduce response bias, a group of interviewers who were senior banking and financial management students were trained on survey skills (e.g., keeping the questionnaire’s order, not rephrasing questions) before undertaking the interviews. The respondents were informed during the recruitment process that the interview was voluntary, and their responses were treated with confidentiality. The respondents were asked to tick the consent box before an interview. All respondents were between the ages of 18 and 65. Men comprise 49% of respondents, and women comprise 51%. While students accounted for 17%, officers and other professionals who were m-banking users accounted for 55% and 28%, respectively. The majority of MB users received a monthly income of $335 to $1250, but students received less than $335 per month. Table 1 presents a summary of respondents’ profiles, including gender, age, occupation, position, and monthly income.

The study sample size is 523, which is larger than “ten times the largest number of structural paths directed at a particular latent construct in the model” (Henseler et al., 2009 ). As presented in Fig. 1 , our research model consists of five paths (from PU, SA, ADP, SN, and SE) that connect to the dependent variable of CI, suggesting that several samples of above fifty should be used. Therefore, our study’s total of 523 responses fulfills the PLS-SEM minimum sample size condition (Ha et al., 2023 ; Hair et al., 2019 ; Shmueli et al., 2019 ).

Measurement Scale

This study measures items using a Likert scale with seven points ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). The seven-point Likert scale is considered a measurement with a relatively high degree of precision and simplicity (Nunnally, 1978 ). Measurements from earlier literature were obtained and appropriately adjusted to ensure content validity (Trochim et al., 2016 ).

The scales for CI and confirmation are each measured using three items. The CI scale is modified from Bhattacherjee ( 2001 ) and Baabdullah et al. ( 2019 ), while the confirmation scales are altered from Susanto et al. ( 2016 ). The scales for PU, SE, subjective norm SN, and ADP are measured in four items for each construct. PU is adapted from Davis et al. ( 1989 ) and Baabdullah et al. ( 2019 ), and SE is taken from Taylor and Todd ( 1995 ) and Susanto et al. ( 2016 ). The SN scale is modified from Bhattacherjee and Lin ( 2015 ) and Park et al. ( 2019 ). The scale for trust is adapted from Gefen et al. ( 2003 ) and Gao et al. ( 2015 ). The measures for ADP were taken by Nguyen and Ha ( 2022 ) and Barki et al. ( 2007 ).

Empirical analysis and results

Evaluating outer model.

A potential issue in a survey sample is identified as common method variance (CMV) bias. Harman’s single-factor test is used because it is appropriate for testing CMV (Podsakoff et al., 2012 ). The findings show that the single factor is 22.067% of the variance, which is far less than 50%. Thus, in our findings, CMB does not appear to be a concern (Podsakoff et al., 2012 ). In addition, we conducted a comprehensive collinearity analysis using SmartPLS to calculate the variance inflation factor (VIF) (Becker et al., 2015 ). The results indicate that all VIF values are lower than the recommended threshold of 3, suggesting that CMV bias is not an issue in our study (Kock, 2017 ).

Subsequently, we used SmartPLS 4 for our data analysis. Table 2 presents the calculations of the outer model assessments, including the outer loadings, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability (CR), rho_A, rho_C, and average variance extracted (AVE). During the reliability assessment, an indicator (PU3) was removed as its value was lower than the cut-off point of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2019 ). Moreover, as shown in Table 2 , all CR values range from 0.703 (TR) to 0.832 (SE), which is greater than the required value of 0.70 (Hair et al., 2019 ; Jöreskog, 1971 ). This suggests that all constructs meet the consistent reliability requirement.

This study uses the heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) to assess discriminant validity, ensuring that HTMT values should be below 0.85 (Hair et al., 2019 ; Kline, 2015 ). All AVEs results range from 0.527 (TR) to 0.693 (CI), indicating that convergent validity has been achieved. Therefore, as the test displays that all HTMT values are less than 0.85, this demonstrates that discriminant validity has been gained and that the constructs of the research’s model are reliable and valid. The results can be found in Table 3 .

Evaluating inner model

Following the confirmation of the external model’s quality, the internal model is evaluated. During this step, the hypothesized direct and moderating relationships were examined, as well as the model’s accuracy and predicting strengths were calculated (Dawson, 2019 ). The recommended subsampling of 5000 for bootstrapping was used and its results are described subsequently.

First, the variance inflation factor (VIF) or collinearity was checked and all values were below 3, ensuring that the multicollinearity issue of the inner model was resolved (Hair et al., 2017 ). Next, standard assessment criteria were evaluated to determine the significance of path coefficients. The criteria include the coefficient of determination (R-squared), t-statistics, and p-value (Hair et al., 2014 ). Figure 2 depicts the path coefficients and R-squared for all variables. As Fig. 2 shows, R 2 (CI) = 0.243, R 2 (ADP) = 0.096, and R 2 (SA) = 0.222. According to (Hair et al., 2019 ), the higher the R-squared value, the stronger the explanatory power of the inner model, and the endogenous constructs are more predictable. After this, the PLSpredict was additionally computed to assess the predictive power of the model (Ringle et al., 2022 ).

figure 2

Source: SmartPLS outputs.

Table 4 presents the model’s quality criteria from the bootstrapping calculation results. As illustrated in Table 4 , except for the direct link SN-CI (H8), all relationships are statistically confirmed as all of the p-values are less than 0.05. The predictive performance calculation procedure was carried out with a holdout sample-based and cross-validation coefficient k  = 10. Accordingly, the structural model’s predictive performance was established since the Q-square predicted values of PU, SA, ADP, and CI were all greater than zero (Shmueli et al., 2019 ).

Evaluation moderating effects

Trust is theorized to have a moderating role in the relationships between the link ADP-CI (H6) and the link SA-CI (H1). The data analysis has found that while TR has a significant positive effect ( β  = 0.133, ρ  = 0.002) on the relationship of ADP-CI (H13 was supported), it has an insignificant effect on the link of SA-CI ( ρ  = 0.104) (H14 is not supported). Accordingly, the support of H13 shows that the effect of TR on CI depends on ADP. As shown in Fig. 3 , the slope of the line, depicting the moderating effect of TR on the relationship between ADP and CI, is greater for a higher TR as compared to a lower TR. Therefore, the higher the TR value, the stronger the relationship between ADP and CI and vice versa. This finding provides empirical evidence that unveils a moderating effect of TR on the association of ADP and CI.

figure 3

Discussions and implications

Discussions.

This study has developed an innovative model to predict the intention to continue using mobile banking apps in Vietnam, based on three theoretical frameworks: ECM, ASTI, and DTPB, and the perspective of trust. The study’s extended expectation-confirmation model includes four factors: PU, CON, SA, and CI, and incorporates two variables from DTPB (SN and SE), one from ASTI (ADP), and the perspective of trust. Except for the direct association SN – CI (H8) and the moderating link of TR on SA-CI, all the hypotheses were confirmed (H1 to H7, H9 to H13). The study found that user adaption was an important driver of CI, and trust played a moderating role in the relationship between behavioral adaptation and CI.

The study found that user adaptation statistically affects continuance intention. The finding is consistent with previous research (Ha et al., 2022 ), indicating that “intention to reuse” is contextually associated with actual usage. IT adaptation, supported by perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, and subjective norm, has impacted continuance intention to use mobile banking. This means that mobile banking providers must offer digital banking services that are more advantageous in terms of functional features, convenience, and comparable prices than traditional services. Applications must also be simple to use to support user confidence. In summary, users are encouraged by influencers with their IT abilities to adapt to mobile banking by modifying and tailoring the application’s functionalities. Once adopted, users are driven to continue using the platform.

The study also found that PU, CON, SA, SN, and SE are all positively related to CI, which is consistent with prior empirical research (Chiu et al., 2021 ; Gupta et al., 2020 ; Lu et al., 2017 ; Yuan et al., 2016 ). User satisfaction during the adaptation process is a significant element fostering users’ continuance intention of mobile banking. The study indicates that only SE has a positive impact on CI, while SN does not. The study also suggests that social influence is less appropriate when individuals decide whether to continue using the banking application. Therefore, banks must appropriately strategize to enhance customers’ self-efficacy in mobile banking.

The study evaluated the moderating effects of trust on the relationships between IT adaptation and user satisfaction and continuance intention of m-banking settings. The findings confirm that trust plays a moderating role in the link of ADP-CI, while no evidence trust moderates the link of SA-CI. The study suggests that once trusted, users will begin to adjust their behavior and improve their intention to continue using the mobile banking application (Foroughi et al., 2019 ; Yuan et al., 2016 ).

Contrary to our expectations, this study did not find any evidence that trust has moderated the link of SA-CI (H14 is not supported). While numerous earlier research studies have confirmed a positive association between trust and SA (Sharma and Sharma, 2019 ) and the moderating role of trust on SA-CI (Kourouthanassis et al., 2015 ), an important finding of the current study does not support this moderating effect. Unlike Zhou et al. ( 2018 ), who asserted that trust moderates the link between satisfaction and CI negatively in online payment platforms in China, users’ trust in our study’s findings surprisingly has no moderating effects on the relationship between user satisfaction and continuance intention to use mobile banking. This discrepancy may be because the impact of trust on customers’ perceptions and behaviors will change over time (Grayson and Ambler, 1999 ). Thus, trust may not have an impact on the SA-CI relationship when customers have adapted and are satisfied with the service. In other words, customer satisfaction and adaptation to mobile banking services significantly impact their intention to continue using it and are not moderated by their belief like trust. In addition, this conclusion also confirmed that the ECM is an extensively robust model for explaining IS continuance intention (Franque et al., 2020 ).

Theoretical contribution

The study provides three theoretical contributions by filling considerable gaps in IT continuance literature. First, this study is the first to integrate three theoretical frameworks, namely, ECM, DTPB, and ASTI, and user adaptation and trust perspectives to provide an innovative extended ECM model to predict user CI in a mobile banking setting. While these three theories have been regarded as foundational frameworks for measuring outcome behavioral changes and performance (e.g., post-adoptive behavior) (DeLone and McLean, 2016 ; Tam et al., 2020 ; Yan et al., 2021 ), earlier research has been reluctant to combine these theories and their key variables, thus providing little evidence on how these factors affect CI. The findings reaffirm all the model’s hypotheses, yet not the direct impact of SN on CI in m-banking. Therefore, the research model validated by this study can be considered a theoretical base model for predicting continuance intention in m-commerce and similar settings.

Second, our model is a pioneer for assessing the moderating role of trust in two relatively new relationships between SA-CI, and ADP-CI. While behavioral adaptation and trust have been recognized as substantial influencers to continuance intention and user satisfaction (Franque et al., 2020 ; Nguyen and Ha, 2021 ), few or no studies have ever explored the moderator of trust on these two links. The fact that the results confirm that trust has moderated the effect of adaptation to CI but has not moderated the connection between SA and CI has enriched the IT continuance literature with the importance of IT adaptation and trust.

Third and last, the study extends the limited research on understanding SN, SE, and its determining impact on user adaptation CI in m-banking services. This study is amongst the first to utilize DTPB to decompose its monolithic belief structures of normative belief (SN) and control belief (SE) (Taylor and Todd, 1995 ) as well as evaluate how these decomposed factors directly affect CI and user adaptation, leading to CI (Nguyen and Ha, 2022 ).

Managerial implications

The research results also bring to mobile banking service providers various practical managerial implications. First, a detailed knowledge of the elements that influence users’ intentions to continue using mobile banking can assist service providers in identifying factors that influence mobile banking use. According to the findings, IT adaptation is the best predictor of user CI, followed by PU, SE, and SA. Therefore, the facilitating adaptation process of the m-banking application is very important for banks to shape their users’ intention to continue using the app. Vietnamese banking managers should provide customizable and personalized services that fit different customer needs. Secondly, the study finds that perceived usefulness has substantial effects on continued usage intention. This suggests mobile banking providers need to introduce an accessible, convenient, beneficial, and easy-to-use mobile banking system. Third, the results show that trust has a moderated role in the relationship between adaptation and continuance intention. Therefore, financial service providers should develop customer confidence that mobile banking is safe and risk-free and that customers are protected when performing transactions. Additionally, the study’s findings might be essential for banks to retain their current m-banking customers. Fourth and finally, this study has some important implications for government regulators. It can help regulators recognize m-banking users’ involvement in platform governance. Many stakeholders, including users, must be involved in developing laws and regulations for the m-banking service industry. The banking policymakers must provide and enforce laws to ensure that m-banking service frameworks are advantageous, convenient, innovative, trustworthy, and easily adaptable (Kandpal, 2023 ; Poromatikul et al., 2020 ). In addition, m-banking institutions must invest significant investments in banking technology infrastructures and mobile banking platform functions and features to assist the adaptation process and eventually fulfill customers’ needs (Kandpal, 2020 ). Additionally, it is essential for banking regulators in Vietnam, an emerging country, to actively support and facilitate m-banking by establishing policies and guidelines that ensure the implementation of robust safety measures. It will provide a secure regulatory environment for mobile banking providers and customers to utilize the service confidently.

The fast growth of m-banking services in society affects both banks and customers. Especially, it alarms m-bank service providers about competitiveness, customer retention, and keeping up with market growth. This is because customers of banks, both online and conventional, are willing to utilize the new mobile banking form and its services routinely. On the other hand, mobile banks rely more on maintaining users to compete in the digital marketplace. Bank management seeks direction in figuring out how to maintain customers and enhance their services.

This study set out to explore the influence of adaptation, satisfaction, and their antecedents on the continuance usage intention to use mobile banking. We also examined the moderating role of trust on the influences of adaptation and satisfaction on continuance intention. The findings of this study demonstrate that user adaptation plays an eminent role in influencing continuance use intention. The results of this research not only contribute to the continuance intention literature in an m-banking context, but they also provide valuable information to enable banks and their managers to understand the factors that may motivate m-banking users to continue to use this system.

The findings present an extensive and detailed examination of users’ adaptation and the variables that influence their continuance intention using m-banking. Bank management and policymakers are seeking in-depth understanding and solutions to leverage the mobile banking market, as well as firms’ capability to enable customer adaptation and usage. For banks, achieving the goal of retaining customers who have adapted to the m-banking apps is a sustainable success. The findings address the lack of mobile banking literature by providing a research model and validating its theoretical hypotheses in the Vietnamese mobile banking sector for platform-based services. The associations between essential factors, including customers’ perceived usefulness, subjective norm, self-efficacy, adaptation, and trust with their continued usage are confirmed. The study findings would certainly promote mobile banks in Vietnam and other emerging economies, in Southeast Asia and worldwide.

Limitations and future research

The study has some unavoidable limitations that should be addressed in future studies. First, we only focused on customers’ use of m-banking applications in Vietnam, a developing country in Asia. While our findings serve as a guide for countries with similar contexts to Vietnam, future research could expand on m-banking use in developed countries’ contexts to improve the study’s generalization. Second, this research has yet to include individual technological and innovation characteristics that are potential factors for user behavior research in the “customer-focused” period (DeLone and McLean, 2016 ) within the IT-enabled services context. Future studies should consider individual innovativeness and how this factor influences users’ CI.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary file.

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Conceptualization: T-HTD and G-DN; Methodology: G-DN and T-HTD; Analysis and investigation: G-DN; Writing-original drafting: T-HTD; Writing-review and editing: T-HTD and G-DN; Validation: G-DN; Resources: T-HTD; Supervision: G-DN.

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Nguyen, GD., Dao, TH.T. Factors influencing continuance intention to use mobile banking: an extended expectation-confirmation model with moderating role of trust. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 276 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02778-z

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Received : 27 June 2023

Accepted : 05 February 2024

Published : 15 February 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02778-z

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introduction in a literature review example

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    Here's an example of the layout visualised in a literature review introduction: Your introduction should also outline your topic (including any tricky terminology or jargon) and provide an explanation of the scope of your literature review - in other words, what you will and won't be covering (the delimitations ).

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