Engagement - an intermediate variable

Supervisor sent me a paper about engagement in a different context, where engagement is seen as an intermediate variable for on-line web advertising. Wilson notes that

"engagement is a volitional commitment by the customer to an active relationship over time"

and supervisor now realises we need to discuss volition.

Anne Mollen wrote her Cranfield MRes on engagement as an intermediate variable for on-line marketing. I read it some years ago, and discarded the ideas then after a short discussion with the then supervisor #1, because her systematic review showed that she was situating her research in e-learning and advertising literature, rather than in organisational development and change. I recommend reading the paper because she writes well, and because her Master of Research dissertation is an exemplar of a systematic review. Find it here at Cranfield research theses.

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Mollen, A. 2010. Engagement, Telepresence and Interactivity in Online Consumer Experience: Reconciling Scholastic and Managerial Perspectives. Journal of business research, 63(9-10): 919-925.

Social capital literature

Lee has just published in the International Journal of Management reviews, a comprehensive review of the literature on social capital. The article is called Social capital and business and management: Setting a research agenda.

This is a comprehensive and systematic review (it indicates an audit trail) of relevant literature on social capital. There's an emphasis on the three dimensions that Napahiet & Ghosal write about, but with a comment on the dearth of understanding of cognitive social capital.

Lee argues (page 258):

"social actors that share meaningful communication attain synergy. Efficient use of co-operative language, codes and narratives among social actors creates such a synergy."

Mixed method research is recommended to establish links between social networks and something... - "agents acting out relational and cognitive actions"

Implications for research include looking at the linkages between structural, relational and cognitive social capital. In particular "cognitive social capital and the overall impact of shared language, codes and narratives remain neglected."

Useful stuff if you're researching social capital, which I'm not. I'm using the dimensions of social capital as a framework to understand how engagement might happen.

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LEE, R. (2009) Social capital and business and management: Setting a research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11, 247-273.
NAHAPIET, J. & GHOSHAL, S. (1998) Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242-266.

Systematic supervisors

Yesterday's session on a systematic review of the literature must be useful to more than just the PhD students. Our erst-while director of studies uses the approach - says it saves him much time. I hear of supervisors who send students off to look at a whole area of literature that is not relevant to the study, and am grateful that my supervisors do not make those demands on me, but insist that I not be distracted and keep on track.

After yesterday, I think that had I had done that session right at the start of the PhD, or even of the MRes, then I would be very likely to finish on time.

Systematic review workshop

Nine of us OUBS PhD students have spent an engrossing and exciting day working on how to review literature. Dave Denyer from Cranfield led the day. He comes across as a practitioner, not just someone who says "you should do it this systematic way", but someone who does review systematically.

The approach

• stimulates thoughts
• stimulates creativity
• is systematic
• distinguishes between literature review as a scoping exercise and a literature review of the relevant literature

It gives you a structure, a logic and an audit for tackling the literature. Dave left us with files, overheads and templates for mapping, documenting and analysing.

One student was so impressed that half way through the day was cross that we hadn't had the training a year ago, and suggested this session should be compulsory for first year PhD students, it is so worth doing. Two of our third years came along considering it worth repeating for revision.

Systematic review method

What?
a systematic review is a method of reviewing a large body of literature to

• reduce information overload
• leave an audit trail
• avoid bias
• inform policy
• support practice (E.g. to fluoridate water supplies)

When to use?

• when there's uncertainty,
• when evidence is required
• when questions are unanswered
• to direct future research

How
See 7 stages in Petticrew (p27)

Systematic literature review again

When researching, you need to know what you don't know. "Ignorance is undervalued" was the starting point of a session on systematically reviewing the literature. And:

"Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they're blind"(Marston Bates)

Colin Pilbeam at the BAM conference set out a framework for a systematic review, explaining that

1. a critical review comes before
   
2. a scoping study that leads into
   
3. the systematic review.

I hadn't realised that sequence. They mentioned Wallace and Wray - a quick search gives me this recent overview from an enthusiastic student who recommends their framework too and gives a link to downloading questions for a critical review.

The overheads that Colin Pilbeam and Rob Briner displayed gave me a better sense of being systematic, and encourage me to keep records of for example:

• information sources
• citation databases
• searches I've done and the search strings

and to tabulate my findings. I'll keep the records; they'll be evidence.

Systematic review again

However, the more I learn about the systematic review, the more I realise that I did manage to do somethings systematically. For instance

1. I did have a review board, although it wasn't official. I had my supervisors on there and the two consultants that I contacted over winter. Their comments have been so useful because they lead me on to looking at value and how consultants contribute value to a project.
   
2. I have kept a record of all my searches, on what databases and with which strings.

So the search was a bit systematic. Now how do I review systematically.

The systematic review came up in the mini-viva, and I expressed my enthusiasm for the approach. Dave Denyer didn't come this year and do a workshop for us, but perhaps it'll get organised next year.