Using Literature to Develop Research Questions

The video for 7CO04 AC 1.3 addresses how published research can be used as a direct source from which research questions are developed, rather than treated as background reading. It covers the concept of synthesising knowledge across multiple sources — drawing together findings to establish patterns, convergences and divergences in current understanding — and explains how that synthesis process reveals which questions existing scholarship has resolved and which remain open. Theoretical frameworks that have shaped prior investigations are also examined as part of this analytical work.

A significant portion of the video focuses on identifying gaps in published research as the mechanism by which original questions are generated. The video distinguishes between substantive gaps, where particular aspects of a phenomenon have not been studied, and contextual gaps, where research exists in some settings but not others — using flexible working in large corporations versus small and medium enterprises as a concrete illustration of the latter. Methodological evaluation forms a further strand of the content, looking at how previous researchers have operationalised concepts, which investigative techniques have produced robust findings, and how methodological choices have constrained what could be discovered.

The video then addresses the transition from literature analysis to question formulation itself, framing this as a process of informed speculation grounded in three specific considerations: contextual relevance, temporal relevance, and practical applicability. Contextual relevance concerns how findings from different sectors or national contexts translate to a specific organisational setting. Temporal relevance covers whether the conditions under which earlier research was conducted — such as workplace practices predating widespread remote working — remain current, making the validity of earlier findings an open question for primary research.