From Thesis Supervision Experience to High-Quality Research
Mari Juntunen and Mirjam Lehenkari have years of experience in supervising hundreds of bachelor’s theses. They have noticed that students are often confused about how to carry out a literature review in practice. In order to guide the students better, Mari and Mirjam decided to examine the process in detail. Interviews with the OBS’ bachelor’s thesis supervisors and some of their students played a key role in the study. In 2019, the findings of their research were published in the highly respected journal Studies in Higher Education. Mari and Mirjam summarize their study as follows: “Existing research typically describes the literature review process as a linear process, in which predefined steps logically follow each other in a given order. This is not, however, what we find in our study—quite the opposite seems to be true. Rather than being a straightforward path, the process
appears to be iterative, non-structured and multilayered.” “One of the aims of our study was to relieve the anxiety that is often experienced by beginning researchers. Although the framework presented in the paper is specifically designed for bachelor’s level students, master’s and doctoral students as well as more experienced researchers may also benefit from our findings.” “Finally, we hope that the publication of our study serves to inspire our colleagues to start documenting their valuable contributions to the high-quality education that OBS provides. These efforts are also important from the viewpoint of our highly respected AACSB accreditation, yet appropriately appreciated only if we make them more visible.”
Mari Juntunen Senior Research Fellow (Marketing), Chair of the Marketing Programme Mirjam Lehenkari Senior Lecturer (Finance)
Full text of the article A narrative literature review process for an academic business research thesis is available from the researchers: mari.juntunen@oulu.fi, mirjam.lehenkari@oulu.fi
Bachelor’s thesis process seems to be anything but linear
E D U C AT I O N IN OULU BUSINESS SCHOOL
A collaborative group of thesis supervisors at OBS enables that approximately 150 students complete their bachelor’s thesis each year. For the students, the bachelor’s thesis—a literature review on a topic they have chosen themselves—is typically their first experience of academic writing and conducting scientific research.
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