From 2 zones to 3 zones in diagramming for the agile literature review approach

This note discuss the reasons adopting 3 zones, instead of 2 zones, in diagramming for the agile literature review approach (ALRA)

A 2-zones scheme would go something likes this:

For examining management issues and concerns as well as for developing a set of high-level research tasks, the two-zones scheme has the following limitations:

1. It does not clearly indicate which independent variables are controllable, and which not, from the managerial perspective.

2. It does not tell whether the the dependent variable is indeed a management issue or management concern as related to an organization's organizational capability, organization's performance or any implemented or proposed recommendation.

3. It may have indicated some actions (e.g., some independent variables may be related to some manipulable policy options), but it does not indicate what the organization "can do" (or need to build up the capability to do), but primarily suggests what the company can consider "to do".

For these reasons, the writer adopts the 3-zones scheme for the agile literature review approach.

The 3-zones scheme is much more useful for guiding an applied business research project because it addresses the 2-zones scheme limitations much better.