If present, this part concludes the review of literature by restating how the present study intends to address the stated gap(s). Many authors choose to announce their current study’s purpose and then state their research question(s).
Below is an adapted example of the study’s purpose and research questions from journal articles in the field of applied linguistics:
The voiceboard literature seems to suggest that Voxopop holds potential for lessening foreign language anxiety (FLA). Yet, we still do not know the sources of anxiety in these contexts, what affordances learners perceive, or how the affordances perceived directly relate to FLA. The current study is aimed to address these issues, and it is guided by the following research questions:
Additionally, instead of announcing research questions, some authors tend to break down their study’s purpose into research objectives or aims—smaller tasks or steps that will be completed to meet the main purpose.
This study has three objectives: (1) to determine whether and when budget shoppers keep track of how much they spend while shopping, (2) to understand how they estimate the total price of their shopping baskets, and (3) to examine the implications of estimation biases for consumer welfare and retail performance (Van Ittersum et al., 2010) (Marketing).
In place of research questions, it is possible to conclude the literature review section with a statement of hypotheses that the author proposes to test in the present study.
Here is an adapted example of “hypothesis” statements from a journal article in the field of management:
The above discussion and the lack of understanding about the issue of supply chain management practices in India lead to the following research hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1. Criteria used in selecting suppliers vary by an executive's home country (Japan and India).
Hypothesis 2. Japanese and Indian supply chain management executives place different emphasis on objective criteria when making supplier selection decisions.
Hypothesis 3. Even on common criteria used by both Japanese and Indian supply chain management executives, when making supplier selection decision, the weight placed on these criteria would be different (Park et al., 2012).