out in selected database, based on the keywords “Working Capital Management” to
be found in title, keywords or abstract. Initially, the database search with delimiting
boundaries resulted in 527 articles. Subsequently, different processing steps were
needed to ensure that identified papers really deal with the topic in question, i.e.
WCM. This was done by reading the papers and thereby giving reflection on their
appropriateness for the issues studied. After detailed study, 117 articles were found
directly related with WCM. However, 25 articles, presented in more than one
database, were eliminated and, thus, 92 articles qualified for final review. Our
protocol for database search is illustrated in Table I. Fink (2005) advocated that a
literature review must be comprehensive in its scope of including all relevant
material, so, finally, selected 92 articles from database were, subsequently, checked
for references. Further, 34 additional articles were found relevant to the study and
were included in the final sample of 126 articles for review. Summary of systematic
process of article selection is presented in Figure 3.
Table I.
Database search protocol
Database Scope
Date of
search Time horizon
Total number
of articles
Total number
of selected
articles
Elsevier Title/abstract/key
words
18 January
2013
1980-2012 83 5
Emerald Title/abstract/key
words
18 January
2013
1980-2012 86 8
EBSCO Title/abstract/key
words
18 January
2013
1980-2012 165 80
Scopus Title/abstract/key
words
18 January
2013
1980-2012 193 24
Total 527 117
Level-1
(Database search with key
words)
Level-2
(Detailed study for relevancy)
Level-4
(Scanning reference)
Level-3
(Elimination of duplicity)
Provided 527 articles
Provided 117 articles
Provided 92 articles
Provided final sample of
126 articles
Excluded 410 articles
Excluded 25articles
Included 34 articles