Someone is freaking out!

[filsp]

Hello guys,

Currently, I'm taking my masters on Management. I have already done all the courses and this is my last semester (the master thesis semester ). 

I'm working on it since September and my topic is "Online Shopping" (yeah, I know, what a broad topic). I asked my advisor to help me with the subtopic but all he says is to "keep reading papers, so you can do your literature review". Well, it's all that I'm doing, but it's kinda frustrating since I don't have any specific "direction" . I have been searching papers with the following keywords: social media, online shopping, online retailer and so on.

 In the past week I had another meeting with him and, besides saying, again, to keep reading papers he told me that the subtopic must be a problem-solving one and that it could be related with "What big retailers can do to avoid their extinction?" or the "Age gap in online shopping".

I'm still lost and tired of reading papers (that might not be helpful, ugh...) and I'm running out of ideas. Any advices or any ideas (or even, someone in the some situation)? Thanks in advance. 

[knp]

Make a list of the five or ten most interesting papers you have already read. Do two or more of them share a topic? Like, they're all about "online shopping," but two of your ten are about how to optimize discounts to get profits. Okay, that gives you a narrower topic, optimizing discounts. Then start reading about that subtopic. After you've read another twenty or thirty articles—this count includes articles where you stop after 2 pages because you weren't interested, because not being interested in something is as helpful for narrowing down your interests as being interested in another thing—do another two or three have something even more specific in common? Like, now these are all about discounts, but three or four are about using discounted trial memberships to get people to stay members of a subscription service. Reiterate ~3 times until you have a less massive topic. When you have that, you can go talk to your professor about how to ask a problem-solving question about that topic.

[filsp]

Make a list of the five or ten most interesting papers you have already read. Do two or more of them share a topic? Like, they're all about "online shopping," but two of your ten are about how to optimize discounts to get profits. Okay, that gives you a narrower topic, optimizing discounts. Then start reading about that subtopic. After you've read another twenty or thirty articles—this count includes articles where you stop after 2 pages because you weren't interested, because not being interested in something is as helpful for narrowing down your interests as being interested in another thing—do another two or three have something even more specific in common? Like, now these are all about discounts, but three or four are about using discounted trial memberships to get people to stay members of a subscription service. Reiterate ~3 times until you have a less massive topic. When you have that, you can go talk to your professor about how to ask a problem-solving question about that topic.

Thank you knp!  I guess I will use that strategy. It's actually my first time writting (or trying to) a article.

Edited October 11, 2015 by filsp

[GradSchoolTruther]

You're a graduate student. The advisor shouldn't have to do the legwork for you.