Designing Literature Reviews as a Research Project
by Sven Kunisch, Associate Professor of Management, Aarhus University (Denmark), David Denyer, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield (UK), Jean M. Bartunek, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (USA), Markus Menz, University of Geneva, Geneva (Switzerland), and Laura B. Cardinal, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (USA)
Research design is the Methodspace focus for the first quarter of 2023. Find the unfolding series here.
Review articles have become a credible and legitimate form of scientific inquiry
in various fields of science including management and organizational sciences.
Organizational Research Methods (ORM), peer-reviewed and published quarterly, brings relevant methodological developments to a wide range of researchers in organizational and management studies and promotes a more effective understanding of current and new methodologies and their application in organizational settings.
Read these open-access articles:
Kunisch, S., Denyer, D., Bartunek, J. M., Menz, M., & Cardinal, L. B. (2023). Review Research as Scientific Inquiry. Organizational Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/10944281221127292
Hiebl, M. R. W. (2021). Sample Selection in Systematic Literature Reviews of Management Research. Organizational Research Methods, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428120986851
See the Organizational Research Methods special issue: Rigorous and Impactful Literature Reviews.
And see more readings with subscription access:
Rousseau, D. M., Manning, J., & Denyer, D. (2008). Evidence in Management and Organizational Science: Assembling the Field’s Full Weight of Scientific Knowledge through Syntheses. Academy of Management Annals. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520802211651
Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P. (2003). Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review. British Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375
The article “Review Research as Scientific Inquiry” promotes purpose-method-fit and offers guidance on how to improve the rigor and impact of review research.
While literature reviewing is part of any research project, reviews as a stand-alone research project seek to address academic, practice or policy problems using prior research as data sources. The diverse range of review research purposes and methods is both an opportunity and a challenge for producers and users.
In this article, Kunisch et al. identify eight general purposes: (1) classifying, (2) representing, (3) problematizing, (4) configuring, (5) aggregating, (6) integrating, (7) interpreting, and (8) explaining – and six aspects of rigor and impact – (1) design, (2) execution, (3) analysis, (4) synthesis, (5) contribution, and (6) utilization. The authors argue that the alignment of purpose and methods is crucial for producing high-quality review research.
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The process for researching literature on research methods is somewhat different from the process used for researching literature about the topic, problem, or questions. What should we keep in mind when selecting methods literature?