Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence‐Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review

Abstract

Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research project. The researcher both maps and assesses the relevant intellectual territory in order to specify a research question which will further develop the knowledge base. However, traditional 'narrative' reviews frequently lack thoroughness, and in many cases are not undertaken as genuine pieces of investigatory science. Consequently they can lack a means for making sense of what the collection of studies is saying. These reviews can be biased by the researcher and often lack rigour. Furthermore, the use of reviews of the available evidence to provide insights and guidance for intervention into operational needs of practitioners and policymakers has largely been of secondary importance. For practitioners, making sense of a mass of often-contradictory evidence has become progressively harder. The quality of evidence underpinning decision-making and action has been questioned, for inadequate or incomplete evidence seriously impedes policy formulation and implementation. In exploring ways in which evidence-informed management reviews might be achieved, the authors evaluate the process of systematic review used in the medical sciences. Over the last fifteen years, medical science has attempted to improve the review process by synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducible manner with the twin aims of enhancing the knowledge base and informing policymaking and practice. This paper evaluates the extent to which the process of systematic review can be applied to the management field in order to produce a reliable knowledge stock and enhanced practice by developing context-sensitive research. The paper highlights the challenges in developing an appropriate methodology.

Aprendizagem organizacional e teoria neoinstitucional à luz da escola comportamental de negócios internacionais

“…Trata-se também de um estudo documental realizado por meio da técnica de revisão sistemática. Similar a outros tipos de estudos de revisão, a revisão sistemática é uma forma de pesquisa que utiliza a literatura sobre determinado tema como fonte de dados, por meio da aplicação de métodos explícitos e sistematizados de busca, apreciação crítica e síntese da informação selecionada (TRANFIELD; DENYER; SMART, 2003).…”

Drivers, Barriers, and Success Factors for Improving Energy Management in the Pulp and Paper Industry

“…Thus, the aim was achieved by conducting a systematic review, since systematic reviews allow the achievement of results that are generalizable to other contexts and reduce personal biases [49], which is advantageous compared to reviews using more sensitive to subjectivity techniques, for example, the "snowball" technique. The advantage of the systematic review is that answers to chosen research questions are extracted from all the articles that fulfilled the chosen search criteria, thus minimizing personal biases and subjectivity.…”

“…Hence, generalizations were made and conclusions were drawn based on the content of all the articles that fulfilled the search criteria. The suitability of the systematic review to management and organizational studies was first described by Tranfield et al [49] and the approach was used for EnM in industry by Schulze et al [21].…”

Review of sustainable service-based business models in the Chinese truck sector

“…The review procedure carried out in this research is composed of three main stages as recommended in the literature: planning the review, conducting the review and reporting (Tranfield et al, 2003). In the first stage, an unstructured literature overview on the main themes such as product-service systems, business models and sustainability was conducted to identify the current state-of-the-art on these subjects, formulate the research questions and define relevant filter criteria to be used in this study.…”

“…At the end of this process, our sample contained 22 studies. The third and last stage of the systematic literature review corresponds to report findings in a synthetic way and to formulate recommendations (Tranfield et al, 2003). The analysis of this paper is based on the 22 sample papers explained in the review framework described in the following section.…”