literature review
identifying studies
decline and growth
Área
Ensino e Pesquisa em Administração
Tema
Métodos e Técnicas de Pesquisa
Autores
Nome
1 - Ricardo Marques de Almeida Dantas UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO (UFRJ) - Coppead
2 - Denise Lima Fleck UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO (UFRJ) - Instituto Coppead de Administração
Reumo
This paper addresses the increasing complexity of synthesizing past research due to the staggering amount of published work and the challenges researchers face to identify the proper literature.
Since decisions regarding what items one should search for and where one should look for affect the quality of literature review studies, this paper aims at illustrating the nature of the challenges one faces during the “identifying studies” phase of a literature review, providing practical examples of difficulties during this phase.
As critical as it is defining the review method, so it is identifying the literature to be reviewed, which has been referred as identifying studies. Yet, recommended practices regarding sample selection are still scarce. This study suggests a three-step workflow of procedures to conduct this phase of the literature review, namely: bibliographic database selection, identification design and data collection.
Seeking to identify the challenges a researcher likely faces when identifying studies, this paper uses the topic organizational growth and decline to illustrate this process. Therefore, Scopus, Web of Science (WoS) and Ebsco databases were selected to run a search using the string “decline OR failure OR bankruptcy OR survival OR growth OR success OR failing OR mortality OR growing OR death” on the field “article title”.
The findings stress the staggering amount of published academic work, the nonexistence of keyword catalogs that might help distinguishing and classifying studies, as well as the absence of shared standards among different database providers.
One wonders how faster scientific work might advance should institutionalized standards be available. Moreover, one also wonders whether the time is ripe for setting in motion a combined effort by the academic community to address this issue.
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