How to advance theory through literature reviews in logistics and supply chain management

Abstract

PurposeThe discipline's most common uses for literature reviews—identifying gaps, developing research agendas, and categorizing the literature—too often fail to challenge, change or advance theoretical perspectives. The authors offer guidance to theorization through literature reviews. The key to theory advancement is consistency between the state of theory and the chosen review type.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual approach is taken. The authors identify shortcomings in literature reviews of logistics and supply chain management (L&SCM) research and develop a framework to aid theorization from literature.FindingsLiterature review types are categorized as inductive theory building, contextualized explanations, theory testing and interpretive sensemaking. The authors argue that the effectiveness of a review type depends on the prior state of theory, which ranges from nascent, to intermediate, to mature. The authors propose the interpretive sensemaking review as a novel review type rooted in the interpretive paradigm.Practical implicationsThis study should be of immediate interest and value to logistics and supply chain management scholars—as well as scholars in other fields—because it offers a pathway to theory development through literature reviews. Appropriate applications of the proposed review types will result in more comprehensive theories.Originality/valueThis article lays down arguments for the need to change the way L&SCM scholars use literature reviews. It extends earlier work from the authors (Durach et al., 2017; A New Paradigm for Systematic Literature Reviews in Supply Chain Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management) by outlining four review types, and offering further insights to theorization, as is typically the goal in the synthesis step of literature reviews.

Celebrating IJPDLM's 50th anniversary: a reflection on its contributions and future directions

“…Since 2020, IJPDLM further expand this effort through an editorial (Wong, 2021). In this special issue, an invited article co-authored by Durach et al (2021) specially discusses how to advance theories using literature review.…”

“…The second effort is driven by the invited article "how to advance theory through literature reviews in logistics and supply chain management" by Durach et al (2021). A literature review can advance theory through four paths: (1) literature reviews as inductive theory building, (2) literature reviews as contextual explanations, (3) literature reviews as theory testing and (4) literature review as interpretive sensemaking.…”

“…A literature review can advance theory through four paths: (1) literature reviews as inductive theory building, (2) literature reviews as contextual explanations, (3) literature reviews as theory testing and (4) literature review as interpretive sensemaking. Like any inductive study, literature reviews as inductive theory building involves an iterative process of coding empirical data reported by the literature to identify "themes, patterns, relationships, and gaps in understanding" (Durach et al, 2021). Each study can be treated as a case, so researchers can analyze within-study and cross-study to generate new conceptualization or identify new patterns in relationships between substantive concepts (Durach et al, 2021).…”

“…Like any inductive study, literature reviews as inductive theory building involves an iterative process of coding empirical data reported by the literature to identify "themes, patterns, relationships, and gaps in understanding" (Durach et al, 2021). Each study can be treated as a case, so researchers can analyze within-study and cross-study to generate new conceptualization or identify new patterns in relationships between substantive concepts (Durach et al, 2021). For a more complete understanding, literature reviews as contextual explanation reveal "for whom," "when" and "under what circumstance" a behavior is expected (Durach et al, 2021).…”

“…Each study can be treated as a case, so researchers can analyze within-study and cross-study to generate new conceptualization or identify new patterns in relationships between substantive concepts (Durach et al, 2021). For a more complete understanding, literature reviews as contextual explanation reveal "for whom," "when" and "under what circumstance" a behavior is expected (Durach et al, 2021). This will help better understand how the principle causal mechanisms vary under different contexts and the activating mechanism of different contextual factors.…”