Meta‐Analytic Research in Management: Contemporary Approaches, Unresolved Controversies, and Rising Standards

Abstract

Early meta‐analyses in management research sought primarily to resolve seemingly conflicting findings by estimating a relationship’s population‐level effect size. Since then, management researchers have adopted increasingly sophisticated approaches that permit new theorizing, testing and comparing sophisticated models, and identifying boundary conditions. We summarize three of these approaches – i.e., qualitative meta‐analysis (QMA), meta‐analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM), and meta‐analytic regression analysis (MARA) – along with the special issue papers that adopt each approach. We conclude by raising three unresolved controversies that we believe deserve more attention and by offering our thoughts about how to maximize a meta‐analytic study’s chances for publication and impact.

Advancing Theory with Review Articles

“…Meta‐analysis uses the empirical results from prior studies to examine their combined effect (Combs et al, ; Torraco, ). A meta‐analysis can be used, for instance, to examine how empirical results vary across different constructs used (Avenue 3: Establishing construct clarity) or to test the relative significance of different boundary conditions (Avenue 4: Establishing boundary conditions), system states (Avenue 6: Theorizing with systems theory), or mechanisms (Avenue 7: Theorizing with mechanisms; see Habersang et al, in Table for an example).…”

Conducting systematic literature reviews and bibliometric analyses

“…Unlike the medical sciences, management (and social sciences in general) have not developed standard, agreed-upon protocols for collecting best-practice evidence; management studies, even on the same or a similar topic, can vary in terms of their research questions, timeframes, sample selection, but also the methods employed. To overcome such limitations, management researchers are increasingly adopting meta-analytical approaches to create ‘super-samples’ that allow the summary of information and results from across studies (Combs et al, 2019). However, despite the availability of such approaches, there are unresolved controversies about best-practice approaches (Combs et al, 2019), and management researchers continue to face significant challenges reviewing such fragmented evidence.…”

“…To overcome such limitations, management researchers are increasingly adopting meta-analytical approaches to create ‘super-samples’ that allow the summary of information and results from across studies (Combs et al, 2019). However, despite the availability of such approaches, there are unresolved controversies about best-practice approaches (Combs et al, 2019), and management researchers continue to face significant challenges reviewing such fragmented evidence. In what follows, we detail possible approaches for systematic reviews.…”

What do we want to know about reshoring? Towards a comprehensive framework based on a meta-synthesis

“…Thus, the meta-synthesis (alternatively called qualitative meta-analysis or iterative triangulation) has become essential for the evolution of knowledge in management studies (Combs et al 2019). Revisiting the findings of other researchers can accelerate the progress of the field by discovering rich complexities and insightful nuances that cannot be obtained from individual case studies (Goldsby and Autry 2011).…”