Theorizing Through Literature Reviews: The Miner-Prospector Continuum

TLDR

Literature reviews are increasingly important for theory development, yet how they contribute to theorizing remains unclear. The article introduces a miner‑prospector continuum metaphor to help scholars classify review approaches and promotes prospector reviews to better address complex organizational challenges. The authors map eight strategies along the continuum, examine pathways, choices, risks, benefits, and delineate stakeholder roles in balancing the mix.

Abstract

While literature reviews play an increasingly important role in theory development, understanding how they contribute to the process of theorizing is lacking. This article develops the metaphor of a miner-prospector continuum, which allows review scholars to identify approaches taken in literature reviews to develop theory. We identify eight strategies located on a continuum ranging from miners—who position their contributions within a bounded and established domain of study alongside other researchers—to prospectors, who are more likely to step outside disciplinary boundaries, introducing novel perspectives and venture beyond knowledge silos. We explore the pathways between miner and prospector in terms of strategies followed, choices made, risks borne, and benefits gained. We identify the roles to be played by different stakeholders in balancing the mix between miners and prospectors. While respecting the need for both miner and prospector approaches, we suggest that collective efforts toward encouraging prospector reviews could assist management research in tackling, through reviews, the complex challenges facing organizations and society today.