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Building theory in supply chain management through "systematic reviews" of the literature part 2
Edited by Richard Wilding and Beverly Wagner
Introduction
Constantly increasing research output which provides large amounts of similar, deviant and contradictory findings make critical literature reviews crucial tools for excavating the "nuggets of knowledge that lie buried underneath" ([55] Kirca and Yaprac, 2010, p. 306). In addition, literature reviews are the backbone of almost every academic piece of writing. Condensed overviews of relevant literature allow for grounding the authors' research on the state of the art of existing research, thus highlighting the particular scholarly contribution to the research field. [52] Hart (1998) argues that literature reviews help to narrow down the research topic as well as explaining and justifying research objectives, overall research design, and methodology used. Hence a review of related literature is not only found in the section explicitly called literature review, but also frequently in the introduction and the methodology section. Moreover, novel research findings are discussed against the background of the existing body of literature, thereby confirming, rejecting, contrasting, and complementing previous research outcomes. In addition, literature reviews may be seen as a scholarly contribution in its own right, which map, consolidate and develop theory of a certain research area, thus facilitating subsequent research to build onto this ground. By providing in-depth account of research conducted in a certain field ([63] Mentzer and Kahn, 1995), literature reviews represent valid tools for synthesising and refining scattered knowledge regarding all stages of the "normal research cycle" ([64] Meredith, 1993, p. 4). This term was coined by [64] Meredith (1993), who conceives theory-building as an on-going iterative running through the stages description, explanation and testing: descriptive models and frameworks may be transformed into explanatory models which are then empirically tested; cycle after cycle full-fledged theories are eventually developed.
More or less stringent guidelines for searching, organising and analysing literature feed whole books (e.g. [52] Hart, 1998; [44] Fink, 2005; [60] Machi and McEvoy, 2009), while at least one chapter on literature reviews is obligatory for any textbook on methods for business students (e.g. [73] Saunders et al. , 2009). Examining how literature reviews in the field of supply chain management (SCM) are presented in practice, it becomes obvious that...