Writing Impactful Review Articles

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12608
• Author: Gerardo Patriotta
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020

© 2020 Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Writing Impactful Review Articles

Gerardo Patriotta

University of Warwick

ABSTRACT Literature reviews lie at the core of the theorizing process: they provide a reference

point for mapping a field of study and form the baseline for developing theoretical contribu-

tions. The two Point-Counterpoint articles presented here seek to reflect on the purpose of

literature reviews, and offer alternative strategies for writing impactful review articles.

Keywords: integration, problematization, reviews, theorizing, writing

INTRODUCTION

Literature reviews lie at the core of the theorizing process: they provide a reference

point for representing a field of study and form the baseline for developing theoretical

contributions (Post et al., 2020). In this regard, review articles play an important role in

promoting collective reflections about the state of the art in a given topic domain and

stimulating further debates around it. In recent years, review articles have progressively

acquired a prominent status in the research panorama, and have assumed the character-

istics of a well-established genre with its own rules and conventions.

The term ‘review’ has multiple connotations. Its original meaning refers to ‘an inspec-

tion of military forces’. Over time, it has acquired the meaning of ‘examining again’,

‘looking back’ and ‘considering or discussing critically’. These definitions point to the

semantic richness and multiple intentions of the act of reviewing: subjecting a body of

work to rigorous scrutiny; examining by looking back at what has been done; and crit-

ically reflecting on existing knowledge with a view to studying, learning, evaluating, or

even modifying it. The manifold connotations of reviewing have the potential to create

differing interpretations with regard to what writing a review article means and how the

task of reviewing should be approached.

The two Point-Counterpoint pieces presented in this issue examine the challenges of

reviewing a body of work, and offer alter native strategies for writing impactful review

Journal of Man agement Studi es 57:6 September 2020

doi:10. 1111/j om s. 126 0 8

Address for reprints: Gerardo Patriotta, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL,

United Kingdom (Gerardo.Patriotta@wbs.ac.uk).