A Review and Evaluation of Meta-Analysis Practices in Management Research

Abstract

Meta-analysis has become increasingly popular in management research to quantitatively integrate research findings across a large number of studies. In an effort to help shape future applications of meta-analysis in management, this study chronicles and evaluates the decisions that management researchers made in 69 meta-analytic studies published between 1980 and 2007 in 14 management journals. It performs four meta-analyses of relationships that have been studied with varying frequency in management research, to provide empirical evidence that meta-analytical decisions influence results. The implications of the findings are discussed with a focus on the changes that seem appropriate.