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.

尽管文学评论在理论发展中起着越来越重要的作用，但仍缺乏对评论对理论化过程的贡献的认识。本文提出了矿产勘探者连续体的隐喻，它使评论学者可以确定文献评论中采用的方法来发展理论。我们确定了连续的8种策略，从矿工（他们将自己的贡献与其他研究人员一起置于有限的既定研究领域内）到探矿者，探矿者更有可能走出学科界限，引入新颖的观点并超越知识孤岛。我们从遵循的策略，做出的选择，承担的风险和获得的利益等方面探索矿工与探矿者之间的途径。我们确定了不同利益相关者在平衡矿工和探矿者之间的混合关系中所扮演的角色。在尊重采矿者和探矿者方法的必要性的同时，我们建议，为鼓励探矿者审查而做出的集体努力可以帮助管理研究通过审查来应对当今组织和社会面临的复杂挑战。