Chapter 4 Descriptive Analysis 69
4.2 THE SOURCE OF THE LITERATURE 69
As described in Chapter 3, the systematic literature review incorporated literature from various sources, which encompassed journals, a book section and a working paper. By examining these sources, a profile of the literature can be delineated. This section discusses the types of sources, the publication titles and the quality grading.
4.2.1 The Type of Sources
As shown in Table 4.1, journal articles accounted for 95% of the overall 40 pieces of literature reviewed, whereas the book section and working paper contributed 2.5% each. This shows that the literature search was strongly focused on academic journals rather than books, as the review intended to consider those that represented the recent development in this area. The two other sources, the book section and the working paper, were included as a result of experts’ recommendations.
Table 4.1: The Type of Literature Sources
Source Type Number Percentage
Journal Articles 38 95 % Book Section 1 2.5 % Working Paper 1 2.5 %
The number of articles selected, i.e. 40, is considered to be relatively low, compared to 815 NPD articles published by the 10 journals9 in the period of 1989-2004 (Page and Schirr, 2008). This appears to show that the field is still underdeveloped. However, it is slightly premature to come to this assumption from only looking at the low number of articles found. Thus, the following sections examine the profile of these literature sources from different angles.
4.2.2 Publication Title and Quality Grading
The 38 journal articles were published by various academic journals, which are listed in Table 4.2. This table shows the journal title, number of articles found, journal quality grading and the source of articles (systematic search, independent selection, expert recommendation and cross-referencing). The journal quality grading, from the Cranfield School of Management Journals Ranking 201210, grades the quality of journals according to the following scale: 4* = world leading; 3* = internationally excellent; 2* = internationally recognised; 1* = national. Apart from this, the book section and working paper are retained in the list in order to consistently show the total number of articles selected.
The Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), Organization Science and International Journal of Project Management dominated the journal articles reviewed with 7 (17.5%), 5 (12.5%) and 4 (10%) articles respectively. This confirms that JPIM is the core journal in this review, publishing the most relevant and substantial studies on NPD portfolio management. Similarly, the International Journal of Project Management reported a significant number of studies on this field. The journal Organization Science highly contributed to this review through an expert’s recommendation11, reporting a study theme on organisational routines. In
relation to this, Section 4.4 The Themes in the Literature investigates further the relevance of the theme in the review.
9 Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Technology Management, R&D Management, Journal of
Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review and Strategic Management Journal
10 Cranfield School of Management (2012), Journal Recommendations for Academic Publication, 9th Edition,
Research Information, Cranfield SOM, Cranfield.
11 Prof. Gina Colarelli O’Connor, PhD., Lally School of Management & Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Table 4.2: The Journal Titles
Journal Title Number
of Articles %
Quality
Grading SS IS ER CR
Academy of Management Journal 1 2.5 4* 1
American Journal of Sociology 1 2.5 NA 1
Book section 1 2.5 NA 1
Creativity and Innovation Management 1 2.5 2* 1
Group & Organization Management 1 2.5 3* 1
Harvard Business Review 1 2.5 4* 1
Industrial Marketing Management 1 2.5 3* 1
International Journal of Innovation & Technology Management
1 2.5 NA 1
International Journal of Innovation Management 1 2.5 2* 1
International Journal of Management Reviews 1 2.5 3* 1
International Journal of Project Management 4 10 2* 3 1
International Journal of Technology Management 1 2.5 3* 1
Journal of Management 2 5.0 4* 1 1
Journal of Management Studies 1 2.5 4* 1
Journal of Operations Management 1 2.5 4* 1
Journal of Product Innovation Management 7 17.5 4* 4 2 1
Long Range Planning 2 5 3* 2
Management Decision 1 2.5 1* 1
Manufacturing & Service Operations
Management 1 2.5 NA 1
Organization Science 5 12.5 4* 5
Project Management Journal 1 2.5 2* 1
Research Technology Management 1 2.5 3* 1
Sloan Management Review 1 2.5 4* 1
Strategic Management Journal 1 2.5 4* 1
Working paper 1 2.5 NA* 1
Total 40 21 6 11 2
Note: SS = Systematic Search; IS = Independent Selection; ER = Expert Recommendation; CR = Cross-‐Referencing
Figure 4.1 and Table 4.2 show that the systematic literature review involved 20 (50%) articles published in the 4* grade journals. The 3* and 2* grade journals
contributed seven articles (17.5%) each, while there is only a single 1* journal with one (2.5%) article. In particular, the journals that dominated the review, Journal of Product Innovation Management and Organization Science are graded as 4* journals, whereas the International Journal of Project Management is graded as 2*.
In addition, Table 4.2 shows that two articles are a book section and a working paper; another three articles included in this review, were not listed in Cranfield School of Management Journals Ranking 2012. Thus, it is shown in Figure 4.1 that quality grading for five (12.5%) articles was not available.
Figure 4.1: The Journal Quality Grading Proportions
These figures demonstrate that the issues raised by the Systematic Review Questions were explored in highly rated journals, with the exception being the International Journal of Project Management (2*). The high representation of this journal in the review is discussed further in Section 4.4 The Themes in the Literature.
4.2.3 Conclusions
It can be concluded that the number of the articles selected was considered to be low, which might indicate that the areas of studies were underdeveloped. Furthermore, most studies were published in three, which will be referred to as “core” journals: the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Organization Science and International Journal of Project Management. It should be noted that two of these are regarded as world leading (4*) journals, whereas the third, International Journal of Project Management, is only considered as an internationally recognised (2*) journal.