An integrative literature review of prototyping in management research: Definition and research agenda

Abstract

Recent years have seen the proliferation of approaches in management featuring prototyping as a central component and vehicle to facilitate interaction with stakeholders. Yet, despite the extensive engagement with prototyping, vocabulary and conceptualizations of the phenomenon still vary and research remains fragmented, hampering empirical and conceptual development. In this paper, we address this by exploring the concept of prototyping in management research. Through an integrative literature review, the study contributes with an inductively developed definition of prototyping that stresses the representational nature of prototyping. Based on the definition, we organize the diverse, fragmented, and eclectic body of work into seven distinct themes. We then compare and elaborate these themes and organize them into three aggregate dimensions to offer an initial sketch of how prototyping materializes from cognitive externalization to conative interaction an how these interdependent processes creates various organizational outcomes. Finally, we suggest future avenues for examining the integration of the fragmented themes and for exploring research opportunities between and within the them.