Theories of Performance: A Review and Integration

Abstract

Performance is a critical construct across micro and macro management subfields (e.g., organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, strategic management). However, there is little consensus on how performance should be conceptualized. There are parallel and siloed research streams addressing firm- and individual-level performance, and a never-ending search for seemingly novel theories without satisfactory progress toward integrating them. To address these challenges, we systematically integrated performance-related theories. We reviewed 15,535 journal articles published in 44 journals from 1946 to 2022 and uncovered 239 unique performance-related theories that we integrated through six meta-theoretical constructs: firm-level (1) capabilities, (2) structures, and (3) transactions; and individual-level (4) knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics, (5) roles, and (6) relationships. Moreover, we discovered that these meta-theoretical constructs are isomorphic across levels, which resulted in the CORE model of performance applicable at both levels of analysis: Performance (P) = Capacity (C) + Opportunity (O) + Relevant Exchanges (RE). We describe how the CORE performance model will enable researchers to stop working in theoretical silos, aiming for illusory theoretical contributions and thinking dichotomously about performance as processes or outcomes, and to start considering “the big picture” of performance, exploring the performance system, and considering how performance processes affect performance outcomes (and vice versa).