Thirty-five years of sensemaking in the business & management research: a bibliometric analysis, review and discussion

Gary Eckstein (), Anup Shrestha and Fiona Russo
Additional contact information
Gary Eckstein: University of Southern Queensland
Anup Shrestha: University of Southern Queensland
Fiona Russo: University of Southern Queensland

Management Review Quarterly, 2025, vol. 75, issue 4, No 10, 3217 pages

Abstract: Abstract Sensemaking is widely acknowledged as providing valuable guidance on how individuals and groups organize to perceive issues at stake, thereby lessening the negative impacts of future unknowns. Sensemaking is not a new field, yet events surrounding the recent COVID-19 pandemic may benefit from a sensemaking perspective. While prior reviews have considered sensemaking research, this is arguably the first bibliometric review of sensemaking and its application across the entire business and management domain. From 2,838 articles, we used performance analysis and science mapping techniques to offer propositions and avenues for future research. We advance theory and offer practical implications by identifying and providing context about prominent theorists, authors, journals, articles, and environments where sensemaking has been studied. Thirty-five years after the first article on sensemaking was published, this paper offers an extensive review demonstrating the evolution, current interests, and future directions of sensemaking research in the business and management discipline.

Keywords: Sensemaking; Bibliometrics; Literature review; Management; Organizational studies; Business; M00; M10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11301-024-00458-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:manrev:v:75:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s11301-024-00458-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11301

DOI: 10.1007/s11301-024-00458-5

Access Statistics for this article

Management Review Quarterly is currently edited by Thomas Reutterer, Jonas F. Puck, Engelbert Dockner and Anne d'Arcy

More articles in Management Review Quarterly from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().