Literature Positioning (asq-literature-positioning)

When to trigger

• Your literature section reads as an annotated list rather than an argument
• You cite many works but are in dialogue with none of them
• You cannot name the specific scholarly conversation you are joining
• Reviewers say you "missed the relevant literature" or "misframed the contribution"

Join a conversation, don't survey a field

ASQ readers are organization theorists. They expect you to enter a specific, identifiable conversation and advance it. The literature section is an argument that creates the space for your contribution — not a comprehensive survey.

Steps:

1. Name the conversation. Identify the 2–4 streams your paper speaks to (e.g., categories and audiences; status and Matthew effects; institutional logics; organizational identity; routines and capabilities; network brokerage; sensemaking; ecology and selection).
2. Characterize what that conversation currently assumes. State the prevailing view fairly and precisely — strong steelman, not strawman.
3. Locate the tension. Show where the conversation is incomplete, internally contradictory, or contradicted by your puzzle.
4. Stake the opening. Make explicit the theoretical space your paper will occupy.