An integrative review and research agenda on organizational slack: addressing assumptions, conflicted theoretical proposals and conclusions

Abstract Organizational slack (OS) has played a significant role in shaping management perspectives, inviting researchers to consider surplus resources as a strategic asset rather than mere waste. Despite its widespread adoption across management research, the proliferation of OS studies has resulted in a fragmented body of knowledge with conflicting findings, prompting the need for an integrative review. Coherently, we analyzed 193 papers from influential journals to achieve three primary objectives. Firstly, we delve into conceptual and operational inconsistencies, unveiling hidden assumptions, overlooked advancements and proposing solutions to such inconsistencies. Secondly, we craft a multilevel framework integrating disparate insights across subfields, facilitating cross-disciplinary integration and highlighting critical cross-level variables to enhance empirical robustness. Thirdly, we spotlight areas of theoretical consensus and controversy to identify gaps in knowledge, emphasizing the essentiality of a comprehensive theory of OS to synthesize conflicting theoretical perspectives into a more coherent framework.