A review of reviews – a meta-review analysis of literature on knowledge and technology transfer in higher education

Abstract In light of the growing volume of literature reviews on the subject, this study presents a meta-review of 61 review articles on knowledge and technology transfer in higher education published up to and including 2023. The aim is twofold: first, to map the development of the field through the lens of review literature; second, to reflect on the role of reviews as tools of synthesis and of meta-reviews as second-order instruments for analysing increasingly complex research landscapes. The analysis combines a descriptive mapping of publication and citation patterns, journals, authorships, and affiliations with an in-depth examination of key concepts, thematic foci, and methodological characteristics. The findings highlight the growing academic relevance of the field, along with its conceptual and thematic diversification, but also reveal considerable variation in terminology and a gradual yet uneven formalisation of review methodology; this poses challenges for comparability and limits the cumulative potential of review-based research. By synthesising existing evidence and critically examining review practices over time, this study offers both orientation within a fragmented research landscape and an analytical point of reference for conducting meta-reviews in similarly heterogeneous research domains.