Literature reviews serve diverse purposes, including description, understanding, explanation, and testing. Traditionally – before online databases, full-text search availability, and AI-based search tools – identifying relevant sources might have been considered a valuable contribution. However, top-tier information systems (IS) journals now demand more than descriptive reviews; they require authors to move beyond summarizing existing knowledge toward proposing innovative research directions, important research questions, new concepts, and interesting linkages among concepts. Despite adhering to rigorous methodological guidelines, many authors struggle to make conceptual leaps, that is, to elevate their literature reviews beyond description, to achieve a profound understanding, to provide explanations, or to develop a model. Authors may mistakenly prioritize hard work – like thorough literature search, analysis, and organization – over hard thinking, which is crucial for advancing theoretical contributions. With this in mind, I adopt the view that the literature is indeed qualitative data. I suggest that approaches that help make conceptual leaps in qualitative research can benefit literature review authors searching for inconsistencies in the extant literature and developing new questions, concepts, and linkages. Drawing upon qualitative research (Klag, M., and Langley, A., 2013. Approaching the conceptual leap in qualitative research. International Journal of Management Reviews. 15 (2), 149–166.), I unpack the process of conceptual leaping in the conduct of literature reviews. This process involves navigating dialectic tensions between knowing and not knowing, engagement and detachment, deliberation and serendipity, and self-expression and social connection. Effectively managing these tensions can help authors increase the impact and innovativeness of their literature reviews.

中文翻译：

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解析文献综述中概念跳跃的过程


文献综述有多种目的，包括描述、理解、解释和测试。传统上——在在线数据库、全文搜索可用性和基于人工智能的搜索工具出现之前——识别相关来源可能被认为是一种有价值的贡献。然而，顶级信息系统 (IS) 期刊现在需要的不仅仅是描述性评论；它们要求作者超越总结现有知识，提出创新的研究方向、重要的研究问题、新概念以及概念之间有趣的联系。尽管遵循严格的方法论指导方针，许多作者仍努力实现概念上的飞跃，即将他们的文献综述提升到无法描述的程度，以实现深刻的理解，提供解释，或开发模型。作者可能会错误地将艰苦的工作（例如彻底的文献检索、分析和组织）置于艰苦的思考之上，而艰苦的思考对于推进理论贡献至关重要。考虑到这一点，我认为文献确实是定性数据。我认为，有助于在定性研究中实现概念飞跃的方法可以有利于文献综述作者寻找现有文献中的不一致之处并开发新的问题、概念和联系。借鉴定性研究（Klag, M., 和 Langley, A., 2013。接近定性研究中的概念飞跃。International Journal of Management Reviews. 15 (2), 149–166.），我解开了概念飞跃的过程。在进行文献综述时。这个过程涉及处理知道与不知道、参与与分离、深思熟虑与偶然发现、自我表达与社会联系之间的辩证张力。 有效管理这些紧张关系可以帮助作者提高文献综述的影响力和创新性。