A systematic literature review of exploratory factor analyses in management

Abstract

We review the application and reporting of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in management. First, we integrate recommendations from relevant reviews and simulation studies to provide modern guidelines regarding EFA for psychometric investigation, and we highlight severe concerns associated with EFA for Harman’s one-factor test. Second, we conduct a systematic literature review including 1,790 articles and 3,396 EFAs from 23 premier journals since the year 2000. Our review reveals that many widespread guidelines for EFA are infrequently applied. We also show that researchers regularly fail to report essential aspects of their EFAs, leaving it unknown whether they are correctly conducting their analyses. Third, our discussion reinforces modern recommendations that are infrequently applied, exposes researchers to emerging developments, and provides new factor loading interpretations based on our systematic review results. To conclude, we provide step-by-step visual guides and a checklist to aid future researchers on their application and reporting of EFA.