Shared Value: A Valuable Concept or a Management Buzzword?

Abstract

‘Shared value’ has raised strong interest in business and academia and has provoked heated debate with arguments for and against the idea. Studies have pointed to some strengths and weaknesses, but have not comprehensively assessed its ontological and epistemological aspects as a concept. This is an important gap because concepts are crucial elements of social theories and link them to empirical instances. To address this gap, we conducted a review of the literature on shared value to explore how it is defined, operationalized and measured, to what degree its characteristics also describe other concepts, and the origin and suitability of data used in studies. Analysis of 403 articles revealed that only 10.97% used shared value as a focus concept while 78.57% employed the term as a common language and in the background of the arguments. We also found that shared value is defined with little precision, has measurement problems, overlaps with many other concepts and lacks empirical research. We conclude that shared value resembles a management buzzword more than a valuable concept. We provide guidelines for research necessary to improve the epistemological and ontological problems found.