ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the question of how to synthesize many different research findings in order to form a reliable picture of the evidence on an issue. It presents the most common methods for reviewing and integrating literature in a field of study. The chapter argues that the approach would be a useful one to adopt for reviewing the performance findings within the field of privatization. It focuses on some of the more important dimensions of the meta-analytic approach, along with the implications these have for the current privatization performance review. The fact is even if the definition of privatization is consistent between studies and reviews; the performance dimension adopted by any one reviewer can slant the reviewer's conclusions. In an effort to bring comprehensive reviews to some sort of clear conclusion, a vote-counting technique has evolved as a popular way of integrating many findings. Several other techniques are available to integrate multiple research findings in a quantitative way.
