Performance is a critical construct across micro and macro management subfields (e.g., human resource management, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, strategic management). However, there is little consensus on how performance should be conceptualized. There are parallel and siloed research streams addressing firm- and individual-level performance, and a never-ending search for seemingly novel theories without satisfactory progress toward explaining relations among them. To address these challenges, we engaged in an inductive review process to systematically integrate performance-related theories. We reviewed 15,535 journal articles published in 44 journals from 1946–2022 and uncovered 239 unique performance-related theories that we integrated into six meta-theoretical clusters: firm-level (1) capabilities, (2) structures, and (3) transactions; and individual-level (4) knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs), (5) roles, and (6) relationships. Moreover, we discovered that the meta-theoretical clusters are isomorphic across levels, which resulted in the CORE model of performance applicable at both levels of analysis: Performance (P) = Capacity (C) + Opportunity (O) + Relevant Exchanges (RE). Based on these findings, we describe how the CORE performance model will enable researchers to stop working in theoretical silos, stop aiming for illusory theoretical contributions, stop thinking dichotomously about performance as behaviors or outcomes, and start examining intersections among performance system components.
