Using the literature based discovery research method in a context of built environment research

For two disparate research groups, unaware of each other's work, one group can inadvertently solve a problem prevalent in the other. Without considering work from both groups together, such breakthroughs may remain undiscovered. The solution is literature based discovery (LBD), a method which involves investigation or search for novel hypotheses connecting work from two or more disparate contexts. However, LBD has predominantly been used to address medical problems, and its uptake outside medical research remains scanty. In the context of built environment research, there are countable studies that have claimed using LBD and moreover, they presented sparse details. On one hand, studies that have claimed using LBD as a research method seem to confuse it with traditional literature reviews, and on the other hand, even those that could have used LBD seem unaware that they used some kind of LBD-style analysis. Following the original principles of LBD, this paper presents an LBD-inspired research method and a demonstration of its applicability within a built environment research context. The findings indicate promising leads to encouraging LBD and elucidating several misconceptions surrounding its use in built environment research. It is hoped that this paper will encourage future research in built environment, like construction management research, to confidently use LBD appropriately and consciously.