Potential: in search for meaning, theory and avenues for future research a systematic review

Notwithstanding the popular consensus around the relevance of potential, in both practitioner and scholarly publications, the field still lacks a unified definition and theoretical clarity allowing to build on previous work and conducting empirical and comparative studies. Using a systematic review (SR), this paper aims to present a synthesis of the extant literature. The findings of this SR indicate that there are both similar and differing viewpoints for defining potential and that, theoretically, the study of potential from the perspective of the individual is still lacking. As a result, a comprehensive definition of potential is presented. Furthermore, we recommend incorporating this perspective and formulate a conceptual model to advance in the understanding of this phenomenon.