SMEs and Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review

• Author: Marco Cioppi,Barbara Francioni,Fulvio Fortezza,Simone Splendiani,Elisabetta Savelli,Alessandro Pagano,Roberta Bocconcelli
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12128

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 20, 227–254 (2018)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12128

SMEs and Marketing: A Systematic

Literature Review

Roberta Bocconcelli, Marco Cioppi,1Fulvio Fortezza,2Barbara Francioni,

Alessandro Pagano, Elisabetta Savelli and Simone Splendiani3

Department of Economics, Society, Politics, University of Urbino, Via Saffi, 42-61029, Urbino, Italy, 1Department of

Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies: History, Cultures Languages, Literatures, Arts,

Media, University of Urbino, Italy, 2Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, Italy, and

3Department of Economics, University of Perugia, Italy

Corresponding author email: roberta.bocconcelli@uniurb.it

This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the

role, organization and management of marketing activities in small and medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs). Tothis end, 310 articles published between 2006 and 2015 in 69 main

journals devoted to small firms/entrepreneurship and management/marketing fields

were analysed. This review shows that SMEs’ marketing has received great attention

in both management and marketing literature in recent years. Findings reveal, on

the one hand, the emerging role of networks and information and communication

technologies in marketing behaviour bySMEs, and on the other hand a research gap in

terms of specific marketing practices. Entrepreneurial marketing has been used as the

main conceptual framework in reviewed studies, even if findings overall still point out a

distance between the theoretical bases of reviewed contributions and the study of SMEs’

marketing behaviour and practices. Therefore, future research on the role of resources,

relationships and networks could benefit from the combination of theories developed

within the field of entrepreneurship with other approaches such as the resource-based

view, the dynamic capabilities theory and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing

(IMP) framework.

Introduction

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are

considered an important engine for economic growth

in terms of both employment and gross domestic

product (Edinburgh Group 2013). For instance, in

2012, the 20 million European SMEs accounted

for more than 86 million employees (66.5% of the

total) and 57.6% of the gross value added generated

by the private and non-financial sectors (European

Commission 2013).

A number of authors over the years (Brooksbank

et al. 2003; Keh et al. 2007; Romano and Ratnatunga

1995) have highlighted the increasing relevance

of marketing for the success of SMEs, noting that

the adoption of both a marketing concept and

practices could help SMEs achieve a long-term

competitive advantage. The literature also reveals

a growing awareness about the positive relationship

between marketing practices and SMEs’ performance

(Brooksbank et al. 1999; Cox et al. 1994; Gilmore

2011; Verhees and Meulenberg 2004).

The relevance of this research field has increased

recently, yielding both theoretical and empirical

contributions. From the early 1990s onwards, special

groups of interest within the main marketing asso-

ciations (Entrepreneurial Marketing SIG – AMA1;

Entrepreneurial & Small Business Marketing SIG –

Academy of Marketing2) arose, with the aim of

1https://www.ama.org/academics/Pages/Entrepeneurial%

252520Marketing.aspx (accessed 4 November 2015).

2https://www.academyofmarketing.org/entrepreneurial-

small-business-marketing-sig/sig-event (accessed 4 Novem-

ber 2015).

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228 R. Bocconcelli et al.

investigating the marketing–entrepreneurship in-

terface (Bjerke and Hultman 2002; Fayolle 2007;

Sethna et al. 2013). Moreover, specific patterns and

approaches implemented by SMEs with regard to

marketing activities have been recognized in various

empirical studies (Fuller 1994; Gilmore et al. 2001;

Hogarth-Scott et al. 1996; O’Dwyer et al. 2009).

During recent decades, several phenomena, such as

globalization, increasing competition and the finan-

cial crisis, caused important market changes, which

in turn affected SMEs’ behaviour and ability to com-

pete. Within this scenario, there is, to our knowledge,

a lack of systematic reviews providing an in-depth

understanding of how SMEs relate to their markets.

Some contributions have reviewed existing literature

focusing on specific marketing topics, such as market

orientation (MO) (Golann 2006), the role of network-

ing in competition between SMEs (O’Donnell 2014)

and the role of marketing in the internationalization

process of SMEs (Papadopoulos and Mart´

ın Mart´

ın

2011; Styles and Seymour 2006). Others havefocused

on how SMEs relate to their markets,offering concep-

tual developments mainly within the entrepreneurial

marketing field (Gilmore 2011; Gilmore et al. 2013;

Hills and Hultman 2011; Kraus et al. 2012; Miles

et al. 2015). Moreover, few papers have presented a

critical analysis of the background literature on SME

marketing (O’Donnell 2011). Therefore, understand-

ing of how the concept of marketing is seen and put

into practice in SMEs is still sketchy, remaining an

issue of interest among academics and practitioners

(Blackburn and Kovalainen 2009; Reijonen 2010).

To fill this gap, a systematic review of marketing and

SMEs is needed, regardless of specific approaches

and marketing topics. Hence, we conducted a detailed

examination of the role, organization and manage-

ment of marketing in SMEs, through the adoption of a

general framework widely recognized in the market-

ing literature, which encompasses both strategic and

operational marketing processes and the specificities

of SMEs’ market approach. This provides useful

insights into emerging marketing behaviour and prac-

tices among SMEs that could successfully meet the

challenges of the current complex market scenario.

To this end, 310 articles published between 2006

and 2015 in 69 main journals devoted to the small

firms/entrepreneurship and marketing/management

fields, have been analysed.

The paper is divided into seven sections. The

second section presents the boundaries of the study,

highlighting some core concepts about marketing

and SMEs. The third section focuses on the research

objectives and the literature review methodology,

outlining the journal selection criteria and the main

steps adopted in the examination of article contents.

The fourth section develops the analysis of selected

articles, which are grouped around the marketing

concept (i.e. small firm MO) and the main mar-

keting processes: marketing information, strategic

marketing, and operational marketing. The fifth

section discusses the results of the literature review,

highlighting research achievements and emerging

topics. The sixth section suggests directions for future

research, while the final section highlights limitations

of the study and provides concluding remarks.

SMEs and marketing: the context

of analysis

There is no standard universal definition of what

constitutes an SME. According to the European

Commission (2003), SMEs are those firms with fewer

than 250 employees and have an annual turnover not

exceeding €50 million or an annual balance sheet not

exceeding €43 million. In countries of the East and

Far East, four criteria havebeen generally used to de-

fine an SME: number of employees, annual turnover,

assets and capital. In these countries, however,

sector-specific criteria are additionally used, leading

to different definitions of SMEs among APEC mem-

bers (APEC 2010). In the USA, the Small Business

Administration provides some ‘size standards’ in

terms of number of employees and annual turnover.

On average, companies that have fewer than 500

employees are considered to be SMEs, but big differ-

ences in terms of turnover and number of employees

are found among different industries (US SBA 2010).

Therefore, industry is the criterion that distinguishes

European SMEs from Asian and North American

ones.

Despite these differences, it is agreed in the

worldwide business literature that SMEs show some

common qualitative features, such as limited finan-

cial, human, material and informational resources

(Rogers 1990; Shrader et al. 1989; Welsh and White

1981). Under these constraints, they tend to be more

creative, innovative and flexible than larger ones

(Evans and Moutinho 1999). Moreover, they are

evolutionary, face continuous uncertainty, do not

plan formally (Bennett 1993) and have a highly

personalized management style (Stokes and Fitchew

1997).

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