Systematic Mapping Study in Small Business: The Quest for Contemporary Understanding

摘要

A unified theory of small businesses has been widely proposed. Nevertheless there are very few studies about the main concerns in small business literature. Thus, a systematic mapping study of the available literature was conducted. The main purpose of this article is the classification and thematic analysis of the most relevant articles on small business research. Using the Web of Science? database, over 500 articles were selected with the string “small business” and its plural on the title. The articles were published from 2005 to 2013 and received over 10 citations. Titles and abstracts were analyzed in order to provide a view of the major themes and tendencies of the literature on small business. One major thematic area was established, “organizational environment”, which has grown in the last decade. On the other hand, classic themes such as “specificity”, “creation, failure and success”, “owner”, and “strategy” have declined considerably since the eighties, to be replaced by growing areas such as “management” and “new processes”. “Public policy”, “financing” and “functional areas” have remained fairly popular. Systematic mapping studies can provide an overview of the major contemporary themes and concerns regarding small business theory. Besides the academic contribution, understanding the major concerns will also have an impact on public policy, highlighting specific needs and priority projects. Additional studies should be performed, using more strings, such as “small firm(s)” or “small enterprise(s)”, and other relevant databases to determine possible gaps in the existing research.