Guidelines for writing a literature review applied to the topic of Knowledge Management in SMEs. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on knowledge management (KM) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and SME networks. The main objective is to highlight the state-of-the-art of KM from the management point of view in order to identify relevant research gaps. The review highlights that in recent years the trend of papers on the topic is growing and involves a variety of approaches, methodologies and models from different research areas. The vast majority of papers analysed focus on the topic of KM in the SME while there are only few papers analysing KM in networks populated by SMEs. The content analysis of the papers highlights six areas of investigation from which were derived ten research questions concerning three perspectives: the factors affecting KM; the impact of KM on firm’s performance; the knowledge management systems. to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177. to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12

1. 1
A literature review on
knowledge management in SMEs
Roberto Cerchione*, Emilio Esposito**, Maria Rosaria Spadaro***
Department of Industrial Engineering - University of Naples Federico II
P.le Tecchio, 80 - 80125 Naples - Italy
* roberto.cerchione@unina.it, ** emilio.esposito@unina.it,
*** mariarosaria.spadaro@unina.it
to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature
review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management
Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177.
to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12

2. 2
Agenda
Background
Literature review:
• Sampling
• Classification
• Analysis
• Gap recognition
• Formulation of the research questions
2

3.  A vast literature underlines that in modern industrial environment
SME are playing a crucial role for large companies competitiveness
 There is an abdundance of studies describing how large companies
are successfully practising KM but the reasons why small firms show
both poor usage of KM systems and why the benefits of the
adoption of KMS have not been fully exploited by small and medium
sized enterprises are still unclear
Nevertheless
 The reality is constantly changing and the ICTs are cutting
human and financial barriers connecting KMSs adoption in SMEs
by offering new tools that are:
Low cost
Ease to use
More effective
3
Background (I)

4. There is a strong need for more research on this
important topic
Background (II)

5. Recent reviews of the literature stress some evidence concerning the phases
of Knowledge management process (Durst and Edvardsson, 2002).
They highlight that:
•The areas of KM implementation, perception and transfer are well researched
•The areas of knowledge identification, storage and utilisation are rather poor
Our literature review aims to explore the factors affecting (enablers and
barriers), the used systems (practices and tools), and the impact of KM on
firm’s performance
The Research aim
By a review research on KM in SMEs:
To identify gaps in the literature
Future research tracks

6. 6
We can identify the three following main steps to get a
systematic study of existing publications adapting Kolbe
and Burnett,1991, approach:
1. sampling
2. classification
3. analysis
The literature review

7. 7
Sampling
• The sampling phase is aimed at identifying all relevant papers that
cover the topic of knowledge management in small and medium
firms
• The search was conducted using the combination of the following
keywords: “knowledge management”, “SMEs”, “small business”,
“small firms”, “small enterprises”.
• Journal articles, which appeared in the period from 2003 to 2013,
were collected. These articles were sourced from Scopus database
database and ISI WEB of KNOWLEDGE
Yielded documents: 269 journal articles
Selection criteria: titles, keywords, and abstracts
70 journal articles

8. Journal title Number
Journal of Knowledge Management 8
African Journal of Business Management 5
International Small Business Journal 4
Knowledge management Research & Practice 4
Human Factors and Ergonomics In Manufacturing 3
Business Information Review 2
Industrial Management & Data Systems 2
International Journal of Information Management 2
International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development 2
International Journal of Technology Management 2
Acta Polytechnica Hungarica 1
Actual Problems of Economics 1
Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering 1
Asian Social Science 1
Contemporary Economics 1
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 1
Decision Support Systems 1
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 1
European Journal of Information Systems 1
Expert Systems with Applications 1
Information Systems Management 1
Information Technology and Management 1
Information Technology and People 1
Innovation Management Policy & Practice 1
International Journal Management and Enterprise Development 1
International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology 1
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 1
International Journal of Human Resource Management 1
International Journal of Production Research 1
Journal of Applied Sciences 1
Journal of Documentation 1
Journal of Engineering Design 1
Journal of Information & Knowledge Mangement 1
Journal of Information Science 1
Journal of Management & Governance 1
Journal of software: evolution and process 1
Management Decision 1
Management Research News 1
Measuring Business Excellence 1
Prometheus 1
Small Business Economics 1
Research Policy 1
Structural Survey 1
the journal of information and knowledge management systems 1
Total Quality Management and Business Excellence 1
VINE 1
Total 70
Journal ranking

9. 9
Classification
Research areas
Multidisciplinary Engineering
Information
System
Computer
Science
Operation Research
and
Management Science
10 7 7 46

10. 10
Classification (I)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Numbersofarticles

11. Classification (II) by country of author’s
affiliation

12. Analysis (I): Methodologies
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
survey case study theoretical work others
Numberofarticles
Methodologies

13. 13
Unit of investigation: The SME
GAP: How knowledge transfers between small
supplying firms (SMEs sub-group) members has
not fully exploited (making reference to channels
or component)
SME
SMEs’ network

14. 14
Classification by object areas
object areas
Factors
affecting
KM in
SMEs
KM and firm
performance
KM SYSTEMS
47% (33) 17% (12) 36% (25)

15. 15
Subject area (I): Factors affecting KM in
SMEs
Factors affecting KM
in SMEs (33papers)
Internal
factors
(23 papers)
Managerial
influence
Resource
influence
Culture
Technical
infrastructure
Contingency
factors
(6 papers)
Barriers
(4 papers)

16. Internal factors
Authors
Managerial influence Human resource Culture Technical infrastructure
Leadership Measurement Organizational aspects Training Motivation Trust, collaboration Information
technology
Wong (2005)       
Wong and Aspinwall
(2005)
      
Tan and Hung. (2006)       
Deng (2008)     
Migdadi (2008)       
Pillania (2008) 
Cantù et al (2009) 
Gholipour et al. (2010)   
Jones et al. (2010)   
Valmohammadi (2010)       
Hussain et al. (2011)    
Lee and Lan (2011)   
Boden et al. (2012) 
Tseng et al. (2012)   
De Saá-Pérez(2012) 
Chen et al. (2012)    
Chen et al. (2013)    
Patalas-Maliszewska
and Hochmeister
(2011)
  
Costa and Jimenez
(2009)

Bocquet and Mothe
(2010)

Montequin et al (2006)     
Eze, (2013)    
Wee (2013   
16

17. 17
Subject area (I): some evidence
• The first well researched area concerns internal factors
for KM
• Very little attention has given to the barriers (5%)
connecting to KMSs implementation which seem to
belong more to cultural area rather than technological
one
GAP: there is a lack of a detailed analysis on the
barriers preventing the adoption of KM approach

18. Subject area(II): KM in SMEs and firm
performance
Organization oriented
performance analysis
(12 papers)
Human performance
(creativity, staff performance,
increasing employees
number)
Financial performance
(profit, sales growth, return
to investment)
Technical performance
(innovation, product quality,
productivity, efficiency)
Market performance
(market share increase,
service quality, market
flexibility, reputation,
customer satisfaction)
Managerial performance

19. Papers dealing with the impact of knowledge
management on performance by author/s
Financial
performance
Market
performance
Technical
performance
Human
performance
Managerial
performance
Total
Alegre et al.
(2011)

1
Bagnoli and
Vedovato (2012)
 
2
Daud and Yusoff
(2011)
   
4
Delen et al.
(2013)
  
3
Egbu et al.(2005)
   
4
Filippini et al.
(2012)

1
Gholami et al.
(2013)
    
5
Liu and Abdalla
(2013)
    
5
Salojärvi et al.
(2004)

1
Soon and Zaino
(2011)
   
4
Talebi and
Tajeddin (2011)
 
2
Wei et al.
(2011)
    
5
Total 8 7 11 6 5
19

20. Subject area (II): some evidence
The articles belonging to the second cluster deal with the improvement
for SMEs in terms of components of firm performance thanks to KM
adoption
Gap: Further empirical evidence could strengthen
this analysis and confirm that the impact of
KM on firms’ performance is extremely wide
affecting several performance indicators
simultaneously

21. Subject area(III): KM systems in SMEs
KM SYSTEMS
KM practices (17 papers):
communities of practice, job rotation,
coaching, mentoring, storytelling,
status meeting
KM tools (8 papers): blogs,
information portals, wikis

22. Subject area (III): some evidence
• KMSs are based mostly on human oriented practices
rather than on KM tools, it is in accordance with
Durst’recognition concerning knowledge identification
lack in literature
• The used KM tools are simple and old while more
sophisticated technoligies are rarely used
GAP: There is a clear need for a deeper analysis of the
KMSs used by SMEs.

23. Rising GAPS
Object
area
Gaps
Internal
factor
Contingency
factor
Barriers KM
and firm
performance
Km
practices
Km
tools
GAPs
SMEs 1
GAP GAP GAP
GAPs
Network
SMEs 2
GAP GAP GAP GAP GAP GAP

24. Research questions
The above literature analysis allows us to
formulate the following 9 research questions:
• RQ1: What are the main KMSs adopted by
SMEs?
• RQ2: What are the major barriers hindering the
adoption of KMSs in these firms?
• RQ3: What is the impact of knowledge
management on firm performance?
• RQ4: What are the triggers, barriers, practices,
tools and the impact of KM on firm’s
performance according to SMEs’network
viewpoint?

25. Research design
Literature review
Gaps recognition
RQs
Methodologies
Empirical study
Finding
25

26. Roberto Cerchione
University of Naples, Federico II
30- 10th Doctoral Workshop on Purchasing and Supply Management, Bologna 15 October 2014
Roberto Cerchione
ROBERTO CERCHIONE
University of Naples Federico II
E-mail: roberto.cerchione@unina.it

27. 27
to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A
literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016)
Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177.
to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12
A literature review on
knowledge management in SMEs