Key Learning Themes In the Small-Business Literature

Abstract

This article presents a review of the literature on learning in small businesses. The sources for the review are two major databases on management research: Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and ABI/INFORM (ABI). In all, about 500 abstracts published between 1973 and 2002 have been classified. The review shows that research still is built on primary empirical research and that there are no obvious core groups of researchers publishing in the field. Our review does, however, identify a general trend pointing towards an increasing interest in research on learning in small businesses. Further, it is shown that key learning themes discussed during the last 30 years related to small businesses are: education and training (of both management and employees), strategic planning and IT/Software support. During the last decade, the interest in inter-organizational learning (networks and clusters) has increased dramatically.The review indicates that research on small businesses and learning is multidisciplinary and in an early stage of its growth. An in exten so analysis, of all articles in the five most prominent journals found in the review, shows few signs of coherent bodies of knowledge on which the literature draws. Many of the articles (37%) give no accounts of explicit theory. This is the case particularly in the early publications. The review does not reveal any “original” theory generated by the small-business research community. Instead theories are extracted from other academic disciplines, mainly from the field of economics but also from other social sciences such as sociology and psychology and from engineering. The review shows that empirical studies of learning in small businesses are rare. This means that our understanding of learning processes in this kind of organisations is limited. Research is necessary to increase our knowledge of learning in different levels but also from different perspectives in small firms.The “small-firm effect” on learning needs to be further explored.