Supply chain issues in small and medium retailing: a systematic review and future research agenda

Abstract

The research on small and medium (SME) retailing has several dimensions, among which the supply chain issues have gained significant attention. The objectives of this review are: 1) to identify the major and emerging supply chain issues in SME retailing using keyword co-occurrences; 2) to find the commonly used modelling approaches in different SME retail sectors; 3) to propose a framework to map the future research avenues. The co-word analysis resulted in the identification of four major ongoing research themes, namely 'consumer behaviour', 'supply chain', 'customer value', and 'food retailing', while 'service quality' is identified as an emerging theme. Among the major research themes, 'food retailing' has received recent attention, especially among the developing countries. Regression, factor analysis, structural equation modelling and descriptive statistics are the most commonly used modelling approaches. Practitioners and decision-makers could use the supply chain issues identified to develop further strategies for improving SME retailers' performance.