Abstract
The internationalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is a topic of constant research interest due to the impact these have on economic growth and employment in developed, emerging and developing countries. A desire to understand and a growing interest in the study of the internationalization process of SMEs has provoked a significant increase in the production of manuscripts in this field in the last decade. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out periodic reviews on the state-of-the-art of this phenomenon in order to highlight advances and limitations, to motivate reflections and stimulate progress in future research. Thus, the main objective of this study is to describe the state-of-the-art of the research into SME Internationalization based on a bibliometric analysis of 1152 manuscripts published from 1990 to 2018. The results enable the identification of the main agents that are constantly developing this field through an analysis of scientific production and collaboration indicators. Furthermore, through a co-word analysis, this research establishes hot-spot research trends that need to be developed in future research. The main contribution of this research is the configuration of a knowledge map on SME Internationalization research.
Highlights
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are thought to be the cornerstone of the economy of most countries
The core focus of this manuscript is to show constituted a total of 1152 articles by 1921 authors affiliated with institutions in 78 countries and information regarding scientific production, collaboration networks and, in particular, a keywords published in 378 journals, citing 11,022 references
The principal contribution of this manuscript is the use of bibliometrics for the study of this field
Summary
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are thought to be the cornerstone of the economy of most countries. SMEs are considered to be the engine of economic growth [2,3,4,5] due their large number. They account for a relevant share of employment [3]. With regard to job creation, SMEs account for two-thirds of total employment in both developing and developed countries. They contribute to the GDP at around 35 percent and 50 percent in developing and developed countries, respectively
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