Title: Bibliometric analysis of social media research in SMEs: a review and way forward

Authors: Nordin Norfarah; A.K. Siti-Nabiha; Seyedh Mahboobeh Jamali; Nader Ale Ebrahim

Addresses: Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia ' Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia ' Eshragh Institute, Ministry of Education District 7, Tehran, Iran ' Center for Research Services, Institute of Research Management and Monitoring (IPPP), University of Malaya, Malaysia

Abstract: This paper seeks to determine the trend of social media research in the context of small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and present the future research direction in this area. The documents were collected through a keywords title search from the Scopus database. The relevant documents are analysed using bibliometrics analysis, and qualitative systematic review to understand their structure in terms of theme, method, and theory used. This research found 141 documents from the Scopus database on SMEs' social media from 2011 to 2021. The systematic review of 20 top-cited per year (TCpY) papers are classified into three themes; SMEs' social media adoption, social media for SMEs' strategy, and innovation powered by social media in SMEs. The most popular theory used is the diffusion of innovation. Based on critical analysis, major gaps and future research are presented and discussed.

Keywords: social media; SMEs; bibliometric; a systematic review.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2024.139620

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2024 Vol.52 No.4, pp.450 - 472

Received: 24 Sep 2021
Accepted: 06 Apr 2022

Published online: 05 Jul 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article