Why do similar technological investments generate heterogeneous performance outcomes across Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs)? Although research on MSME technology adoption has expanded significantly, theoretical perspectives have largely evolved in isolation, limiting cumulative integration. This study addresses this fragmentation through a cluster-based bibliometric review of 377 peer-reviewed articles published between 1982 and 2024. Combining Co-occurrence Network Analysis (VOS mapping) and Normalized Local Citation Scores (NLCS), we identify five interrelated thematic clusters. Findings indicate that MSME technology adoption is best conceptualized as a capability-mediated and context-contingent orchestration process rather than a linear technology–performance relationship, providing a foundation for configurational and multi-level explanations of performance heterogeneity.
Over the past twenty years, numerous local governments in various countries have set up accelerators and incubators to fund start-ups and help transform their local economies. However, there is limited evidence regarding the impact of these programmes on the availability and supply of seed and early-stage venture capital in their regions. This study examines the effects of business accelerators on total venture funding in UK Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) from 1998 to 2016. Multiple methods were employed to address concerns about reverse causality. The findings suggest that accelerators have a minimal to negligible impact on regional venture investment, particularly in large areas such as LEPs. Additionally, the results support the notion that regional characteristics moderate the relationship between venture capital and accelerator establishments.
This study examines whether access to next-generation telecommunications infrastructure, such as 5G, can mitigate the adverse effects of depopulation on the performance of SMEs located in rural areas. The adoption of digital technologies associated with Industry 4.0, including big data analytics, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, enables firms to optimize processes, enhance competitiveness, and ultimately improve profitability. However, depopulation may hinder digital transformation by limiting access to adequate telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas. In this context, the study offers a new perspective on how environmental conditions and local resources shape economic activity. Using quantitative analysis, the findings show that advanced connectivity is not merely a technical improvement but a critical factor capable of offsetting the adverse effects of depopulation on business performance. These results provide important insights into the resilience of rural SMEs and offer a strategic basis for the design of development policies in depopulated areas.
This issue of Small Business International Review wishes to devote a few words of recognition, gratitude, and affection to Carlos Martínez-Abarca Pastor, a person closely linked to the history of this journal and to the editorial project that made it possible. Carlos’s relationship with this project began long before the launch of SBIR. Since 2008, he has been linked to FAEDPYME, where he worked as a project officer and contributed, steadily and discreetly, to the development of many of the Foundation’s initiatives. Among them was the creation, in 2012, of FAEDPYME International Review, conceived as an international academic forum for research on small and medium-sized enterprises. From those first steps, Carlos was present as the journal’s managing editor. During that initial stage, until 2016, his work was essential in sustaining and developing an editorial initiative that would later enter a new phase. When, in 2017, the journal became Small Business International Review, Carlos continued to carry out that role from the very foundation of SBIR. His presence has therefore accompanied not only the birth of this journal, but also the transition between two stages of the same editorial journey. Throughout all these years, Carlos has carried out work that was often quiet and not always visible to readers and authors, but essential for the journal’s progress, consolidation, and growth. Behind every published issue, every editorial process, every technical adjustment, every communication, and every final detail, there has been his serious, constant, and generous work. Those of us who have shared this project with him know well that his contribution has gone far beyond the duties formally associated with his position. Carlos has always taken on more tasks and responsibilities than could reasonably be expected of him, not out of obligation, but out of personal commitment, a deep sense of responsibility, and a profound dedication to the journal. His way of working helped resolve many difficulties, gave continuity to editorial processes, and enabled SBIR to build, step by step, an increasingly solid, professional, and recognizable structure. In a scientific journal, the most visible names are usually those of authors, reviewers, and editors. Yet there are people whose contribution is decisive precisely because they make everything else possible. Carlos is one of those people. His role as managing editor has sustained the journal’s day-to-day work, cared for its processes, attended to its details, and maintained the continuity of a project that, without such constant work, would hardly have reached the level of maturity it has today. This collective effort, to which Carlos has contributed decisively, has enabled SBIR to achieve especially important national and international recognitions in recent years: the granting and renewal of the FECYT Quality Seal for Spanish scientific journals, inclusion in Scopus, with a Q2 classification in one of its subject areas, and inclusion in the Academic Journal Guide, with a 1 rating. These milestones are the result of the work of many people — editors, the editorial team, the scientific committee, reviewers, and authors — but it would be unfair not to acknowledge that Carlos’s work has been an essential part of the editorial infrastructure that made them possible. For us, who have worked with him for so many years, Carlos has not only been a key figure in the journal’s editorial management. He has been, and remains, a close colleague: reliable, discreet, and generous; someone with whom we have shared concerns, urgent matters, difficult decisions, and also many satisfactions. His name forms part of SBIR’s history, of the previous stage that made its birth possible, and, more broadly, of the FAEDPYME trajectory from which this editorial project emerged. Current circumstances prevent him from continuing to lead the day-to-day tasks he has carried out for so many years. Precisely for that reason, this letter is, above all, a gesture of gratitude and recognition: for his work, his commitment, his patience, his availability, and the way in which he has always cared for the journal. It is also an expression of gratitude for the privilege of having known him and of having shared with him such an important part of this journey. As a lasting expression of this recognition, the SBIR Editorial Board has agreed to appoint Carlos Martínez-Abarca Pastor as a member of the journal’s Honorary Committee. Through this gesture, we wish to state that his contribution forms part of SBIR’s editorial identity and of the living history of this project. His name will remain linked to a journal that he has helped build from its origins and to which he has devoted so many years of work, commitment, and affection. SBIR cannot be understood without Carlos Martínez-Abarca Pastor. His work is present in the journal’s evolution, in its way of working, and in the gratitude of all of us who have had the good fortune to walk alongside him. Carlos, thank you for your work, your generosity, your loyalty, and everything you have given to this journal from its very beginnings. This issue is also intended as a token of our recognition and affection. Gregorio Sánchez Marín Julio Diéguez Soto Co-Editors-in-Chief of Small Business International Review
This study examines the career choices of potential next-generation family business successors (NEXTs) and their willingness to continue family businesses, with a focus on Finnish firms. It adopts a qualitative multiple-case study design and a phenomenographic approach. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and two focus group interviews and analyzed using thematic coding. The study builds on Sharma and Irving’s (2005) model of successor commitment—comprising affective, normative, and continuance dimensions—while incorporating the adoption of entrepreneurial behavior. The findings indicate that, alongside family expectations and NEXTs’ identity and psychological ownership, attitudes toward entrepreneurship and enacted entrepreneurial behavior also shape career choices. This study contributes by identifying key factors influencing NEXTs’ decisions and offers insights for incumbents, successors, and succession practitioners. The findings also have practical implications for succession planning and for the design of entrepreneurship education and training programs tailored to the next generation.
