First, a research plan was developed comprising the research questions of interest, the
keywords, and a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The paper’s aim was to determine the current status of research in knowledge management in SMEs. The research questions
formulated, as outlined above, were:
B Which KM topics are well researched and which are not?
B Which were the main findings of the studies?
B Which methods were used?
With regard to the specific challenges SMEs face as a consequence of their resource
limitations, an additional question was posed:
B How does the research handle the particular challenges small firms are facing regarding
knowledge management?
As keywords it was decided to use KM and SMEs. To help answer the research questions
inclusion and exclusion criteria were specified. The inclusion criteria were: publications in
the period 2001-2011, empirical research papers, peer reviewed, English language, SME
focus, focus on KM in general and the KM processes as depicted in Figure 1, and ProQuest
database. Papers published prior 2001, papers dealing with co-operation and (regional)
clusters, grey literature such as reports and non-academic research, other languages than
English, and other databases than ProQuest represented exclusion criteria. Additionally, an
excel data sheet was produced consisting of key aspects related to the research aim. In the
given case these were: name of author(s), year of publication, research aim/objectives,
theoretical perspective/framework, method, main findings, and name of the journal.