3. Methodology of literature review
In our review process, we adopted the principles of a systematic review as recommended by Jesson, Matherson
and Lacy (2011). First, we developed a research plan comprising the research questions we were interested in
answering, the keywords, and a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. We wanted to focus on the current status of
research into KM benefits in SMEs in order to identify promising areas for future study. The questions formulated
are presented in the introduction section.
To help answer our research questions, we specified a priori inclusion and exclusion criteria. Our inclusion criteria
were: empirical research papers, peer reviewed, English language, SME focus, emphasis on KM benefits/outcomes,
and ProQuest database. We excluded papers dealing with regional clusters, grey literature such as reports and non-
academic research, other languages than English, and other databases than ProQuest. Additionally, we produced an
Excel data sheet consisting of key aspects related to our research aim. In our case these were: name of author(s),
year of publication, research aim/objectives, theoretical perspective/framework, method, main findings, and journal
title. Once we had specified all the relevant issues, each of us accessed ProQuest and searched for materials, using
the keywords set. We used the keywords knowledge benefits/outcome and SMEs which resulted in 409 hits
Next,each of us scanned the articles' titles,abstracts and,if relevant,more parts,beginning
with the conclusion
section, to make sure that they actually fell within our scope of interest. Nine papers fulfilled the criteria set and thus
formed the basis of our analysis. In the next stage we discussed the findings which helped us to clarify what we
know about knowledge creation in SMEs and what we should know. The final stage of our review process
comprised the writing up of our findings.