Exploring Research Methodologies in Crisis Management Research of Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs’): A Systematic Literature Review

A methodological review attempts to critically analyze and discover the research procedures employed in studies that have already been conducted aiming to understand both effective and ineffective approaches.This study conducted a systematic review of forty empirical studies on SME crisis management to evaluate the methodologies used to identify the most commonly used research methodologies, significant characteristics of each research design, its related facets, and future research approaches. Articles were systematically selected from reputed online data bases considering the journal ranking and the citations.The findings may fill a gap in the SME crisis management literature caused by a lack of empirical evidence for methodological review synthesis. It was discovered that quantitative studies dominated the SME crisis management literature. In contrast,qualitative research studies, which are required to gain a more in-depth understanding of the subject, receive less attention and even reflect variations in the application of various qualitative approaches.Even in quantitative studies, it is prominent to find a tendency toward reduced usage of advanced statistical tools, insufficient sample size, and longitudinal data utilization. Findings directed future research requirements for more in-depth studies on crisis phenomena in the SME environment.