Financial literacy in SMES: a bibliometric analysis of an emerging topic

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to review the existing literature on financial literacy (FL) in SMEs in general, and particularly in family SMEs, and describe the current state of publications in this area through the use of bibliometric techniques. The review of 88 documents, in the period between 2005 and 2020, will identify the agents involved (countries, organizations, journals, authors, publications) that have the greatest influence on the development of this research topic. In turn, the content analysis through the co-occurrence of the author's keywords will detect the driving themes. In the first analysis carried out, it is evident the positive impact that FL has on the performance and access to financing of the SMEs. Other lines of growing interest and still little developed are the effect of FL on firm capital structure and innovation. The main contribution of this research is to provide coverage to the existing gap in FL in SMEs bibliometric analysis, helping scholars to locate the existing gaps in this research topic.