Risk management in SMEs: A systematic literature review and future directions

Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are considered as the backbone of European economics and growth; however, their peculiar features and the limited resources drive them to adopt different tools and methods when compared to large companies. In particular, the approach adopted in SMEs for Risk Management (RM) seems not to be specifically studied and understood. To this extent, the aim of the paper is to outline the development and the state of the art of RM in SMEs, grasping new future research opportunities in this field. By conducting a systematic literature review with bibliometric tools, 61 papers published until the end of 2016 have been selected and analysed. They demonstrate that some RM streams, such as financial RM and Enterprise RM, are among the most studied in the literature. However, a holistic approach is still not diffused nor sufficiently developed in SMEs, even if the types of identified risks are increasing. There are new emerging RM streams. In particular, the relevance of Project RM, Strategic RM, and Supply Chain RM has been increasing, and it pushes researchers and practitioners to deepen the knowledge of the tools and practices that characterise them. New theoretical and practical studies on RM in SMEs will support them in protecting their business and leveraging their business value, taking advantage of the management of different types of risks.