A Bibliometric Analysis of MSMEs and Marketing: Mapping Research Trends, Thematic Structures and Emerging Directions

digital marketing, e-commerce, marketing strategy, micro-enterprises, MSMEs, social media marketing

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have become very essential in the economic growth in terms of job creation, innovation and inclusive growth. As digital technologies continue to spread, marketing activities in MSMEs have changed dramatically and there has been a rise in academic interest in this field. The paper provides a bibliometric analysis of the MSME marketing research to investigate the development of the research field, topical changes, and new tendencies. The Scopus database was searched through a structured search strategy and screened through the PRISMA 2020 framework to extract data, narrowing the dataset to 728 documents. Co-occurrence analysis, thematic mapping, treemap analysis, and additional bibliometric analyses were conducted using tools such as VOSviewer and Biblioshiny. The results suggest that there has been a significant rise in research publications especially since 2015, as reflected in the themes of digital marketing, innovation and business performance. Four thematic clusters were identified: digital marketing practices, MSME performance and innovation, industrial development, and socioeconomic contributions. The findings also highlight the growing importance of sustainability and technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence and big data, in MSME marketing research. Despite the expanding body of literature, a clear disconnect remains between traditional and digital marketing perspectives. The study is valuable since it offers a thorough analysis of the literature, identifies research gaps, suggests areas for future study and policy development.