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Visualisation of global research Digital

marketing in
trends and future research SMEs

directions of digital marketing in

small and medium enterprises 621
using bibliometric analysis Received 18 April 2022
Revised 8 August 2022
1 November 2022
Amiri Mdoe Amiri Accepted 20 December 2022
University School of Business, Chandigarh University, Mohali, India
Bijay Prasad Kushwaha
VIT Business School, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India, and
Rajkumar Singh
School of Management, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to undertake a bibliometric analysis of digital marketing research in
small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study examines papers over the last two decades and performed
performance analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling and scientific mapping.
Design/methodology/approach – The study examines 247 documents retrieved from the Scopus database
using bibliometric analysis, performance analysis and thematic clustering. The study looked at the scientific
productivity of papers, prolific authors, most influencing papers, institutions and nations, keyword co-
occurrence, thematic mapping, co-citations and authorship and country collaborations. VOSviewer was
employed as a tool in the research to conduct the performance analysis and thematic clustering.
Findings – The most productive year was 2021 with 56 publications and the most impactful institute
and countries are the University of Birmingham, UK, and the country is United Kingdom, respectively.
Similarly, the most influential journal is “Industrial Marketing Management”, and the most productive
journal is “International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising”. Furthermore, the most cited
article is “Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of
small and medium B2B brands”. The authors also identified five thematic clusters of digital marketing
research in SMEs.
Research limitations/implications – It informs and directs researchers on the current state of study in the
field of digital marketing literature in SMEs. It also outlines future research directions in this field.
Originality/value – This is the first study which provides the performance analysis and scientific mapping of
the digital marketing literature in SMEs.
Keywords Digital marketing, Small and medium enterprises, Bibliometric analysis, Co-citation analysis,
Bibliographic coupling
Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction
Today, web technology and industry 4.0 development have provided new avenues for
enterprises to research, inform and enhance customer engagement, offering and selling
products and services and shall remain on the top in the future business (Malesev and Cherry,
2021; Kraus et al., 2019; Civelek et al., 2020). Most people’s lifestyles have been transformed by
digital technology. Today, people spend much of their leisure time on social media and mobile
Journal of Small Business and
phone apps. Therefore, managers are also very proactive in understanding digital consumer Enterprise Development
behaviour, offering them better products and services and maintaining customer Vol. 30 No. 3, 2023
pp. 621-641
relationships through digital platforms (Kushwaha et al., 2015; Suharto et al., 2022; Ali © Emerald Publishing Limited
1462-6004
Abbasi et al., 2022). The digital marketing evolution has improved small and medium DOI 10.1108/JSBED-04-2022-0206
JSBED enterprises (SMEs) capacity to interact with users, inform them and finally sell products to
30,3 them (Malik et al., 2020; Setkute and Dibb, 2022).
A growing number of scholars are investigating the fast development in digitalisation,
social media, Internet marketing and app-based marketing, as well as the technological
advancements that have resulted from this transformation in both small, medium and large-
scale enterprises (Lepkowska-White et al., 2019; Malik et al., 2020). Digital marketing has
evolved beyond the promotion of specific products to the promotion of events, organisations
622 and operations enabled by digital technology (Giantari et al., 2022; Elia et al., 2021; Kaur and
Kushwaha, 2021; Setiaboedi et al., 2017). Further, Internet advertising is a dynamic,
technology-enabled approach in which small businesses collaborate with clients and partners
to achieve the best possible results and transmit, provide and sustainable value across all
people concerned in small business marketing operations (Peter and Dalla Vecchia, 2021;
Adam et al., 2020). In marketing communication, digital technology enables new adaptive
processes for SMEs. Processes generate wealth through novel Consumer engagements and
experience in the latest technological environments, whilst SMEs develop basic capabilities
to produce similar exceptionally helpful for both users and small businesses (Thukral and
Ratten, 2021; Yizhang et al., 2009; Ruiz-Alba et al., 2021).
Social media, which has been around for more than a decade, now incorporates newel
communication capabilities and information management, such as mobile networking,
blogging and image and video sharing, to provide to SMEs’ diverse interests (Ali Abbasi
et al., 2022; Lepkowska-White et al., 2019; Dapko et al., 2021). Social media has evolved from
a niche tool for the selected audience and has become a vital part of millions of people’s daily
lives throughout the world. Following in the footsteps of social networking sites, digital
technology-driven advertising, including artificial intelligence (AI) services, multi-channel
systems, virtual reality and augmented worlds, seems to be creating the e-marketing
terrain, pointing to emerging research directions in SMEs (Munir et al., 2021; Lashgari
et al., 2018).
According to the World Bank, SMEs are an important pillar of any developing economy
SMEs play an important role in entrepreneurship and job creation as well as it also accounts
for a huge amount of business SMEs contribute 90% of business and more than 50% of gross
domestic production (GDP) in an emerging economy (Thaha et al., 2021). Formal small firms
in developing nations provide nearly 40% of the GDP in emerging economies. If SMEs are
informal, this figure might be greater SMEs are becoming a study topic and a continued focus
for several countries due to their enormous economic effect and the percentage of residents
they engage SMEs may preserve the market advantage of the current product(s) as Quaye
and Mensah (2019) discovered by utilising specialised marketing resources and competencies
at the same time. The fast growth of ICT in the Internet age influences many aspects of life,
especially changing customer buying behaviour. To properly target relevant customers,
businesses must understand using digital marketing. Digital marketing is described as “ . . .
reaching marketing objectives via the use of digital technology” (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick,
2019). Internet advertising with the usage of technologies in promotion initiatives and
economic operations to market products via the web, apps, display adverts and other
e-communication (Eze et al., 2019, 2021). Data-driven marketing uncovers a multitude of
techniques for approaching, attracting, resuscitating, delighting and driving customers
through online advertising. Though, digital marketing has lots of potential for small
enterprises however they are unable to fully utilise this platform for marketing activities
(Dam et al., 2019; Kennedy, 2015).
The attractiveness of digital marketing in business has created curiosity in researchers.
Researchers have also contributed to this area very much by studying different dimensions
of digital marketing research. The studies are concentrated on both large and small
enterprises however studies on SMEs are less. According to the Scopus database, the first
study on digital marketing research in SMEs was conducted in 1997. Digital marketing has Digital
changed several shapes from birth to the present day. Therefore, there is a need to study marketing in
research development in the area of digital marketing research in SMEs because a study on
bibliographies of digital marketing publications is available however, studies concentrated
SMEs
on SMEs are not present. The study shall provide an understanding of the research
development in digital marketing research in SMEs and allows scholars to conduct a study
on the missing elements of digital marketing research in SMEs. The understanding of
research progression in this area shall motivate and create interest in the mind of emerging 623
scholars to investigate and uncover hidden facts. Furthermore, the scholar shall gain
interest to carry out research in this area by knowing the future research directions and
requirements. At the outset, the present study aims to understand research trends, the most
productive and influencing authors, articles and journals. Furthermore, the present study
also identifies the thematic structure and research direction of digital marketing research
in SMEs.
Given the importance of digital marketing research in SMEs, we employ bibliometric
analysis to provide a retrospection of the existing literature on this domain (Gao et al., 2021;
Donthu et al., 2021). The bibliometric review of the literature allows us to identify the
foundation and theme of digital marketing research in SMEs. The bibliographic coupling and
co-citation analysis shall be conducted to understand the thematic structure and knowledge
of digital marketing research in SMEs (Sharma et al., 2022). Additionally, co-occurrence and
confluence analysis allow us to comprehend the research trends and research direction in
digital marketing in SMEs (Goodell et al., 2021).
The present study shall motivate the readers and scholars by providing a greater
understanding of the most popular and influential works on digital marketing in SMEs and
allow them to carry out high-quality future research in this domain. It would also allow them
to identify publication trends, research progression and influential publications which will
help them to understand the research area in the best way. The academician and scholars
shall also get a greater understanding of the most common thematic clusters, and present
research trends on digital marketing research in SMEs. It also provides several benefits to the
business confront when attempting to deploy digital marketing practices for their business
promotions. Nevertheless, it shall also contribute to the advancements of digital marketing
research in SMEs to uncover new knowledge and findings. Digital marketing practices by
SMEs are still very less therefore, the future research directions identified through the present
study in this area shall provide several opportunities and shall also provide solutions for
SMEs to deal with various digital marketing challenges.

2. Background of digital marketing research in small and medium enterprises

SMEs are critical to a country’s economic well-being. They generate various perspectives of
national revenue, boost economic competitiveness and stimulate economic growth, resulting
in economic adaptability and resiliency (Jaswal, 2014). Furthermore, SMEs have a critical role
in strengthening social sectors by driving a huge number of jobs, developing indigenous
skills and technology, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship and establishing an
economic foundation of various sizes (Kawira, 2021; Kimathi et al., 2019). The research in the
area of digital marketing in small businesses started in 1997. Initially, the study in this area
started with Internet marketing and moved to e-commerce. Though research in this area
started in the 1990s however, the number was very less till 2010. From 2011 to 2015, the study
moved from Internet marketing to social media marketing (Dam et al., 2019; Thaha et al., 2021;
Kushwaha et al., 2021). In this period the productivity of research in this area was increased
and new dimensions such as interactive, consumer engagement and participation in
marketing activities were added (Hossain et al., 2022; Thaha et al., 2021). Meanwhile, from
JSBED 2016 to the present day, the study has gotten more attention from scholars. In the present day,
30,3 new areas of digital marketing in SMEs such as marketing strategies, innovation, adoption,
performance and ease of use are added. The future study in this area shall be on the use of AI,
data drive marketing, influencer marketing, chatbot, etc.
Looking at the benefits of digital marketing for SMEs within the national and
international market, it is a concern for many governments to protect the interest of SMEs
and empower them in the digital business world. Hence, it has raised an area of study for
624 both researchers and the government to understand the hurdles and elements that drive
digital marketing adoption by SMEs. According to the findings of Senn (2000), digital
marketing removes geographical boundaries. It facilitates businesses to reach any corner of
the world and do business through the World Wide Web. It also empowers SMEs to fight
large-scale enterprises (Giantari et al., 2022). Though digital marketing implementation
offers several benefits to SMEs, the adoption and implementation are not easy.
Nevertheless, understanding the challenges and opportunities shall help in the adoption
and implementation of digital marketing for SMEs. It also all allows the government to
tailor schemes to assist SMEs to adopt digital marketing. Furthermore, the use of the net by
SMEs facilitated the exchange of knowledge instantly stimulates efficiency and helps solve
problems at an early stage (Cani€els et al., 2015). The utilisation of social media is taken into
account to own a positive impact on a business, specifically, it can reduce substantial
marketing costs and improve good relationships with customers (Mokhtar et al., 2016).

3. Bibliometric research method

3.1 Defining the appropriate search terms
In this study, the terminology used combinations of two cross-disciplinary components:
digital marketing terms and small-medium enterprises. To ensure that all components of
digital marketing and SMEs were covered in this research, it was necessary to include the
keywords associated with each area. Table 1 shows the two strings and keyword sets
used for Scopus data extraction and document selections. Upon conducting a preliminary
search of important relevant papers, the authors came up with these terms. The digital
marketing terms are online marketing, Internet marketing, e-commerce marketing,
search engine marketing, data-driven marketing, email marketing, social media
marketing, display ads and mobile marketing. Similarly, SMEs related terms are SMEs
and small businesses.

Selection criteria Exclude Include

Database: “Scopus”
Date of Search: “25 March 2022”
Period of Publications: 1997–2022
Search term: “Digital Marketing” OR “Online Marketing” OR “online advertis*” OR – 372
“Internet marketing” OR “e-commerce marketing” OR “Search engine marketing” OR
“data-driven marketing” OR “email direct marketing” OR “Social media marketing” OR
“email marketing” OR “display ads” OR “Mobile marketing”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY
(“SME*” OR “Small and Medium Enterprise*” OR “Small Business*”
Subject area: “Business, management and accounting, Economics, Econometrics and 115 257
Table 1. Finance, Social sciences and Arts and Humanities”
Article inclusion and Publication type: “Articles, Conference Paper, Book Chapter and Review” 9 248
exclusion criteria Language screening: “Include documents published in English only” 1 247
3.2 Data collection Digital
Scopus was used to acquire the information since it has a significant amount of double-blind marketing in
peer-reviewed publications published in high-impact factor journals (Groff et al., 2020). We
employed a methodical technique to arrive at the final figure of 274 articles in Table 1. The
SMEs
Keywords “Digital Marketing”, “Online Marketing”, “online advertis?”, “Internet marketing”,
“e-commerce marketing”, “Search engine marketing”, “data-driven marketing”, “email direct
marketing”, “Social media marketing”, “email marketing”, “display ads”, “Mobile marketing”)
AND “SME*”, “Small and Medium Enterprise*” and “Small Business*” were used to include 625
articles only published in the English language from a list of varied disciplines depicted in
Table 1. Data extracted/downloaded from Scopus or any other online database is prone to
inaccuracies as a result of incorrect bibliographical and bibliometric information emerging
from the inclusion of the innovative publication in subsequent articles (Donthu et al., 2021). As
a result, using this extracted data without further refinement risks making a dangerous and
erroneous diagnosis. As a result, we went through many procedures to clean and put the data.
This prompted us to search bibliographic and bibliometric data, as well as the visualisation
and interpretation of the outcomes, as recommended by Zupic and Cater (2015) and Donthu
et al. (2021).
Using the “natural language processing” tool provided in VOSviewer software, the
investigators cleaned various terms presented in the article’s “titles, abstracts and keywords”
for better analysis and outcomes. For example, we changed several plural nouns to singular
(e.g. enterprises to enterprise, SMEs to SME, etc.). Other renderings of similar concepts are
also merged (for example, ‘optimisation’ and ‘optimization’ are merged into “Optimization”).
Abbreviated forms are translated to enlarged variants in the same way (i.e. KSFs to Key
Success Factors). Finally, many of these cleanup methods aid in achieving uniformity in
terms of theme assessment.

3.3 Selecting the techniques for analysis

Bibliometric analysis is a set of instruments that examines and measures text and
information using quantitative methodologies (Mishra et al., 2018; Goyal and Kumar, 2021).
This technique allows for the extraction of new information from literature reviews, which
may then be used as a supplement to the research (Suominen et al., 2016; Groff et al., 2020).
Establishing and publishing biographies on a theme, detecting patterns within a research
area and evaluating research works that operate as a guide to know the status of research are
all required to accomplish so (Gao et al., 2021; Hossain et al., 2022). Researchers use
bibliometric analysis methodologies like authorship, citation, bibliographic coupling,
co-citation and co-word analysis to analyse the information on biographic data by Donthu
et al. (2021).

4. Findings
4.1 Performance analysis
Figure 1 represents the publication trends in the area of digital marketing research in SMEs.
2021 was the most productive year however the journey of research in this area was begun by
Hamill and Gregory (1997). The initial research trends indicate the use of Internet marketing
was popular instead of digital marketing in SMEs research however the word web-based
marketing came into practice in this research domain. Harris et al. (2008) have first time
conducted a study on SMEs using online promotion as a research theme. 2008 was the year
when the popularity of digital marketing research in SMEs began and since 2017, their rate of
production every year has significantly increased. Overall, looking at the current year trend,
the study in this domain shall increase in the coming years.
JSBED PublicaƟon Trends
30,3 60 56

50

40
34
626 30
29

18
20 15
11 12
9 10
8 7 8
Figure 1. 10 6 5 6
3 4
Digital marketing in 1 1 2 2
SMEs research 0
publication trends
1997
1999
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
4.2 Prominent authors, organisations and countries for digital marketing research in SMEs
The above Table 2 indicates the most influential authors, institutions and countries for digital
marketing research in SMEs. Harris and Rae are the most influential author with 168 citations
and have published 4–4 research papers. Chatterjee has published three documents and has
68 citations. Similarly, the most influential institutions are ‘The University of Birmingham’

TC Author TP TC Institution TP TC Country TP

168 Harris L. 4 504 Uni. of Birmingham, UK 1 1,328 The United 33

Kingdom
168 Rae A. 4 504
Uni. of Reading, UK 1 268 The USA 27
68 Chatterjee S. 3 194
Uni. of Strathclyde, UK 1 180 South Africa 10
46 Ashworth C.J. 2 139
Uni. of Johannesburg, SA 1 155 Sweden 4
46 Hallsworth A. 2 139
Uni. of Johannesburg, SA 1 133 Finland 3
46 Pioch E.A. 2 139
Uni. of the Witwatersrand, SA 1 127 Indonesia 44
40 Wang L. 2 129
Lund Uni., Lund, Sweden 1 85 India 13
38 Peter M.K. 2 129
Uni. of Stirling, UK 1 81 Australia 7
35 Eze S.C. 7 123
Ai Consultants, Sussex, UK 1 77 Italy 11
33 Bello A.O. 5 123
Uni. of Southampton UK 1 59 Malaysia 19
33 Chinedu-Eze V.C. 5 98
Uni. of Jyv€askyl€a, Finland 1 52 France 4
33 Vrontis D. 4 86
Uni. of Ghana Busi. School, 1 45 China 7
Ghana
23 Nwanji T. 2 72 Uni. of Wales, UK 1 45 Spain 9
19 Musa H. 2 72 Uni. of Ulster, UK 1 43 Czech Republic 11
19 Pentina I. 2 71 Uni. Islam Negeri Raden, 1 38 Nigeria 8
Indonesia
17 Civelek M. 3 71 Kwansei Gakuin Uni., Japan 1 34 Canada 5
17 Gajdka K. 3 71 Chulalongkorn Uni., Thailand 1 33 Cyprus 4
17 Militaru G. 3 71 Uni. Lampung, Indonesia 1 29 Romania 6
Table 2. 17 Niculescu A. 2 66 Indian Inst. of Tech., Delhi, 1 28 United Arab 7
Most influential India Emirates
authors, organisations 14 Iwu C.G. 2 45 Uni. of Toulouse, France 1 27 Egypt 3
and country Note(s): TC 5 total citations, TP 5 total number of article(s) publications
and ‘The University of Reading’ with 504 citations each followed by ‘The University of Digital
Strathclyde’ with 194 citations with 1 document publication. Likewise, the most influential marketing in
country is the United Kingdom with 1,328 citations from 33 documents followed by the USA
with 268 citations from 27 documents. Furthermore, Eze is the most productive author and
SMEs
Indonesia is the most productive country for digital marketing research in SMEs.

4.3 Most influential journals for digital marketing research in SMEs 627
The above Table 3 represents the most impactful sources of digital marketing research in
SMEs. The most influential source for digital marketing research on SMEs is “Industrial
Marketing Management” with 520 citations and three publications followed by “International
Journal of Information Management” with 205 citations and two publications. The most
productive journal is the “International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising” with
nine publications followed by “Sustainability (Switzerland)” with seven publications. The
most productive year is from 2016 to 2020 in the most influential journals. The most
influential marketing journal is the “International Journal of Information Management”, and
the most productive non-marketing journal is “Sustainability (Switzerland)”. Though the
research on digital marketing in SMEs began in 1997 however, there are no publications in
the most influential journals between 1997 and 2004.

4.4 Most influential articles on digital marketing research in SMEs

The Table 4 indicates the most cited and impactful articles in the area of digital marketing
research in SMEs. With 504 citations, the article “Usage, barriers and measurement of social

1997– 2005– 2011– 2016– 2021–

Journal TC MKT TP 2004 2010 2015 2020 2022

Industrial Mark. Manag. 520 X 3 1 1 1

International J of Info Manag. 205 2 2
J of Small Bus. And Ent. Dev. 156 4 1 2 1
Int’l J of Internet Mark. and 95 X 9 7 1 1
Adv.
Int’l J of Ent. and Small Bus. 46 2 1 1
J of Bus. and Ind. Mark. 45 X 2 2
Academy of Mark. Studies J 43 X 2 2
Sustainability (Switzerland) 41 7 4
J of Res. in Interactive Mark. 31 X 3 1 2
Int’l J of Tech. Mark. 30 X 3 2 1
J of Sci. and Tech. Policy Mang. 30 3 2 1
Int’l Small Bus. J: Res. Entre. 29 2 1 1
E-Inn. for Sust. Dev. 23 2 2
Int’l Review of Manag. And 19 X 2 2
Mark.
Int’l J of E-Bus. Res. 17 2 1 1
Market-Trziste 16 X 2 2
Inno. SMEs and Cond. E-Bus.: 15 2 2
Tech. Trends and Sol.
African J of Hosp., Tour. and 14 2 2
Lei. Table 3.
Advanced Science Letters 12 3 3 Most influential
Prob. and Pers. in Manag. 11 X 2 1 1 journals for digital
Note(s): TC 5 total citations, TP 5 total number of article(s) publications, MKT 5 X if a journal is classified as marketing research
‘marketing’ by the 2018 Academic Journal Guide in SMEs
JSBED Author(s) Title TC
30,3
Michaelidou et al. (2011) “Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An 504
exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands”
Hamill and Gregory “Internet marketing in the internationalisation of UK SMEs” 194
(1997)
Maduku et al. (2016) “Understanding mobile marketing adoption intention by South African 139
628 SMEs: A multi-perspective framework”
Fillis et al. (2004) “Factors impacting on e-business adoption and development in the smaller 129
firm”
Harris and Rae (2009) “Social networks: The future of marketing for small business” 123
Taiminen and “The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs” 98
Karjaluoto (2015)
Odoom et al. (2017) “Antecedents of social media usage and performance benefits in small- and 86
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)”
Gilmore et al. (2007) “E-marketing and SMEs: Operational lessons for the future” 72
Syazali et al. (2019) “Partial correlation analysis using multiple linear regression: Impact on 71
business environment of digital marketing interest in the era of industrial
revolution 4.0”
Chatterjee and Kumar “Why do small and medium enterprises use social media marketing and 66
(2020) what is the impact: Empirical insights from India”
Poon and Swatman “A Longitudinal Study of Expectations in Small Business Internet 63
(1999) Commerce
Nakara et al. (1999) Entrepreneurship and social media marketing: Evidence from French small 45
business”
Taneja and Toombs “Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability and sustainability 40
(2014) the impact of social media on small business marketing”
Wang et al. (2015) “On the brink: Predicting business failure with mobile location-based check- 39
ins”
Alford and Page (2015) “Marketing technology for adoption by small business” 38
Mathews and Healy “From garage to global: the Internet and international market growth, an 37
(2008) SME perspective”
Capitello et al. (2014) “Social media strategies and corporate brand visibility in the wine industry: 32
Lessons from an Italian case study”
Morgan-Thomas (2009) “Online activities and export performance of the smaller firm: A capability 32
perspective”
Table 4.
Most influential Peter et al. (2020) “Strategic action fields of digital transformation: An exploration of the 31
articles on digital strategic action fields of Swiss SMEs and large enterprises”
marketing research Nobre and Silva (2014) “Social Network Marketing Strategy and SME Strategy Benefits” 30
in SMEs Note(s): TC 5 total citations

media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B firms” by

Michaelidou et al. (2011) is the most influential. They focussed their research on B2B SMEs’
social media marketing strategies, potential uses, perceived barriers and how the
effectiveness of social media marketing may be quantified. They discovered that the
primary goal of social media marketing is to acquire new customers and improve brand
awareness. The most major impediment, on the other hand, is a dearth of apparent relevancy
for a specific industry. With 194 citations, Hamill and Gregory (1997) conducted the second
influential study on “Internet marketing in the internationalisation of UK SMEs”. The study
focusses on the effects of online marketing on SMEs’ internationalisation. Small businesses in
the United Kingdom are making extensive use of online marketing, but many lack the
necessary skills and knowledge to make it more effective. As a result, substantial training and
education are required to prepare them to seize the worldwide marketing opportunity
available in online marketing and to improve their web marketing competencies.
4.5 Top references for digital marketing research in SMEs Digital
The Table 5 indicates the top references of research publications for digital marketing marketing in
research in SMEs based on local citations and their global citations. The paper authored by
Taiminen and Karjaluoto (2015) titled “The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs” is
SMEs
top references paper with 19 local citations and 98 global citations. The local citations upon
global citations ratio are 19.39. The study aimed to find out the objectives and utilisation of
digital marketing channels in SMEs and the factor influencing the adoption of digital
marketing channels in SMEs. The findings indicated that SMEs are not making use of the full 629
potential of digital marketing channels therefore they are unable to grab the benefits of using
digital channels for promoting business similarly, Michaelidou et al. (2011) study titled
“Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation
of small and medium B2B brands” has the second-highest references with 15 local citations,
504 global citations, 2.98 local upon global citations ratio. They concentrated their
investigation on B2B SMEs’ social media marketing strategies, prospective applications,
perceived barriers and how the efficiency of social media marketing could be measured. They
discovered that the major purpose of social media marketing is to increase brand recognition
and recruit new customers. The most significant stumbling block, on the other hand, is a lack
of apparent relevance for a certain business.

4.6 Knowledge foundations of digital marketing research in SMEs through co-citation

analysis
The semantic correlations of co-cited references revealed by co-citation analysis show a field’s
knowledge underpinnings (Donthu et al., 2021). Figure 2 depicts the co-citation map of
references mentioned at least twenty times by the articles in the review corpus. Dwivedi,
Davis, Rana, Venkatesh and Eze (green nodes) have highly cited the works of a particular
area of digital marketing research in SMEs. Similarly, Christodoulides, Siamagka, Haenlien
and Kaplan (blue nodes) have highly cited the works of a particular area of digital marketing
research in SMEs. Similarly, Karjaluoto, Gilmore and Harris (yellow nodes) have highly cited
the works of a particular area of digital marketing research in SMEs. Eid and Roghers (red
nodes) have highly cited the works of a particular area of digital marketing research in SMEs.
Similarly, Hair and Purwanto (purple nodes) have highly cited the works of a particular area
of digital marketing research in SMEs.

4.7 Thematic and influence structure analysis through bibliographic coupling

Through bibliographic coupling, Table 6 shows the theme clusters of digital marketing
research in SMEs. Internet marketing and digital marketing, e-business and marketing
strategy, technology adoption and small company, mobile marketing and social media
marketing are the five topic groupings. In the Table 6, the most influential articles of each
cluster are also included. The five groups cover every aspect of digital marketing research in
small businesses.
Cluster 1 is concerned with online and digital marketing research. Hamill and Gregory
(1997) investigated the influence of Internet marketing on the worldwide expansion of UK
SMEs. Their findings revealed that few SMEs were utilising the full potential of online
marketing, implying that SMEs require extensive training and education to fully utilise
digital technology and achieve a competitive advantage in the global market. Similarly,
Taiminen and Karjaluoto (2015) investigated the use and purpose of digital marketing
channels in SMEs. They also discovered that SMEs are not fully utilising digital platforms to
send promotional messages to their target clients. They also discovered that as a result, SMEs
are unable to reap the benefits of digital marketing platforms. Furthermore, Poon and
Swatman (1999) investigated SMEs’ online commerce expectations, finding a discrepancy
JSBED LC/GC Normalised
30,3 ratio
LC Document Title GC (%) LC GC

19 Taiminen HM, 2015, J “The usage of digital marketing 98 19.39 9.50 5.82
Small Bus Enterp Dev channels in SMEs”
15 Michaelidou N, 2011, Ind “Usage, barriers and measurement of 504 2.98 7.06 7.14
630 Mark Manage social media marketing: An exploratory
investigation of small and medium B2B
brands”
11 Gilmore A, 2007, Eur Bus “E-marketing and SMEs: Operational 72 15.28 2.00 1.67
Rev lessons for the future”
9 Maduku DK, 2016, Int J “Understanding mobile marketing 139 6.47 5.40 6.22
Inf Manage adoption intention by South African
SMEs: A multi-perspective framework”
8 Chatterjee S, 2020, Int J Inf “Antecedents and consequence of social 66 12.12 18.13 10.06
Manage media marketing for the strategic
competitive advantage of small and
medium enterprises: mediating role of
utilitarian and hedonic value”
6 Eze SC, 2019, J Sci “Mobile marketing technology 23 26.09 8.29 3.15
Technol Policy Manage adoption in service SMEs: a multi-
perspective framework”
6 Hamill J, 1997, J Mark “Internet marketing in the 194 3.09 1.00 1.00
Manage internationalisation of UK SMEs”
5 Taueja S, 2014, Acad “Putting a face on small businesses: 40 12.50 2.86 2.56
Mark Stud J Visibility, viability and sustainability
the impact of social media on small
business marketing”
5 Nakara WA, 2012, Int J “Entrepreneurship and social media 45 11.11 4.29 3.00
Entrepreneurship Small marketing: Evidence from French small
Bus business”
4 Ritz W, 2019, J Res “Digital marketing adoption and 19 21.05 5.52 2.60
Interact Mark success for small businesses: The
application of the do-it-yourself and
technology acceptance models”
4 Dumitriu D, 2019, “A perspective over modern SMEs: 17 23.53 5.52 2.33
Sustainability Managing brand equity, growth and
sustainability through digital
marketing tools and techniques”
4 Alford P, 2015, Serv Ind J “Marketing technology for adoption by 38 10.53 2.00 2.26
small business”
4 Nobre H, 2014, J “Social Network Marketing Strategy 30 13.33 2.29 1.92
Transnatl Manage and SME Strategy Benefits”
3 Peter MK, 2020, J Strat “Strategic action fields of digital 31 9.68 6.80 4.73
Manag transformation: An exploration of the
strategic action fields of Swiss SMEs
and large enterprises”
3 Harris L, 2009, J Bus “Social networks: The future of 123 2.44 3.60 3.75
Strategy marketing for small business”
2 Purba MI, 2021, Int J Data “The effect of digital marketing and 2 100.00 11.20 1.15
Netw Sci e-commerce on financial performance
and business sustainability of MSMEs
Table 5. during COVID-19 pandemic in
Top references for Indonesia”
digital marketing
research in SMEs (continued )
 LC/GC Normalised
Digital
ratio marketing in
LC Document Title GC (%) LC GC SMEs
2 Djakasaputra A, 2021, Int “Empirical study of Indonesian SMEs 5 40.00 11.20 2.89
J Data Netw Sci sales performance in the digital era: The
role of quality service and digital
marketing” 631
2 Malesev S, 2021, Constr “Digital and social media marketing- 5 40.00 11.20 2.89
Econ Build growing market share for construction
SMEs”
2 Adam M, 2020, Int J “The role of digital marketing 9 22.22 4.53 1.37
Supply Chain Manag platforms on supply chain management
for customer satisfaction and loyalty in
small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
at Indonesia”
2 Kraus S, 2019, J “Content is King: How SMEs Create 7 28.57 2.76 0.96
Macromark Content for Social Media Marketing
Under Limited Resources”
Note(s): LC 5 local citations, GC 5 global citations Table 5.

Figure 2.
Co-citation of
references cited by
articles on digital
marketing research
in SMEs

between expectations and reality amongst SMEs engaging in Internet marketing. The
expectation of SMEs from the Internet is an instant competitive advantage, which has yet to
materialise. Furthermore, rather than promoting and selling, Internet marketing is more
beneficial for obtaining information.
Cluster 2 includes research on e-business and marketing strategy in SMEs. Fillis et al.
(2004) produced the most significant study in this cluster on variables impacting e-business
adoption in SMEs. To better understand the adoption behaviour of SME managers and
JSBED Theme Author(s) Title TC
30,3
Internet Marketing and Hamill and Gregory “Internet marketing in the internationalisation of UK 194
Digital Marketing (1997) SMEs”
Taiminen and “The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs” 98
Karjaluoto (2015)
Poon and Swatman “A Longitudinal Study of Expectations in Small 63
632 (1999) Business Internet Commerce”
E-business and Fillis et al. (2004) “Factors impacting on e-business adoption and 129
Marketing Strategy development in the smaller firm”
Gilmore et al. (2007) “E-marketing and SMEs: Operational lessons for the 72
future”
Waheed and “Achieving consumers’ attention through emerging 27
Jianhua (2018) technologies: The linkage between e-marketing and
consumers’ exploratory buying behaviour
tendencies”
Technology Adoption Syazali et al. (2019) “Partial correlation analysis using multiple linear 71
and Small Business regression: Impact on business environment of digital
marketing interest in the era of industrial revolution
4.0”
Alford and Page “Marketing technology for adoption by small 38
(2015) business”
Peter et al. (2020) “Strategic action fields of digital transformation: An 31
exploration of the strategic action fields of Swiss
SMEs and large enterprises”
Mobile Marketing Maduku et al. (2016) “Understanding mobile marketing adoption intention 139
by South African SMEs: A multi-perspective
framework”
Wang et al. (2015) “On the brink: Predicting business failure with mobile 39
location-based check-ins”
Eze et al. (2019) “Mobile marketing technology adoption in service 23
SMEs: a multi-perspective framework”
Social Media Marketing Michaelidou et al. “Usage, barriers and measurement of social media 504
(2011) marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and
medium B2B brands”
Harris and Rae “Social networks: The future of marketing for small 123
(2009) business”
Table 6.
Thematic clusters of Odoom et al. (2017) “Antecedents of social media usage and performance 86
digital Marketing in benefits in small- and medium-sized enterprises
SMEs through (SMEs)”
bibliographic coupling Note(s): TC 5 total citations

entrepreneurs, researchers looked at their motives, attitudes and other micro characteristics.
Similarly, the study by Gilmore et al. (2007) focussed on electronic marketing and operational
learning in SMEs. They discovered that SMEs are not completely leveraging e-marketing in
their marketing operations. They also examine the benefits and drawbacks of e-marketing for
SMEs. Furthermore, using the moderating influence of gender, Waheed and Jianhua (2018)
investigated the use of e-marketing to capture customer attention and identify buying
preferences. They claim that SMEs must employ technology that is acceptable to target
clients to better understand their purchasing habits.
Cluster 3 is concerned with small businesses’ use of digital technologies for marketing
purposes. Syazali et al. (2019) did a study on the impact of digital marketing on the business
environment in Industry 4.0. Due to a lack of experience and resources, SMEs find it
challenging to implement digital marketing in today’s highly competitive business climate.
Similarly, Alford and Page (2015) discovered that technology-based marketing efforts for Digital
SMEs are highly effective, but that the owners and managers of SMEs do not have much marketing in
competence in this. Another barrier to adoption is a lack of understanding of how to measure
the return on digital technology investments. Another research by Peter et al. (2020) focussed
SMEs
on the digital implementation approach used by SMEs and large corporations. Digital
transformation is dependent on digital leadership, process engineering, organisational
culture and the nature of the firm, according to the researchers.
Publications on mobile marketing research and digital marketing in SMEs are included in 633
cluster 4. Maduku et al. (2016) is the most significant paper, focussing on understanding the
adoption intention of mobile marketing from many perspectives. They discovered that the
technological, institutional and environmental settings of the organisation are the primary
determinants of intention to embrace mobile marketing in SMEs. Wang et al. (2015) focussed
their research on forecasting the power of location-based service for visits to a local
restaurant. Furthermore, Eze et al. (2019) looked at mobile marketing adoption in SMEs from
a variety of angles and discovered 16 important factors of mobile technology use for
marketing activities.
The studies on social media marketing and digital marketing research in SMEs are
included in cluster 5. Michaelidou et al. (2011) work are one of the most prominent studies in
this cluster. Their research focusses on B2B businesses’ usage of social media marketing,
difficulties and analytics. They discovered that SMEs use social media marketing to establish
their brands, with the most difficult aspect of doing so being the platform’s sectoral relevance.
Similarly, Harris and Rae (2009) investigated whether social media is the future of marketing
for SMEs and discovered that it will reduce buyer irritation via participation. It promotes a
collaborative attitude that is beneficial to corporate success. Furthermore, Odoom et al. (2017)
focussed on the use and advantages of social media for SMEs and discovered that social
media motivation and impacts are good, but inconsistent with the product and service-
based SMEs.

4.8 Thematic trends of digital marketing research in SMEs

Extending on the underpinnings and topics provided by co-citation analysis and
bibliographic coupling, we analyse thematic tendencies in digital marketing studies in
SMEs using co-occurrence analysis. Authors’ keywords are used for co-occurrence analysis.
Those keywords are subjected to a chronological filter to identify the topical development of
digital marketing in SMEs issues that feature in at least three articles in our review corpus.
Figures 3–6 depict this theme progression.

Figure 3.
Influential topics in the
“period of 1997–2010”
JSBED The study conducted on the theme of digital marketing research in SMEs between 1997 and
30,3 2010 was more focussed on Internet marketing, the World Wide Web and e-commerce (red
nodes). Research in the same period highlights Internet marketing and advertising (green
nodes). It is the initial phase of digital marketing in SMEs which begins with internment
marketing and moves to e-commerce.
The study carried out between the period of 2011–2015 on digital marketing research in
SMEs is focussed on Internet marketing, social media marketing and strategy (red nodes).
634 Furthermore, in this period, the themes such as small business, online marketing (blue nodes);
and digital marketing (green nodes). In this period, studies on social media and digital
marketing have taken place in SMEs for marketing activities.
The study conducted from 2015 to 2020 on digital marketing research in SMEs
concentrated on the themes such as business growth, brand awareness and SMEs (red nodes).
Similarly, digital marketing, SMEs and entrepreneurship (blue nodes); SMEs, adoption and

Figure 4.
Influential topics in
“the period of
2011–2015”

Figure 5.
Influential topics in
“the period of
2015–2020”
 Digital
marketing in
SMEs

635

Figure 6.
Influential topics in
“the period of
2021–2022”

Internet marketing (yellow nodes); social media, international marketing and

internationalisation (green nodes); and website, online business and marketing strategy
(purple nodes). This indicates that digital marketing research in SMEs in the period had
grown up and become the wider theme for the research.
The study conducted from 2015 to 2020 on digital marketing research in SMEs is
concentrated on the themes such as digital marketing, and SMEs (sky blue nodes). Similarly,
the study in this period includes social media marketing, perceived ease of use, and COVID-19
(blue nodes); SMEs, cross-border e-commerce and marketing performance (yellow nodes);
mobile marketing, and technology adoption (orange nodes); marketing, adoption, social
media and marketing strategy (purple nodes); online marketing, digital marketing strategy,
e-commerce, digital transformation and financial performance (red nodes); and small
business, innovation and entrepreneurship (green nodes).

5. Future research directions

Assessing digital marketing studies in SMEs from a historical context is critical for
determining present and future consequences. By examining relevant papers, this study may
establish a baseline for the burgeoning area of digital marketing research in SMEs, allowing
future scholars to examine the usage and benefits of digital marketing for SMEs.
A future study might look at how the most recent technology drives SMEs to perform
better in the local and global markets. Between 1997 and 2010, the studies were focussed on
Internet marketing, advertising and e-commerce in the area of digital marketing research in
SMEs. While, the study focussed on social media marketing, online marketing and digital
marketing from 2011 to 2015. The studies from 2016 to 2020 concentrated on
internationalisation, social media marketing, business growth and digital marketing.
Furthermore, the study from 2020 onwards is focussed on innovation, transformation,
adoption, ease of use, social media and digital media. AI is noteworthy as a digital marketing
platform for smart marketing and technology-driven marketing context.
The use of AI in digital marketing is a trending topic in recent studies. AI works in
different forms such as machine learning, data mining, text mining, neural networks, big data
and artificial human. The future study on Internet marketing and digital marketing themes
shall use recent technologies such as AI and algorithm-based marketing. Furthermore, future
JSBED research shall be on personalised marketing, historical activity-based marketing, etc.
30,3 Furthermore, the future research directions for e-business and marketing strategy shall also
make use of recent technologies. The study on AI-enable marketing activities is numerous
however, the study focussed on AI-enable marketing practice in SMEs are nominal, therefore,
a study on this in the future shall change the fate of SMEs and allow them to implement recent
technologies to promote their business.
Furthermore, future research on the social media marketing theme could look at the
636 process of ML-driven social media marketing activities in SMEs. Specifically, data-driven,
chat-bot, interactive, engagement and influencer marketing applications for SMEs.
Furthermore, future research could be on the usage and benefits of social media for
consumer co-creation and engagement. Study on the applications of social media for
customers’ feedback, reactions and use of rich media to promote products and services
offered by SMEs. Further study could be conducted on applications of a chatbot, text mining,
information procession and brand building on digital media platforms for SMEs. Research
could be conducted on influencer marketing and the competitive advantage of technology-
driven marketing for SMEs.
Moreover, the future research directions for technology adoption and small business shall
be on the process of data collection, challenges of technology adoption and technology
integration for understanding consumers’ needs and behaviour for personalised marketing
practices. Additionally, future researchers shall also focus on the financial, technological and
attitudinal aspects of SMEs in the adoption and implementation of digital marketing
technology in their business. Further, future research directions on mobile marketing themes
shall be conducted concentrating the customised marketing, location-based marketing,
search marketing, app-based marketing and push-notification marketing.
Additionally, a future study shall be conducted on the skill and expertise required by the
marketers of SMEs to implement digital marketing. Furthermore, government initiatives and
financial and technical support are required to motivate SMEs to the adoption of digital
marketing. The counselling and training required for small business entrepreneurs to the
glass ceiling of using digital marketing to promote their products. Further study could be on
the adoption of e-commerce and app-based marketing in digital marketing research for SMEs.

6. Conclusion
Bibliometric analysis has the potential to inform collection development, describe
institutional scholarship strengths and citation patterns and suggest visible co-citation
networks of schools of thought. The present study has visualised the research trends,
thematic evolution and influential research in digital marketing research in SMEs. The
Scopus database was used for data extraction and analysis which is the largest biographies
database. The study has presented the research progression and themes of digital marketing
research in SMEs for different periods. This study has presented the journey of digital
marketing research in SMEs and future research directions for scholars. Scholars may
conduct a study on the emerging area of digital marketing in SMEs that could provide better
insights to policymakers and practicians. This way the present study has contributed to
understanding the research development, emerging areas and future research direction of
digital marketing research in SMEs.
The study is limited to the bibliometric analysis of biographical data extracted from only
the Scopus database. Therefore, the future study could be done using combined
bibliographies data from Scopus and Web of Science because several quality publications
are only listed in either of them. Additionally, future studies may conduct using bibliometric
analysis on SCI, SSCI and ABDC-listed publications only to understand the research
paradigm from high-quality publications.
7. Implications of the study Digital
The present study has several implications for marketers, entrepreneurs, academicians and marketing in
scholars. They should get overall knowledge about the existing studies in this area. By knowing
the influential and prominent contributors of this research domain and the reason for becoming
SMEs
important contributors, they can access these articles to solve the prevailing academic and
industry challenges. Furthermore, it would also guide them to know the gap in the existing
literature, and future research directions which shall assist them to conduct future studies.
Furthermore, it will also help the scholar to publish their work in journals with high impact. 637

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Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 284-305.
About the authors Digital
Amiri Mdoe is the Research Scholar in the University School of Business, Chandigarh University,
Mohali, India. His areas of expertise are Marketing and Digital Marketing. He has more than 10 years of marketing in
corporate, research and academic experience. He has published two research papers listed in Scopus and SMEs
other reputed journals. He has also presented two research papers in various national and international
conferences.
Dr Bijay Prasad Kushwaha is the Assistant Professor of Marketing in VIT Business School, Vellore
Institute of Technology, Vellore, India. He is data scientist and doctorate in Marketing Management 641
from Andhra University, India. His areas of expertise are Marketing, Digital Marketing, Marketing
Analytics and Predictive analysis. He has more than 10 years of corporate experience, research and
academic experience. He has published 31 research papers listed in Scopus, ABDC, Web of Science and
others national and international journals of repute. He has also presented 14 research papers in various
national and international conferences. He has also conducted several workshops on SPSS, AMOS and
SmartPLS in various intuitions and university. Bijay Prasad Kushwaha is the corresponding author and
can be contacted at: [email protected]
Dr Rajkumar Singh (Ph.D., MBA and M.A.-Eco) is presently working as Associate Professor of
Management in Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India. He has contributed over 15 years in
teaching and corporate. His leading publications are in National and International Scopus and Thomson
Reuters indexed journals. He is the Guest Reviewer of various Scopus and Thomson Reuters indexed
journals. He has delivered several lectures at All India Radio and Ministry of Agriculture in association
with NABARD. He is running an NGO- Manav Utthan Society, India, conducted hundreds of
programmes for social upliftment across India.

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