An in-depth analysis of digital marketing trends and prospects in small and medium-sized enterprises: utilizing bibliometric mapping

Figures & data

Table 1. Digital marketing in SMEs and large companies.

Aspect	SMEs	Large companies
Financial resources for marketing	Limited, affecting the scale and scope of marketing activities.	Abundant, allowing for extensive and diverse marketing campaigns.
Adoption of advanced marketing technologies (AMTs)	Limited, affecting the scale and scope of marketing activities.	Higher, facilitated by ample resources and technical expertise.
Marketing research and development	Constrained by limited resources, leading to less formal or comprehensive market research.	Well-funded, supporting detailed market research and analysis to inform marketing strategies.
Digital marketing software and tools	More likely to use tailored solutions addressing specific SME needs.	Utilizes standardized, sophisticated tools for data analytics and customer relationship management.
Organizational structure in marketing	Less complex and more informal, decisions often based on the leader’s instinct.	More complex and formal, with decisions based on thorough market research and analysis by a team of experts.
Human resources in marketing	Employees may wear multiple hats, having responsibilities in various areas including marketing.	Employees are highly specialized, with specific roles in the marketing domain.
Innovation and experimentation in marketing	May be limited due to a less flexible organizational culture and fear of risks.	Encouraged, with resources dedicated to experimenting with new marketing technologies and strategies.
Collaboration and alliances for marketing	Fewer alliances with research institutions and other organizations for marketing innovation.	Stronger networks with research institutions, consultancies and other partners to enhance marketing strategies.
Standards and compliance in marketing practices	Less likely to strictly adhere to marketing standards and best practices due to resource constraints.	More likely to comply with international standards and best practices in marketing.

Source: Mittal et al. (2018) and Amjad (2022).

Figure 1. Design of study. Source: Author’s elaboration.

Figure 2. Trend of article publications related to digital marketing in SMEs (Biblioshiny).

Table 2. Top five leading journals.

Journal	Number of publications
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems	17
Sustainability	17
Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies	16
Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics	14
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies	10

Notes: The number of articles (367). The number of conference papers (180). The number of book and book chapters (84). The number of conference reviews (51). The number of article reviews (17). Others (9).

Source: Author’s elaboration based on Scopus.

Figure 3. The most relevant authors (Biblioshiny).

Figure 4. The most relevant organizations (Biblioshiny).

Figure 5. Co-authorship countries (VOSviewer).

Table 3. Top 10 author’s countries.

Country name	Number of documents	Citations	Total link strength
United Kingdom	52	1033	45
United States	51	766	26
Malaysia	42	138	25
China	26	186	21
Indonesia	105	394	19
Italy	32	664	17
Spain	18	211	16
Germany	16	205	11
Saudi Arabia	9	76	11
Czech Republic	15	101	10

Source: Authors’ elaboration based on Scopus data processing by VOSviewer.

Figure 6. Co-occurrence all keywords (VOSviewer).

Figure 7. Tree map for author’s keywords (Biblioshiny).

Figure 8. Co-occurrence index (VOSviewer).

Figure 9. Thematic map based on density and centrality (Biblioshiny).

Table 4. Top five research cluster based on thematic map.

Cluster (theme)	Occurrences	Sub-theme
Commerce	533	Commerce (87); digital marketing (52); social networking (online) (49); social media (40); small-and-medium enterprise (19); digital storage (18); marketing strategy (17); digital technologies (14); small and medium enterprise (13); social media marketings (12); micro-enterprises (11); Indonesia (10); surveys (9); information management (9); international trade (9); small medium enterprise (9); case-studies (7); marketing is (7); product design (7); search engines (7); budget control (6); data privacy (6); digital innovations (6); business modeling (5); Facebook (5); knowledge management (5); small and medium sized business (5); SMEs (5); behavioral research (4); international markets (4); Malaysia (3); product and services (4); regional planning (4); search engine optimizations (4); social sciences computing (4); business performance (3); cloud computing (3); digital business (3); dynamics capability (3); internationalisation (3); location (3); marketing activities (3); marketing capability (3); micro-business (3); mobile applications (3); online business (3); online questionnaire (3); personnel training (3); qualitative analysis (3); quantitative approach (3); service industry (3); social media platforms (3); structural equation models (3); tourism (3)
Marketing	430	Marketing (131); sales (44); small and medium-sized enterprise (38); competition (24); electronic commerce (26); internet (15); strategic planning (17); decision making (16); business development (13); technology adoption (11); innovation (12); industry (8); information systems (8); information technology (6); websites (7); digital economy (5); information use (5); information analysis (4); information and communication technologies (4); internet marketing (4); online marketing (4); online systems (4); digital television (3); digitization (3); information and communication technology (3); marketing mix (3); research and development (3); strategic approach (3); supply chains (3); United Kingdom (3)
Digital transformation	151	Digital transformation (19); small business (13); big data (10); economic and social effects (10); sustainable development (10); artificial intelligence (8); e-learning (8); SME (8); consumer behavior (6); e-commerce (6); machine learning (6); machine-learning (5); augmented reality (4); business models (4); decisions makings (4); entrepreneurship (3); internet of things (4); metadata (4); virtual reality (4); advanced analytics (3); advertising (3); data analytics (3); engineering research (3); marketing management (3)
Costs	84	Costs (14); digital communication systems (9); telecommunication services (9); mobile commerce (5); product development (5); e-marketing (4); information services (4); mobile telecommunication systems (4); agriculture (3); developing countries (3); digital communications (3); information communication technology (3); knowledge based systems (3); network security (3); population statistics (3); products and services (3); technology transfer (3); web services (3)
Covid-19	51	Covid-19 (16); human (9); humans (7); China (6); article (5); pandemic (4); commercial phenomena (4)

Source: Authors’ elaboration based on Scopus data processing by Biblioshiny.

Figure 10. The most global cited documents (Biblioshiny).

Table 5. Top five the most cited articles.

Article title	Author name	Number of citations
The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs	Taiminen and Karjaluoto (2015)	201
The effect of social networking sites and absorptive capacity on SMES’ innovation performance	Scuotto et al. (2016)	195
Why do small and medium enterprises use social media marketing and what is the impact: empirical insights from India	Chatterjee and Kar (2020)	180
Digital transformation process and SMEs	Ulaş (2019)	151
Conceptualising a digital orientation: antecedents of supporting SME performance in the digital economy	Quinton et al. (2018)	139

Source: Authors’ elaboration based on Scopus data processing by Biblioshiny (RStudio).

Mittal, S., Khan, M. A., Romero, D., & Wuest, T. (2018). A critical review of smart manufacturing & Industry 4.0 maturity models: Implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 49, 194–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2018.10.005

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Amjad, T. (2022). Digital entrepreneurial marketing: A bibliometric analysis reveals an inescapable need of business schools. The International Journal of Management Education., 20(2), 100655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2022.100655

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Taiminen, H., & Karjaluoto, H. (2015). The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 22(4), 633–651. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-05-2013-0073

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Scuotto, V., Del Giudice, M., & Carayannis, E. G. (2016). The effect of social networking sites and absorptive capacity on SMES’ innovation performance. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 42(2), 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9517-0

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Ulaş, D. (2019). Digital transformation process and SMEs. Procedia Computer Science, 158, 662–671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2019.09.101

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Quinton, S., Canhoto, A. I., Molinillo, S., Pera, R., & Budhathoki, T. (2018). Conceptualising a digital orientation: Antecedents of supporting SME performance in the digital economy. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(5), 427–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2016.1258004

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Data availability statement

Raw data were generated from Scopus. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (NL) on request.