IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aaz/sbir01/v10y2026i1pe759.html

Systematic review of business support practice: Establishing design features

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This paper addresses the research gap associated with the core components of effective SME business support and its governance. Adopting a systematic literature review protocol, this study analyses the academic literature published between 2004 and 2025, identifying a "nexus" of six core support components: interaction pattern, independent internalisation, diagnostic tools, depth of engagement, expert coaching, and concept translation, all of which are interdependent. Five key governance elements are also identified, focused on: evaluating outcomes, search and selection, funding and delivery partnerships, mobilisation, and client management. These findings are used to develop a framework which offers a content-agnostic blueprint for effective business support, emphasising high-intensity, one-on-one interactions and the critical role of expert practitioners able to translate concepts to specific SME contexts. This paper directly contributes to a deeper understanding of how support programs are absorbed and provides a foundation for future theory development and policy design.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, Ollie & Sutherland, Matt & Page, Stephen, 2026. "Systematic review of business support practice: Establishing design features," Small Business International Review, Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas - AECA, vol. 10(1), pages 759-759, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aaz:sbir01:v:10:y:2026:i:1:p:e759
    DOI: 10.26784/sbir/4kpsaa02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.26784/sbir/4kpsaa02
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://sbir.upct.es/index.php/sbir/article/view/759/423
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26784/sbir/4kpsaa02?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L53 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Enterprise Policy
    • O21 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Planning Models; Planning Policy
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aaz:sbir01:v:10:y:2026:i:1:p:e759. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Carlos Martinez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aecaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.