Antecedents, consequents and moderators of business models in SMEs: a meta-analytical research study

Abstract

Evidence about the influence of different business models (BMs) on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is scarce and contradictory. In this paper, a meta-analytical study of the quantitative literature regarding BMs and SMEs is developed which overcomes biases commonly found in other, more limited works. We found that both innovation-based BMs (I-BMs) and efficiency-based BMs (E-BMs) positively affect the performance of SMEs, but also that, in countries with higher levels of entrepreneurial capabilities, the positive impact of I-BMs increases. We also identified that, while the existence of stronger capabilities in firms affects I-BMs positively, the size of SMEs impacts E-BMs favorably. Finally, key contributions of these findings for practitioners and scholars interested in the usefulness of BMs and their impact on SMEs are discussed.