International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 00, 1–28 (2016) DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12128 SMEs and Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review Roberta Bocconcelli, Marco Cioppi, 1 Fulvio Fortezza, 2 Barbara Francioni, Alessandro Pagano, Elisabetta Savelli and Simone Splendiani 3 Department of Economics, Society, Politics, University of Urbino, Via Saffi, 42-61029, Urbino, Italy, 1 Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies: History, Cultures Languages, Literatures, Arts, Media, University of Urbino, Italy, 2 Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, Italy, and 3 Department of Economics, University of Perugia, Italy Corresponding author email: roberta.bocconcelli@uniurb.it This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the role, organization and management of marketing activities in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, 310 articles published between 2006 and 2015 in 69 main journals devoted to small firms/entrepreneurship and management/marketing fields were analysed. This review shows that SMEs’ marketing has received great attention in both management and marketing literature in recent years. Findings reveal, on the one hand, the emerging role of networks and information and communication technologies in marketing behaviour by SMEs, and on the other hand a research gap in terms of specific marketing practices. Entrepreneurial marketing has been used as the main conceptual framework in reviewed studies, even if findings overall still point out a distance between the theoretical bases of reviewed contributions and the study of SMEs’ marketing behaviour and practices. Therefore, future research on the role of resources, relationships and networks could benefit from the combination of theories developed within the field of entrepreneurship with other approaches such as the resource-based view, the dynamic capabilities theory and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) framework. Introduction Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered an important engine for economic growth in terms of both employment and gross domestic product (Edinburgh Group 2013). For instance, in 2012, the 20 million European SMEs accounted for more than 86 million employees (66.5% of the total) and 57.6% of the gross value added generated by the private and non-financial sectors (European Commission 2013). A number of authors over the years (Brooksbank et al. 2003; Keh et al. 2007; Romano and Ratnatunga 1995) have highlighted the increasing relevance of marketing for the success of SMEs, noting that the adoption of both a marketing concept and practices could help SMEs achieve a long-term competitive advantage. The literature also reveals a growing awareness about the positive relationship between marketing practices and SMEs’ performance (Brooksbank et al. 1999; Cox et al. 1994; Gilmore 2011; Verhees and Meulenberg 2004). The relevance of this research field has increased recently, yielding both theoretical and empirical contributions. From the early 1990s onwards, special groups of interest within the main marketing asso- ciations (Entrepreneurial Marketing SIG – AMA 1 ; Entrepreneurial & Small Business Marketing SIG – Academy of Marketing 2 ) arose, with the aim of 1 https://www.ama.org/academics/Pages/Entrepeneurial% 252520Marketing.aspx (accessed 4 November 2015). 2 https://www.academyofmarketing.org/entrepreneurial- small-business-marketing-sig/sig-event (accessed 4 Novem- ber 2015). C  2016 British Academy of Management and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA