Small Businesses, Big Roles: Exploring the Position of SMEs in Innovation Ecosystems through a Systematic Literature Review

Scholars have examined innovation ecosystems to understand how heterogeneous actors collaborate to drive technological, social, and sustainable change. Within this growing and consolidated body of research, small and medium-sized enterprises are often mentioned as beneficiaries or marginal components of these ecosystems. Their role, agency, and contributions are still to be investigated across the literature. To address this gap, this systematic literature review investigates how research has conceived SMEs' position within innovation ecosystems. The study reconstructs the state of the art in business and management and is based on a structured search of the Scopus database. A total of 21 peer reviewed articles were included in the final dataset, following a screening process based on the PRISMA framework. The findings reveal three main clusters of interest: (1) theoretical and conceptual perspectives, including dominant concepts such as open innovation and resource-based views; (2) the evolving role and collaborative dynamics of SMEs, from peripheral actors to co-creators and micro orchestrators in specific ecosystem configurations; and (3) the influence of policies, which remains a partial and uneven niche across contexts. While some studies highlight the active contribution of SMEs in fostering innovation and local resilience, others still treat them as passive recipients of support and resources. This review contributes to the academic discourse by providing a structured overview of current research directions and identifying key knowledge gaps. It stresses the need for more integrative and systemic approaches to study the strategic role of SMEs in innovation ecosystems, particularly in relation to sustainability transitions and complex collective challenges.