The Funding Gap and the Financing of Small and Medium Businesses: An Integrated Literature Review and an Agenda

Small and medium businesses contribute to the economies of developed and developing countries. However, they face constraints that are very different from large businesses. Chief amongst these constraints is access to finance. This paper provides an integrated review of the literature on the financing of small and medium businesses. Applying a qualitative critical context text analysis, the authors explore extant studies and identify the major themes and the different literature streams on small and medium business financing. The paper concludes by providing suggestions for future research from the gaps identified in the literature