Figure 4 shows a further example. In this study the focus is on examining the causal maps of the owner-managers of SMEs as a way of exploring why some Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) grow and others do not (Jenkins and Johnson, 1997). The study has identified three main domains of literature: small business growth, managerial cognition and strategic management. However, we can see that there are more specific areas of overlap between these domains: between small business growth and managerial cognition there is more specific work on the role of managerial values and motivation in achieving growth; between strategy and cognition there is more specific work on the maps of CEOs; and between small business growth and strategy there is the overlapping field of entrepreneurship. Figure 4 also identifies areas of strategy which are not pertinent to this study such as the work on transaction cost economics and population ecology. These are areas which I would not include in my positioning as they are too far removed from my area of interest.

In the mapping exercise you are therefore identifying general domains of literature, but also focusing down on the areas of overlap between them. Sometimes you will not find anything which does overlap between domains. Nevertheless, this search does help you to be more focused and discerning in the way you explore the literature.

Figure 4:  A study into the role of cognition in achieving small business growth

A further issue in this process is being clear about the distinction between the phenomena of interest and the context in which it occurs. Sometimes context will be important, such as in the alliance study outlined on the previous page, here the phenomena is the performance of alliances. However there is already a great deal of research in this area and so the contribution here is the context – MNCs operating in developing countries. However, in other cases the context may not be part of the contribution. For example, in the study on this page the empirical research looked at retail businesses as a representative of SMEs, and yet the contribution is made in the area of SMEs more generally, rather than bringing in another literature domain relating to retailing.