Corporate governance in small and medium-sized enterprises: A systematic literature review

This study presents a systematic review of research on corporate governance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on the specific context of African SMEs. The methodology used in this study is based on a systematic review approach, which allows for the extraction, analysis, and synthesis of relevant findings from existing literature. Three renowned databases, namely Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, were consulted to identify relevant articles. A total of 37 articles published in scientific journals between 2007 and 2022 were included in this review. The results of this study highlight six key elements that most researchers focus on in the field of corporate governance of SMEs in Africa. These elements include the board of directors, ownership structure, capital structure, corporate governance practices, transparency and disclosure, and corporate social responsibility. Researchers examined the impact of these elements on the performance of African SMEs and found that their influence is significant but often mixed.Thein-depth analysis of the results indicates that the presence of independent directors, management competence, and foreign ownership are effective governance mechanisms for improving the profitability of African SMEs. However, the results are more mixed or contradictory regarding board size, CEO duality, the existence of audit committees, family ownership, insider ownership, disclosure, and transparency in relation to performance. This study also highlights the importance of further research on unexplored aspects of corporate governance in the context of African SMEs.