Barriers to strategy implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises: a systematic review

Strategic intentions often fail to translate into successful implementation, yet existing research has largely examined barriers in isolation, providing limited understanding of their interactions. To address this gap, this study systematically reviews strategy implementation barriers in SMEs following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. A comprehensive search of Scopus, Web of Science, and Business Source Complete identified 32 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025. Using inductive thematic synthesis supported by quality appraisal, the review identifies four dimensions—managerial and leadership constraints, organizational and structural barriers, resource and capability limitations, and external institutional and environmental challenges—comprising twelve interrelated themes. The synthesis indicates these barriers operate as mutually reinforcing patterns. Based on the reviewed evidence, the study proposes three evidence-informed interpretive vicious cycles—the Resource–Cognition Trap, the Informality–Volatility Loop, and the Centralization–Bottleneck Effect—to explain how interacting barriers impede strategy implementation in SMEs. These cycles are presented as an interpretive framework rather than empirically verified causal mechanisms. By integrating fragmented evidence into a coherent framework, this review contributes to strategy implementation literature by providing an evidence-informed taxonomy of implementation barriers and explaining their interactional dynamics, which can be interpreted through the lenses of Upper Echelons Theory and Resource Orchestration Theory.