Table 1 Search criteria and article selection

1

Filtering criteria

 (a) Search engine: Scopus

 (b) Search date: 25 August 2022

 (c) Search term: ((“microfinance*” OR “micro finance” OR “micro-finance*” OR “microcredit*” OR “micro credit*” OR “micro-credit*”) AND (“microfinance institution*” OR “micro finance institution*” OR “micro-finance institution*” OR “mf*”) AND (“SMEs performance*” OR “SMEs success*” OR “small business performance*” OR “business performance*”))

 (d) Subject area and time frame: “Economics”, Business Management” and study time frame (2017–2022)

 (e) Document type: Articles” and “reviews” (Excluded “Conference papers” “book chapters” and “books”)

2

Article selection

 (a) Erroneous records screening: include documents with valid authors information only

 (b) Language screening: Include documents in English only

3

Quality screening

 (a) Content screening: Include articles if “Titles, abstracts and keywords” indicate relevance to scope of study (i.e., microfinance for SMEs and microfinance institutions only