Fostering project risk management in SMEs: an emergent framework from a literature review

Given the relevance of project risk management (PRM) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which need to adopt an efficient and effective methodology coherent with their peculiarities to support their innovation and growth, this research provides a framework derived from systematic literature that could foster the adoption of PRM in SMEs. It offers an extended and iterative PRM process that includes the strategic selection and evaluation of projects, a flexible a dynamic approach according to the characteristic of the SME and the project, the inclusion of the stakeholders’ perspective, the mitigation of potential bias on risks evaluation, the use of risk clustering to improve project organization, the adoption of systematic and transparent communication to increase awareness on risk exposure, and the integration of Risk Knowledge Management into the PRM process, in order to obtain an enterprise learning process.