Meta-Analytical Analysis of Competitiveness in Small- and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Enterprises: The Role of Technology and Quality

This study evaluates the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (PYMES) through a meta-analysis that explores the role of technology and quality. Through a comprehensive literature review, 24 eligible studies, selected after applying specific criteria in a systematic search of the Scopus database, were identified and analyzed. A random-effects model was used to combine the effect sizes of the selected studies, and the heterogeneity among them was assessed using widely accepted indicators such as I2, H2 and tau2, which confirmed a moderate variability among the studies. The results of the meta-analysis indicated a pooled effect size of 0.53 (95% CI: [0.50, 0.55]), suggesting a significant positive relationship between innovation and competitiveness, as well as between quality and competitiveness. Quality was identified as the most relevant competitive priority, while the use of state-of-the-art technologies was highlighted as a significant risk factor in the context of digital transformation. In addition, topic analysis was performed using the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model, implemented with the topicmodels package in RStudio 2024.04.2. To ensure accuracy of the analysis, the texts were preprocessed using cleaning and tokenization techniques, which included the removal of punctuation, numbers and empty words. This thematic analysis identified key patterns related to innovation management, operational strategies and integration of digital technologies. The themes generated revealed that manufacturing PYMES prioritize quality as a source of competitive advantage, facing significant challenges associated with technological adoption and digitalization.