Navigating challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Era of Industry 5.0

• Identifies key challenges SMEs face in transitioning to Industry 5.0 • Categorizes barriers across technology, workforce, economy, and environment • Uses systematic review of 25 studies between 2020 and 2025 • Applies Bibliometrix and VOSviewer for content and trend analysis • Proposes role-specific recommendations for policy, academia, and industry Industry 5.0 (I5.0) is reshaping the manufacturing sector by transitioning from the production-centric approach of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) to a system that prioritizes human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a critical role in the economy. Despite government initiatives aimed at facilitating the transition to I5.0, SMEs have encountered substantial challenges in adopting I5.0. This research aimed to identify the challenges faced by SMEs in their transition to I5.0, based on a systematic review of the current literature. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to identify studies addressing the challenges faced by SMEs in I5.0. A comprehensive list of keywords pertinent to the review questions was identified. Secondly, Scopus was utilized to conduct the literature search. Following a manual assessment of abstracts for relevance, 126 articles were selected for additional review and analysis. Challenges across the main categories of environment, economy, community, workforce, technology, and organization as part of the transformation of SMEs to I5.0 were identified. The identified challenges were categorized within the I5.0 framework. Additionally, to address these challenges and analyze the result, content analysis was performed using VOSViewer and Bibliometrix. A gap exists in the literature regarding studies that thoroughly analyze the challenges associated with the adoption of I5.0 by SMEs. In addition, this study's proposed recommendations to provide a roadmap for SMEs in their transition to I5.0. Recommendations were derived from the 25 selected papers to offer insights and suggestions relevant to the challenges identified in these studies. The study's recommendations provided practical insights and solutions for addressing the challenges faced by SMEs in the I5.0 era.