Abstract
Beyond restricting access to markets, sanctions alter the conditions under which firms can finance, organize, and sustain economic exchange. Yet management research has not adequately explained these consequences for small- and medium-sized enterprises, despite the growing prominence of sanctions in international business. This study systematically synthesizes an evidence base comprising 20 sources to identify the most consistent effects of sanctions on SMEs and the responses through which firms attempt to preserve their operations. Across the reviewed evidence, sanctions most consistently restrict access to critical inputs and technologies, disrupt established supplier and customer relationships, and intensify financing and liquidity constraints. Where performance effects are examined, they are predominantly adverse. SMEs respond through cost containment and liquidity preservation, the substitution of suppliers, inputs, markets, and technologies, and the reorganization of business relationships. Integrating transaction cost economics and the institution-based view, we conceptualize sanctions as policy-induced transaction shocks. We propose that sanctions may increase the need to reconstruct exchange while restricting the counterparties and infrastructures through which reconstruction can occur. The framework distinguishes realized exposure from adaptive capacity and separates transaction continuity from performance recovery and resilience. It integrates recurring findings into an explanation of constrained adaptation while identifying relationships that require direct testing.