Abstract
Creating alliances among firms that link two or more brands has become a pervasive practice. Unfortunately, the co-branding strategy is not known and applied by many SMEs. To provide an overview of this strategy and of its specific interest for SMEs, this article offers a systematic review of the extant literature on co-branding. Because the literature is scattered and the boundaries of the concept are not always clear, we begin by defining the concept and delimiting various types of co-branding strategies before identifying a set of potential benefits and risks associated with co-branding strategies. In the following sections, we review issues related to partner selection in alliances and present recent research themes on co-branding. Finally, we identify key questions and issues that require further research, in the area of SMEs\textquoteright co-branding strategies.