The Influence of Strategic Leadership Roles of Chief Executive Officers on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Zimbabwe

Chief Executive Officers of small and medium enterprises have a tremendous task to strategically lead their institutions to become active players contributing positively to the gross domestic product and create more employment opportunities. This study seeks to establish the influence of strategic leadership roles of Chief executive officers/owners of small and medium enterprises on the performance of these institutions in the Zimbabwean economy. The study followed the quantitative research approach to collect data using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire from a sample size of 373 respondents selected using the simple random sampling method. The study employed the exploratory factor-structural equation modelling process to analyse data after collating several questions from the extant literature. The analysis tools used were the IBM SPSS Statistics v26 and IBM SPSS Amos v26 software. All the five strategic leadership roles had a significant effect on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises. The study findings will help Chief Executive Officers of Small Medium Enterprises in Zimbabwe to execute their strategic leadership roles incisively with due diligence given their effect on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises.