Doctoral Degree, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have become critical to the development of
all economies in the world in the last few decades and Zimbabwe, which is a
volatile low-income country is not an exception. However, in spite of the
abundance of literature about strategic management in large companies that has
emerged as a recipe for success, not much literature is available specifically for
SMEs in low-income countries and Zimbabwe in particular. This research sought to
unveil and understand how strategic management is conducted in SMEs of Harare,
Zimbabwe, based on the Wheelen and Hunger (2012) model.
A face-to-face semi-structured interview case study approach was used between
January and July 2016 by the researcher alone with either the owners or managers
of the SMEs. The results of the twenty case studies are summarised in the form of
tables showing the responses and percentages of the fifteen questions derived from
the four phases of the model. The four phases are Environmental scanning; Strategy
formulation; Strategy implementation; and Evaluation and Control.
The results revealed a diverse mixture that ranged from thorough knowledge and
practice of the model to absolute ignorance about the strategic management
process. There was scarce evidence on recourse to risk management as a tool to
mitigate risk related challenges that were encountered during the implementation
phase of strategic management. Some of the recommendations were that the SMEs
should embrace an integrated approach to strategic and risk management to avoid
being overwhelmed by the risk related challenges of operating in a volatile
environment since there is symbiosis between strategic and risk management. In
addition, SMEs should empower the front line employees that interact with the
customers regularly to resolve customer complaints on the spot and make decisions
that take advantage of short lived opportunities that may arise in the economy to
enhance success.Only available in English
