Strategic financial management framework to ensure performance and growth for small to medium entrprises.

Zimbabwe's Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) face worsening performance and growth-related challenges attributable to the failure of owner managers to embrace Strategic financial management (SFM) practices that promote business growth and performance. SMEs became the main contributor to the gross domestic product following the economy's collapse due to the government's agrarian reform of 2000. The study employed quantitative research method using questionnaires and a structural equation model (SEM) to achieve methodological triangulation. While the study was principally theory testing it was also theory-generating, nonetheless all items and factors developed from the questionnaire were employed using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to extract desirable factors. The target population of the study consisted of 640 SMEs from five districts in the province and the sample size of 240 was determined using Krejcie model (1970). Data was analyzed by extracting factors using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 and the same data was imported into SPSS Amos Version 28 for analysis using confirmatory factor analysis and parameter estimation in path modeling and the results were graphically displayed in R software, version 3.5.3 or R Core team (R core team 2016). The task was not strictly confirmatory, after testing several models the study applied the Akaike Information Criterion test to measure the adequacy of the proposed framework. The study revealed that SMEs lacked a conceptual framework that ensures growth despite having a clear focus and vision. Drawing from empirical data and a critical review of relevant theories, the study developed a strategic financial management framework for SMEs in Zimbabwe. The framework has relevance for SMEs in Zimbabwe and other neighboring countries as it promotes SMEs growth and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]