Application of the ‘Chameleon Survival Strategy Model’ in the Study of Strategic Management in Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises

With the objective finding out the challenges faced by Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) in their efforts to adopt strategic management, the research leading to the production of this paper was conducted in Harare, Zimbabwe. Making use of the Chameleon Survival Strategy Model the author studied the characteristics of SMEs under each attribute of the model and extracted the major possible causes of failure to embrace strategic management in SMEs. The application of the model and the findings obtained from the respondents against its attributes are presented in this paper. Out of the findings key challenges to SMEs are explained, leading to the conclusion that SMEs in the research generally failed the strategic management test presented in the model. The conclusion is that SMEs in Harare did not practise strategic management effectively due to the challenges outlined by the author.