Abstract:
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have become the backbone of many nations as
they contribute immensely to the growth of their economies. In Zimbabwe, they have filled in the
gap left by the big companies after the economic crisis of the early 2000s. The impact of SMEs is
small when we look at their environmental, economic, and social impact, but when grouped, it
becomes a considerable contribution. Evidence from the literature shows that SMEs have a short
lifespan. Therefore, sustainability in manufacturing SMEs in emerging economies and their survival
strategy have been discussed. This study aimed to examine sustainability in the context of design
in furniture-manufacturing SMEs in Zimbabwe. The qualitative study used a purposively selected
sample of ten SMEs where the owner and/or manager and designer were the main participants.
Observations were also conducted on-site in all ten cases where evidence was noted for analysis. The
study reveals that SMEs in emerging economies face many challenges, such as a lack of finance, skilled
human resources, and management commitment that hamper their capacity to adopt sustainable
design in their practices. Sustainability adoption in these SMEs is more of adherent to the regulatory
framework, especially considering the environmental aspect. The study concludes by recommending
that policy makers in government should create tax rebate incentives that should be awarded to those
SMEs that score highly in all three pillars of sustainability.
