Musawenkosi Ngibe, Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya, Hari Lall Garbharran
Manufacturing SMEs are confronted with various challenges, which have fundamentally influenced their growth and development, and, as a result, many have been forced to close down in recent years. The lack of a serious focus on sustainability within the manufacturing SME sector is generally attributed to the entrepreneurial characteristics of SMEs’ and entrepreneurs who often lack the awareness, expertise, skills, financial support, and qualified personnel required to build the changes required for sustainable growth within the an organisation. The conception of this study was based on a quantitative research approach. Business leadership, owners, managers in the manufacturing SMEs in KwaZulu-Natal were identified as the target population for this study. A nonprobability (quota) sampling techniques was used to identify the sample size of 384. Primary data were collected using questionnaires and were analysed using SPSS version 24.0. The empirical finding of the study significantly identified that entrepreneurial characteristics, specifically ICT support, lengthy financial institutional processes, shortage of government financial assistance were critical drawbacks to innovative leadership effectiveness. The study concluded that innovative leadership need to urgently invest in appropriate technological advances as, across the globe, innovations involve the need to go through revolutionary changes (frequently technological) in order to be aligned with the current business dynamics.