Strategic Leadership Capabilities and Sustainable Business Growth: Evidence from Nigeria’s ICT Sector

Abstract

This study examines how strategic leadership capabilities impact sustainable business growth among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey involving 311 owners, executives, and senior managers from four ICT subsectors was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Strategic visioning, stakeholder relational management, and adaptive resilience were evaluated as leadership capabilities, while sensing, seizing, and transforming represented dynamic capabilities. Strategic visioning and adaptive resilience demonstrated significant positive direct effects on sustainable business growth, whereas stakeholder relational management did not show a similar effect. Dynamic capabilities played a significant mediating role in all three leadership-growth relationships; mediation was partial for strategic visioning and adaptive resilience but complete for stakeholder relational management. Environmental turbulence significantly weakened the relationship between leadership and growth, which was contrary to initial hypotheses. Conversely, institutional support notably strengthened this relationship. The model accounted for 54.0% of the variance in sustainable business growth. This study combines elements of strategic leadership, dynamic capabilities, and institutional conditions to elucidate sustainable business growth in Nigerian ICT SMEs. It provides evidence that leadership capabilities contribute substantially to growth through organizational capabilities while highlighting that supportive institutions enhance this relationship, whereas turbulence acts as a constraint.