Interest in the role of Women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the growth and development process of nations continues to lead in policy debates in developed and developing nations. The role of financing, organizational factors, and social-cultural aspects have been cited as critical elements for the performance of women-owned SMEs. Therefore, this study sought to examine factors that affect the performance of women-owned SMEs in Uganda, a case study of Kampala district. Women-owned SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa perform poorly with a short life span, with about 50% failing within the first 5 years of establishment. This mortality is mainly attributed to financing, organizational factors, and Social-cultural aspects. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that affect women-owned SME performance in Uganda Kampala district. The independent variables were factors affecting women-owned SMEs conceptualized as financing comprising the cost of finance and access to finance, organizational factors comprising financial planning, human resource skills, and record-keeping. In addition, the impact of social-cultural aspects relating to society’s perception of women’s role was evaluated from the perspective of the performance of women-owned SMEs as the independent variable. The study used a quantitative research method, a survey research design, and a convenient sampling technique. Primary data was collected from 100 respondents from Kampala District, using structured questionnaires as a data collection tool. The data was analyzed inferentially and descriptively and presented through tables, figures, and percentages. Results revealed that the factors conceptualized as financing, organizational factors, and Social-cultural aspects affected the performance of women-owned SMEs in Uganda Kampala district. Regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation analysis were conducted. The outcome of Pearson’s correlation showed a high correlation (R-value financing of 0.755), (r-value organizational factors of 0.712), (R-value of social-cultural aspects of 0.629), and the results were all had a significant effect on the performance of women-owned SMEs with a p-value of <0.0005. Regression results showed that of the changes that affect the performance of women-owned SMEs, financing, organizational factors, and social-cultural aspects contribute 59% uniquely accounting for the biggest proportion of the variance in the regression model. These results can be inferred to the population of women-owned SMEs.
This implies that Women-owned SMEs should give more attention to financing, organizational factors, and sociocultural aspects to achieve better business performance.