Abstract

As the global food processing sector becomes increasingly competitive and consumer expectations rise, more and more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China are beginning to understand the need for excellent leadership in navigating these challenges and succeeding in the global marketplace. This study, which examines leadership's essential role in these SMEs' operational performance and the moderating and intervening effects of quality and safety cultures, is highly relevant to your field of expertise. The relationship between leadership, operational performance, and quality and safety cultures was examined using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. According to the study, leadership directly influences operational performance and significantly impacts the quality and safety cultures of the firms. Moreover, these cultural contexts have moderating and mediating effects on the connection between operational performance and leadership. These results highlight how crucial it is to have strong leadership and robust quality and safety cultures to promote exceptional operational performance in China's SMEs engaged in food processing.

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