The Effects of Socio-Cultural Factors on the Performance of Women Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
women entrepreneurs. In spite of the growth of entrepreneurial activities in Tanzania, researchers in this area have failed to adequately document the issues that women entrepreneurs face. Most researchers have focused only on the socio-cultural challenges such as women’s immobility, poor support from society, ethnicity, a lack of support from their family, a low level of education and discrimination when it comes to accessing finances. 12 items of literature from developing countries written recently within the last five years (2014) were reviewed to find out the challenges that affect women entrepreneurs. The findings of this research indicate that women entrepreneurs not only face socio-cultural challenges, but they are also impacted by other factors such as low business knowledge, financial constraints, a lack of support from the government, low business training and a lack of raw materials. In light of these findings, future researchers in Tanzania should aim to look at the fac...
The influence of socio-cultural factors (SCFs) on financial performance (FP) among women small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania is understudied. This paper examines the relationship between SCFs and FP among women SMEs in Tanzania. A questionnaire survey of 80 women owner-managers was conducted in Dodoma region of Tanzania in order to collect quantitative data and 04 case studies for qualitative data. Descriptive analysis was employed in the analysis of quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data analysis. Results show that SCFs and FP of women SMEs are related. Inadequate education and business training, poor access to business information, interference of husbands in business fund control, poor support from husbands are the critical SCFs which affect FP (capital growth and sales volume) of women SMEs. The study recommends that serious training programmes need to be designed and implemented in order to discourage unfavourable SCFs and promote the favourable ones.
Factors Affecting Growth of Women-led Small and Medium Enterprises in Arusha Municipality, Tanzania
The potential growth of women led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) elsewhere in the world including in Tanzania depends on conducive business environment. However, women owned SMEs in Tanzania are confronted with a number of constraints that hinder their growth. This study aimed at assessing the factors that affect the potential growth of women led SMEs in Arusha Municipality, Tanzania. The study adopted across sectional research design. Data was collected from a random sample of 95 women SME owners selected from a target population of 250 SMEs. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Whereas frequencies, and percentages were used to determine and describe the status of the variables, correlation, chi-square tests and T-test were used to establish association and relationships between and among variables. The findings show that majority Women-led SME's have not received any support from the government and the existing rules and regulations governing SMEs do not provide favorable ground for effective growth of women SMEs. Moreover, growth of women SME's is affected by the unevenly distributed gender roles which affect the performance of the businesses. Women-led SMEs are faced with insufficient capital which can boost their growth and most of the women own business with little or no entrepreneurship skills. It is recommended that Government and other development partners to liaise with financial service providers in designing special financial product to meet the demands and characteristic of women SMEs. Stakeholders should increase awareness on gender-related issues which affect women's participation in business and reduce their working efficiency. Further, financial institutions should provide a favorable ground for women to access loans. Women-led SMEs need to be trained in specialized tailor-made areas to enable them effectively improve performance of their businesses.
Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences
Aims: This study presents the findings on the Factors Contributing to the Failure of Female Small-scale Enterprises in Dodoma City Council, Tanzania. The study was guided by three specific objectives: to identify structural factors contributing to the failure of women small-scale entrepreneurs, to find out social factors contributing to the failure of women small-scale entrepreneurs and to examine economic factors contributing to the failure of women small-scale entrepreneurs. Methodology: The study adopted a cross-sectional research design where structured questionnaire with open and close-ended questions were used to collect primary information from a sample size of 70 respondents. The researcher used a mixed-research approach, that is, qualitative and quantitative. A qualitative approach was used in collecting respondents’ views during the interviews while the quantitative approach was used to collect information from respondents through questionnaires. Quantitative data analysis...
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are the main income generating activities for women in rural Tanzania. Rural development planners are supposed to integrate these businesses in their planning portfolios since they are central to economic growth and rural poverty reduction. Critical for sustainable growth of rural women SMBs is the provision of enabling institutional environment and technical support. However, this has never been the case as the rural women SMBs have been sidelined with limited attention. Research on the predicament of rural women SMBs has been too general, inadequate and unpalatable. In this paper we present an institutional analysis of a baseline study carried out from February to April 2016 in Uvinza District, Kigoma region. The study covered four villages in Ilagala Division: Nyanganga, Kazuramimba, Mwamila and Ilagala. Ten groups of women entrepreneurs with 270 members participated in the study through meetings and focus group discussions on the impact of regulative, normative, and cognitive factors on the growth of their SMBs. The objective of the study was to delineate factors that constrain the growth of women-owned SMBs. The analysis reveals that institutional factors constrain the growth of the SMBs and frustrates the women's entrepreneurship esteem and efforts to reduce rural poverty. A conducive and pro-gender intervention framework is recommended in order to enable sustainable growth of women-owned SMBs. The paper calls for multidisciplinary research that will disaggregate the constraints and highlight appropriate interventions.
Constraints and Enablers to the Growth of Female Owned Business in Tanzania
ijsr, 2019
This paper aims to identify the major constraints and enablers to the growth of female owned business in Tanzania. It offers a framework to differentiate between the constraints faced by male entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship. The paper engages in an exhaustive literature review and uses a qualitative methodology to categorize and rank entrepreneurial constraints facing female owned business in Tanzania. The findings show that women entrepreneurs in Tanzania face several critical constraints arising from gender discrimination, work-family balance, lack of basic financial resources, improper business infrastructure, and personality differences. This paper offers a broad overview on the constraints faced by women entrepreneurs in Tanzania and it further, suggests some potential enablers towards female owned business. The paper therefore, tries to bridge the gap between men entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Hence, it gives a direction to policy makers in creating a more favourable environment for the success of female owned business in Tanzania.
Women’s business performance is influenced by individual, legal, economic, and technological factors. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify determinants of women’s business performance with reference to MSEs in Arba Minch town. To achieve this objective, the researcher used an explanatory research design with a quantitative research approach, testing six hypotheses. Primary data were collected from 281 women entrepreneurs who were selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques through structured questionnaires. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data using SPSS version 21.0. According to the findings of the study, the descriptive results indicate that variables such as access to technology, access to land premises, communication skills, and tax amount have moderate/medium means because the mean score of the variables ranges from 2.60 to 3.39 (average value). In other words, the two remaining variables, access to finance an...
The role of women in SMEs in developing countries
This paper is going to focus on the role of women in small and medium enterprises in developing countries such as Namibia. It is divided into sections as follows: (1) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); (2) Constraints of SMEs; (3) women entrepreneurs in SMEs;
SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN AFRICAN SETTING: THE PLACE OF WOMEN
Objective of the study was to examine the contribution of women to SME, the factors that limit the success of women-owned SMEs in African setting. The study adopted survey approach. The respondents were randomly selected and primary data were collected using questionnaires designed and administered by the researchers. The study utilizes chi-square test of hypothesis and logit regression model. The study reveals that female entrepreneurship represents a vast untapped source of innovation, job creation and economic growth in the developing world. However, in addition to general barriers that affect SMEs and entrepreneurship in Africa (such as low income per head, dearth of infrastructure, harsh economic environment), the African woman still battles with certain peculiar barriers such as gender-induced low access to finance, poor social network, demeaning value system in African setting, multiple roles of woman, among others. Hence, study recommended that African women leaders should help women to form business groups that will enhance their networks, easy access to information and credit. NGOs also should embark on sensitization and education campaign aimed at gender equality and changing societal perspective on the social status of the African woman in African setting.