Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://dspace.ifm.ac.tz/handle/123456789/100

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Business associations, Social Capital and the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in East Africa: a comparative study of food processing enterprises of Rwanda and Tanzania
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2017) Gamba, Freddy Jirabi
    The study examined the contribution of Social Capital (SC) in Business Associations (BAs) to enhancing the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa with reference to food processing in Tanzania and Rwanda. The objectives were to establish the performance of BAs, analyse SC in BAs, determine the contribution of BAs to SMEs and identify the outcomes associated with BAs’ work. Two BAs were studied from each country under review. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research techniques and primary data from 145 SMEs. Semi-structured questionnaire and unstructrured interviews were used. The analysis employed the composite constructs of SC using multi-indicators of every SC variable for comparison between BAs. Overall, the study findings show that based on 12 BAs performance indicators, Rwanda’s BAs perform better than those in Tanzania; there was more SC in Rwanda’s BAs than Tanzania’s BAs in terms of trust and social cohesion, collective action and information sharing; and Rwanda’s BAs contribute relatively more to the SMEs’ performance than Tanzania’s BAs. SC’s Trust and social cohesion had indicators such as members' feeling valued by BAs, members trust to BA leaders and fellow members, tendency of visiting each other, possibilty to get help and freedom to speak. Collective action gauged the ability and willingness of BA members to confront issues on unitary joint approach. Information sharing tracked the extent of information sharing in BAs, members’ choice of source of information, and BAs’ facilitation of information sharing. BAs contribution to SMEs is through facilitating access to finance, R&D, management and marketing, production quality and technology and trade fair and exhibitions. As an emergent issue, the study found also that BA members dealing with specialized products tend to create different social relations from those dealing with diversified business portifolios. It is recommended integrate SC in policy, strategy and operation reforms and machineries and the use of BA, SC and Stakeholders Relational Model for decision making and prioritization. The implication is that countries with more SC and efficient BAs can develop faster than others.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The role of stakeholder dialogue in enhancing private sector support in addressing healthcare issues in Tanzania through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
    (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 2018) Lema, Zacharia Elias
    There are limited number of private sector companies practicing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Tanzanian health sector due to lack of stakeholder dialogue. As a result, company perceptions about the roles that their CSR interventions could play in addressing stakeholders’ health and safety expectations are limited. The lack of dialogue between companies and stakeholders such as customers, employees, communities and the government limits the freedom of both parties to express their concerns and reach a mutually beneficial solution. To encourage companies’ participation, literature shows that through stakeholder dialogue, companies could create positive relationships with their stakeholders, leading to increased employee morale, creativity, operational efficiency, and stakeholder satisfaction and commitment. However, there is limited empirical research that had tested the effect of stakeholder dialogue in facilitating private sector support in healthcare. To fill the literature gap, this study examines the mediating role of stakeholder dialogue in enhancing private sector CSR interventions in healthcare. Questionnaire survey was used to collect 441 responses from private companies in Tanzania and data were analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. Findings show that while larger companies are more focused on fulfilling their customers’ expectations, small and medium companies practiced CSR in healthcare just to fulfill two stakeholders’ expectations: communities and government. Nevertheless, both large and small and medium companies would consider other stakeholders’ health and safety expectations if an open and transparent dialogue is arranged. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by extending Donaldson and Preston's (1995) stakeholder model by including a mediating variable: stakeholder dialogue. The study could also provide useful indication to policy makers and private sector practitioners in planning strategic policies that will increase private sector involvement in healthcare through CSR interventions. In this way, more Tanzanians irrespective of their stakeholder status can get better healthcare services.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Analyzing the effects of government expenditure and efficiency on economic growth in Tanzania
    (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 2018-01) Kimaro, Edmund Lawrence
    The hypotheses of Wagner and Keynesian put forward that economic growth and government expenditure are correlated. Nevertheless the two hypotheses differ in terms of direction of causality. The Keynesian hypothesis that government expenditure persuades economic growth in the long run has been tested and validated to demonstrate its justification; and this notion has become an accepted piece of evidence in the economics of public sector. Furthermore, theories emphasize that efficiency is significant when analyzing government expenditure and economic growth relationships. The aim of this research is to estimate the efficiency scores of federal and local governments in terms of public resource allocation. The research further aims at analyzing the effects of federal and local government expenditures and their efficiencies on the country’s economic growth. The study then uses annual panel data for 20 regions spanning from 1996 to 2014 and employed Im-Pesaran-Shin and Fisher ADF tests to conduct panel unit root tests. Empirical findings show that Tanzania’s economic growth and its explanatory variables are non-stationary at their levels and stationary at their first difference. The study further employs Pedroni test to conduct panel co integration tests and finds that variables in the model have long run association. This research employs Data Envelopment Analysis to construct efficiency scores of federal and local governments. Further, the research employs Keynesian hypothesis and modifies Barro’s growth model to analyse the effects of federal and local government expenditures and their efficiencies on the country’s economic growth. Generalized Methods of Moments is used to accomplish this analysis. Findings demonstrate that federal and local governments are less efficient in terms of public resource allocation, and it is revealed that federal government tends to misuse public resource more than local government. Findings show further that increasing federal and local government expenditures reduces economic growth. Furthermore it is revealed that federal government efficiency improves economic growth while local government efficiency reduces economic growth. Premised on these findings this research recommends the following; first federal and local government should minimize public resource allocation in order to improve their performance. Second, federal and local government should embark on reducing their spending in order to accelerate economic growth. Third, government should empower private sector and establish Public-Private-Partnership in order to perk-up the welfare of the growing population necessary for achieving Millennium Development Goals and National Development Vision 2025.