Pan-African Journal of Business Management

Relationship Between Competitive Aggressiveness and Export Performance of Tourism Firms in Tanzania: The Role of Organizational Structure

France A. Shayo — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study assesses the relationship between competitive aggressiveness and export performance of firms operating in the tourism sector of Tanzania. The organizational structure was used to assess the type of structure, which better provides a facilitative condition for the relationship. The study utilized primary data collected from randomly selected 202 firms operating in the tourism sector in Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. SmartPLS-3 software was used as an analytical tool using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. Empirical findings suggest a strong and positive relationship between competitive aggressiveness and export performance. Further results from Multi-group moderation analysis show a lack of significant differences between mechanistic and organic firms in terms of competitive aggressiveness and export performance relationships. Contrary to the structural contingency theory, the study concludes that competitive aggressiveness is beneficial to all types of tourism firms regardless of the kind of organizational structure they adopt.

Intervening Effect of Selected Macroeconomic Factors on Fiscal Policy Stance and Public Expenditure in Kenya

James M. Gatauwa, Erasmus S. Kaijage, Tabitha W. Kiriti-Nganga — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper investigates the intervening effect of selected macroeconomic factors on the relationship between fiscal policy stance and public expenditure in Kenya using time series modelling. This paper is underpinned by the theory of fiscal policy, Wagner’s Law of increasing state activities and Peacock-Wiseman hypothesis. The population is the Kenyan economy while secondary data was collected from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics reports. Time series modelling was applied. The findings indicate that foreign aid and grants have an intervening effect on the relationship between fiscal policy stance and public expenditure in Kenya. Nevertheless, fiscal stance has a statistically insignificant effect on public expenditure. The results show that fiscal stance, foreign aid and grants and public expenditure are cointegrate d using the Johansen cointegration test but there is no short run causality between the variables as indicated by the Wald test statistics. The conclusion is that foreign aid and grants explain the extent to which fiscal policy stance affects the level of public expenditure in Kenya even though fiscal policy stance has an inverse relationship with public expenditure.

Relationships Among Job satisfaction, Organizational Affective Commitment and Turnover Intentions of University Academicians in Tanzania

Proches Ngatuni, Chacha Matoka — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Universities play a pivotal role in any country’s economic development goal by creating the required human capital, generating and preserving knowledge, and by offering technical advisory services to businesses and communities. Effective and efficient performance of this role depends largely on the quantity and quality of their satisfied and committed academic staff. Universities in Africa, Tanzania in particular, are suffering from low academic staff capacity. Yet such low capacity is further threatened by high rates of turnover. To manage this threat, universities need to manage not only the turnover of their academic staff but also their turnover intentions. Turnover intentions are the best predictor of actual turnover. Managing this threat requires among other things, an understanding of the predictors of turnover intentions. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between two job attitudes (job satisfaction and affective commitment) and the behavioural outcome of turnover intentions. Data was collected through a survey administered on 300 academicians conveniently selected from five public universities in Tanzania and analyzed through descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, and the Hayes’ Process Tool v.3.4.1. Both job satisfaction and affective commitment statistically negatively predicted turnover intentions, even after controlling for the influence of tenure and education qualifications. Affective commitment significantly but partially mediated the job satisfaction – turnover intentions relationship. It is therefore recommended that universities should have in place work systems that are pro-job satisfaction to reduce turnover intentions among the academicians. Moreover, coupling these efforts with measures capable of enhancing affective commitment adds value in managing turnover intentions.

The Effect of Marketing Capabilities on Small and Medium Enterprises’ Performance: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach to Rwanda Manufacturing Sector

Kasema Romain — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The issue of what contributes to performance heterogeneity among firms has, since, been within the business strategic management literature. Some scholars have focused on external factors while others, recently, focused on internal factors (resources) to explain inter- firm performance differences. Falling into the second wave focusing on internal factors, this study, therefore, investigated the contribution of marketing capability on small and medium enterprises’ performance in the Rwanda manufacturing sector. Grounded on the dynamic capabilities theory, the study specifically thought to determine the effect of innovation-marketing capability and brand-marketing capability on firm performance. By the mean of a survey questionnaire, data were collected from 210 selected manufacturing companies and the qualified respondents were marketing managers. Using a structural equation modelling approach, it was empirically proved that marketing capability has a positive significant impact on firm performance, especially, it was found that a firm’s innovation-marketing capability and brand- marketing capability both positively and significantly influence firm performance. It is suggested that manufacturing companies lay more emphasis on improving their branding capability since it is the most critical in boosting firm performance. The findings implied that firms with strong marketing capability innovate and implement new processes to meet customer needs.

The Dimensionality of Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Hospitality Industry

Msafiri Njoroge Ngajeni — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of debates exist on the dimensionality of firms' entrepreneurial orientation in various industries. Understanding the dimensionality of entrepreneurial orientation and the relationships among its dimensions in the hospitality industry is important both theoretically and practically. This study bridges the theoretical gap by examining the dimensionality of entrepreneurial orientation in the industry. The study is based on a survey of hotels (n=346) in the Coastal and Northern tourist circuits of Tanzania. In the hospitality context, this study adds to the research that hotels' EO is multidimensional in nature exhibiting low-to-moderate correlations with each other and with an acceptable level of discriminant validity. This finding enriches other hospitality studies that consider entrepreneurial orientation as a unidimensional concept. The study also presents vital practical implications.

Effect of Word-of-Mouth Dimensions on Brand Loyalty: A case of mobile money services in Tanzania

Deus D. Ngaruko, Juma Matonya, Jan-Erik Jaensson — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aimed at determining the individual effects of WOM dimensions (Positive Valence WOM, Negative Valence WOM, WOM content, and WOM intensity) on brand loyalty in the Tanzanian mobile money service industry. The research areas included Sumbawanga and Mpanda Municipal councils from Rukwa and Katavi regions respectively. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 randomly selected respondents whereas Structural Equation Modeling was applied to analyze the collected data. The findings from this study reveal that Positive Valence WOM, WOM content and WOM intensity have a positive and significant impact on brand loyalty. However, Positive Valence WOM was highly influential than other WOM dimensions. The results also indicate that negative Valence WOM has a negative impact on brand loyalty. The paper concludes that the studied WOM dimensions are predictors of brand loyalty except for the Negative Valence WOM. Thus, it is recommended that mobile money operators (MMOs) should give more emphasis on creating Positive Valence WOM if they are to greatly benefit from WOM recommendation which is less cost full but more powerfully marketing tool than any other marketing tool.

The Influence of Training Participation on Employee Performance and Employee Intention to Leave Manufacturing Firms in sub-Saharan Africa: A study of Ghana

James B. Abugre , Alex Anlesinya — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how training participation influences both employee performance and employee intention to turnover in manufacturing firms in sub- Saharan Africa (SSA). Using a cross-sectional survey of a multinational manufacturing firm in Ghana through structural equation modelling and regression analysis, we tested two asymmetrical hypotheses of employee training participation leading to outcomes of employee performance and employee intention to turnover. Findings showed that employee performance is positively related to training participation in the manufacturing sector. Also, the findings demonstrated that training participation in the manufacturing sector is positively related to employee intention to leave their firms. These findings explain the effect of valence and human motivation to the needs of training participation and outcome. An investigation of training participation and employee performance with intention to leave or turnover are rarely asse ssed at the same time; specifically, training participation in manufacturing firms in SSA. Thus, manufacturing firms must be aware that different motivation and expectations of training participation are hunted for by employees as they are engaged in training organized by their respective firms.