Entrepreneurship development in Tanzania

What is it about?

Why some individuals are more successful in business than others is among the influential questions in entrepreneurship research. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the challenges affecting entrepreneurship development in Tanzania. Qualitative study comprising of three case studies on Tanzanian SMEs conducted with the aspiration to describe the drivers of being entrepreneurs, drivers for SME development and challenges affecting their business performance.

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Why is it important?

The findings suggest that the motivation for the interviewed owner-managers to start a business varied from their need for independence, to make a living, to increasing personal income. Furthermore, self-determination, creativity, passion and respect for business were at least mentioned by all owner-managers interviewed as a major driver for their success. Other success factors include the desire to fulfill family responsibilities, having more customers and trust. The findings also suggested that lack of access to finance, international competition and cheap imports, a problematic business environment, unreliable power supply and poor infrastructure to be the major factors affecting the performance of wood furniture enterprises in Tanzania

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