Bewertung des Arabian Journal of Business and Management

Impact of Structural Firm characteristics on Business Performance of SMEs: Evidence from agribusiness firms in Dar es salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

Tresphory O. Mgeni and Parameswar Nayak

This study attempts to determine the relation between Structural Firm characteristics and business performance of agribusiness SMEs in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. The aim is to determine how firm size, age and ownership correlates with business performance in agribusiness SMEs and predict its performance variations. The study is based on field data collected by mailed questionnaires from 60 agribusiness SMEs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and analyzed quantitatively by Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression by SPSS. The findings suggest that, in Tanzania’s context, age has a significant moderate positive correlation with business performance of SMEs while firm size and ownership have insignificant and weak negative correlation with business performance. Furthermore; age, firm size and ownership when regressed simultaneously by multiple regressions are found to be, significant moderate predictors of business performance variations.