Papers by Kenneth Bengesi
Assessing Impact of Biofuel Investments on Local Livelihoods in Tanzania: A case of Kisarawe, Bagamoyo and Kilwa Districts
International Journal of Entrepreneurship, Oct 15, 2022
Over the past decade, the need for improved teaching and learning approaches that enhance entrepr... more Over the past decade, the need for improved teaching and learning approaches that enhance entrepreneurial competencies has been a critical agenda in Tanzania. Despite its importance, the process of realizing entrepreneurial competencies through education, suffers from various shortcomings especially in relation to teaching and learning approaches. This paper assesses the effects of teaching and learning approaches on graduates' entrepreneurial competencies for self-employment in Tanzania. Methodology: The study used a cross-sectional case study research design with the aid of snowball sampling. A sample of 202 respondents was picked from selected universities of Sokoine and St. Augustine of Tanzania. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire which included a Likert scale, key informant interviews and documentary reviews. While content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data, statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze quantitative data. Findings: The results showed that a theoretical active participation approach (with the mean 3.8614) was used to develop capacity that empowered graduates with entrepreneurial competencies indicating a shift from rote learning that previous studies established. Most of the practical teaching and learning approaches ascribing to entrepreneurial framework were, however, not applied to yield greater effect on graduates' self-employment. Based on the results, the paper concludes that universities used only fragments of a student-centered approach as opposed to incorporating the holistic approach recommended for educating for entrepreneurship. Recommendations: The paper recommends that university instructors should apply holistic teaching and learning approaches that would increase graduates' confidence and commitment to seek self-employment in Tanzania.
Effect of changes in business environments on traded medicinal plants products in Tanzania: An explorative study
Heliyon
Influence of Successors’ Entrepreneurial Competencies on Performance in Family-Owned Small and Medium Enterprises in Arusha City, Tanzania
African Journal of Accounting and Social Science Studies
This paper examines attributes of successors’ entrepreneurial competencies such as risk-taking pr... more This paper examines attributes of successors’ entrepreneurial competencies such as risk-taking propensity, ability to exploit business opportunities, innovation and commitment in family businesses in Arusha City, Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was employed using a quantitative survey approach, in which two hundred family business successors provided data for this paper. The data were analysed using the Hierarchical Regression Model to assess the influence of successors’ entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of family-owned SMEs. The findings indicate that successors’ risktaking propensity and the ability to exploit business opportunities influence the performance of family-owned SMEs. The paper concludes that familyowned SMEs managed by successors who can take calculated risks and are also able to exploit business opportunities are in a good position to realize better performance in terms of net profit. It is recommended that family business founders sh...
International Journal of Science and Management Studies (IJSMS)
This study examined the influence of successors’ socio-demographic characteristics on the perform... more This study examined the influence of successors’ socio-demographic characteristics on the performance of family-owned Small and Medium Enterprises. Probability sampling technique was employed to obtain sample of 219 successors. The hierarchical regression model and independent samples t-test were employed to test the study hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that successors’ socio-demographic characteristics, that is, education and business experience have influence on performance of family-owned Small and Medium Enterprises and there is no statistical difference in performance in terms of profit between male and female successors. It was concluded that for performance of family-owned SMEs successor’s sex should not be a factor for consideration in selecting a successor in family-owned SMEs. For good performance of family business, successors’ socio-demographic characteristics mainly education and business experience should be given priority in succession plan. The paper...
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Concerns of food insecurity and climate change are serious global challenges, Tanzania included. ... more Concerns of food insecurity and climate change are serious global challenges, Tanzania included. In response, farm households are using various climate-smart agricultural practises (CSA-practises) which are believed to play a vital role to increase agricultural productivity, increasing resilience to climate change, and reducing mitigation costs for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while improving households' food security. Despite these benefits of CSA-practises but the usage of these practises is still voluntary and its impact on household welfare specifically food security is not well-documented in Tanzania, particularly in Mbeya and Songwe Region. Therefore, the determinants of using CSA-practises (in particular organic manure, drought-tolerant maize seeds, and irrigation) and the impact of the usage of household food security was examined. The cross-sectional study design was used to collect information from farming households in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania (Mbeya and S...
Research Report on Assessment of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Transportation Infrastructure in Tanzania: The Way PPP is Understood, Challenges and the Way Forward
Assessing impact of biofuel investments on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case of Kisarawe, Bagamoyo and Kilwa District
Implication of Biofuel Production on Food Security in Tanzania
Trade Evolution of Medicinal Plants’ Products in Tanzania: An Explorative Study
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022
Journal of Sustainable Development, 2018
Mining has increasingly become an important contributor to the economy of developing countries in... more Mining has increasingly become an important contributor to the economy of developing countries including Tanzania. Since independence, Tanzania has made several efforts in response to address the challenges in the mining sector to enhance its contribution to the national economy. However, such efforts have not been successful in addressing the persisting challenges, which includes lack of expected benefits, failure to develop policy options for making the investment environment supportive for all actors in the sector; hence failure to use mineral wealth sustainably. The reasons for the persistence of these challenges are not well documented especially in relation to the policy framework. While some scholars attribute these challenges to bad deals with mining companies, others blame the government for its failure to effectively implement, monitor and enforce the existing regulatory framework. This paper reviews the policy enabling environment of the mining sector in Tanzania. The res...
International Journal of Business and Management, 2014
This study examined the influence of three dimensions of strategic entrepreneurial response, name... more This study examined the influence of three dimensions of strategic entrepreneurial response, namely market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and networking capability on SME performance necessary for firms to face challenges in competitive environments. The research confirmed positive influence of the three dimensions of strategic entrepreneurial response (SER), namely market orientation (MO), entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and network capabilities (NWC) on small and medium enterprise (SME) performance. The dimensions of SER explained a significant amount of variance (50.1%) in SME performance, with the largest amount (27.1%) of variance accounted for by MO. The findings suggest that emphasis on MO is a firm's strategic choice to generate strategic information which forms a seedbed of opportunities from which entrepreneurial oriented firms identify and proactively seize to build competitive advantage. Contrary to previous studies, which emphasized that opportunity seeking behaviour is a domain of EO, this paper argues that MO is pivotal construct to the SER. This paper views EO as more driven by an advantage seeking behaviour rather than opportunity seeking behaviour as conceptualised before. With these findings, this paper suggest that sustained market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation cultures build opportunity seeking and advantage seeking behaviours, respectively crucial to create and sustain SME performance.
Consumers' perception on adoption of improved cookstoves: a case of Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania
This study was conducted in Kilimanjaro Region to examine consumers' perceptions on adoption ... more This study was conducted in Kilimanjaro Region to examine consumers' perceptions on adoption of Improved Cookstove (ICS) involving 294 households. The results recorded low prominence of positive perceptions among respondents on ICS relative to traditional stoves. Despite several positive attributes of ICS, the study observed that the majority of non-adopters considered positive attributes to be less important in making a decision to adopt the technology, while negative attributes were considered important in guiding decisions not to reject adoption of ICS. Consistently, the study recorded high association between high adoption levels and the relative advantages and adoption of ICS while the non-adopters weighed on the negative attributes to make their decision. This suggests that promoters of ICS should focus on end users, launching awareness campaigns to understand and address factors perceived by end users to be disadvantages of using ICS. The ICS designers and promoters shoul...
Journal of Population and Social Studies, 2017
This study examines high incidence of under-five mortality among agro-pastoralists resulting from... more This study examines high incidence of under-five mortality among agro-pastoralists resulting from lack of access to healthcare facilities. A proportional sampling method was adopted, and descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used in data analysis. The results revealed low dependence of agro-pastoralists on formal healthcare facilities, which could be explained by prevalence of informal healthcare facilities in villages where they reside. Education, income, accessibility, and duration of stay in a particular area accounted for the choice of healthcare facilities. Level of education and income determined preference for formal health facilities, possibly due to influence of education on understanding benefits of treatment in formal health facilities and income to meet associated costs. Accessibility of health facility influenced the decision to patronize formal health facilities. This was evident in villages which were connected to reliable road networks. Additiona...
Household social economic status and adoption of improved cook Stoves: the case of Kilimanjaro region Tanzania
Public private partnership in Tanzania’s transportation infrastructure: the way PPP is understood, challenges and the way forward
Tanzania’s Vision 2025 is based on the overall objective of becoming a middle-income country with... more Tanzania’s Vision 2025 is based on the overall objective of becoming a middle-income country with per capita income growing from the current US$270 to US$ 2,700 by year 2025. As such, the government has targeted infrastructure development by at least 12% per annum between 2006 and 2015 to support agriculture-led economic growth. Alas, the government has not been able to sufficiently fund the development of its transportation infrastructure since the 2010/11 financial year. This has limited the efficiency of the country’s transportation network in supporting economic growth. The nation’s transportation network is comprised of roads, air, railways, pipelines, and water networks. The road network is 86,472 km, of which 12,786 km are classified as trunk road – covering 5,130 km of paved and 7,656 km of unpaved roads; and the regional roads cover a total of 21,105 km, out of which 840 km are paved and 20,265 km are unpaved; and the remaining 52,581 km constitute of district, urban and fe...
Determinants of households’ adoption of improved cook stoves in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania
Awareness of Peri-urban Farmers on the Concept of Climate Change: A Case of Temeke District, Dar es Salaam Region
Journal of environment and earth science, 2016
This study assessed peri-urban farmers’ awareness on the concept of climate change in Temeke Dist... more This study assessed peri-urban farmers’ awareness on the concept of climate change in Temeke District, Dar es Salaam Region. A total of 240 questionnaires were administered to the heads of households in four wards of the study area. Descriptive statistics mainly frequency distribution, percentages and average were used to analyse socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. Perceived indicators and the effects of climate change were measured through a five point Likert Scale. Off the interviewed respondents 97.9% were generally aware of climate change. Farmers’ awareness is manifested through the locally perceived indicators: increase in drought which had a mean score ( ) of 4.4, decline in rainfall ( =3.83), recurrent floods ( =3.83) and rainfall fluctuations ( =3.1). Respondents linked climate change with human activities largely cutting and burning of trees. Farmers’ perceptions are not directly linked with scientific understanding of climate change. The study recommends fo...
GAP analysis: missing elements or actors within the system of governance
This study examined the influence of four dimensions of networking capability (NWC) namely intern... more This study examined the influence of four dimensions of networking capability (NWC) namely internal communication, partner knowledge, relational skills, and coordination in SMEs performance. To attain this objective a cross sectional research design was used in which 291 SME owners / managers in three sectors of economy namely manufacturing, service and retail in Tanzania were interviewed. The results confirm positive influence of three dimensions of NWC (i.e. internal communication, partner knowledge and relational skills) in SME performance and negative influence of coordination in SME performance. These findings suggest that firms’ emphasis on relational skills set a context to identify appropriate partner with relevant resources and capabilities to complement resource needs of firms that subsequently build competitive advantage. Following debate on whether networking is beneficial or not this study ascertain that the benefits of networking are inclined on the ability of a firm t...
Uploads
Papers by Kenneth Bengesi