Abstract:
T
This research aims to fill a literature gap of explaining SMEs’ participation and success in public
procurement based on two main reasons. First, the conventional thinking both at the academic and
policy level is that SMEs’ participation and success is similar. However, the drivers for participation
and success are different. Let’s take an example of an SME that has been given preference in the
legal perspective but due to high level of competition still the SME may not be able to compete. This
research challenges the mainstream understanding by attempting to explain the drivers for SMEs
success on public procurement. Second, there are relatively few studies that focus on this area and
this dissertation filled the research gap. Because there are some researches done in other contexts
such as in developed economies, this dissertation brought into academic debate Arusha City Council
as a new context that was not studied. It was also noted that most of the academic works in this area
has focused on the internal factors of success and suppliers’ perspective on participation and
success in public procurement is scant in the existing literature. Thus, the specific objectives of this
study were related to examining information access, level of education of owners, managerial skills
and financial resource ownership among SMEs.
From methodological stance, this report deployed a mixed method approach. First, qualitative data
were collected through an interview guide targeted to purposively selected suppliers up to the level of
saturation. Specific cases of suppliers’ contracts (two of them) were holistically analysed to
triangulate the quantitative information. Second, Quantitative information were obtained through
structured questionnaire distributed randomly and accidentally as suppliers arrived at Arusha City
Council.
