Search results

This paper aims to report on the results of a study carried out to establish the contribution of business choice and location decision to the success of small and medium enterprises in an emerging economy like Uganda.

This study is cross-sectional and correlational. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 181 small and medium restaurants. The data were analyzed through correlation coefficients and hierarchical regression using statistical package for social sciences.

The findings reveal that both business choice and location decisions positively and significantly contribute to the success of small and medium enterprises. However, it was noted that more attention should be paid to location decision than business choice as determinants of SME success.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the contribution of business choice and location decision to the success of SMEs using evidence from a developing African country like Uganda. Finally, this research offers practical contributions to managers and owners of SMEs who have to make strategic decisions for firm profitability, survival and growth in the competitive business arena.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between leadership styles and Organizational commitment among academic staff in Ugandan Public Universities, mediated by Job Satisfaction.

The study was cross-sectional, quantitative, and used correlation and regression to test the hypothesis. A sample of 353 academic staff was drawn from five public universities in Uganda, of which a response rate of 66 percent was obtained.

Organizational commitment among academic staff in public universities in Uganda depends on the age of the academic staff, length of service, position level, leadership styles employed, and job satisfaction. Findings further show that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment.

Only a single research methodological approach was employed; thus, future research through interviews could be undertaken to triangulate.

In order to boost the organizational commitment among academic staff in Ugandan Public Universities, managers should always endeavor to employ a blend of leadership styles that leads to job satisfaction and can add value to the employee-employer relationship.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by finding further support on the relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment among academic staff in Ugandan public universities. It further demonstrates that job satisfaction partially transmits the effect of leadership styles on organizational commitment in public universities in Uganda.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) and business sustainability among youth and women entrepreneurs using the institutional theory.

This study is cross-sectional and follows an explanatory research design using 390 youth and women entrepreneurs in Mbarara district (Uganda). A principal factor analysis was conducted to single out the particular constructs of business sustainability and EFC. Inferential analysis was conducted to test the relationships.

First, the constructs of business sustainability are stakeholder engagements, people and skills, ecosystem management, market and sales and innovation. Second, the constructs of EFC are education, government program and policies, IT infrastructure, market openness and finance. Finally, finance and IT infrastructure are significant predictors of business sustainability among the youth and women entrepreneurs.

The examination of EFCs from the perspective of the consumers/beneficiaries can offer reasonable results when compared to the national expert perspective.

This study generates initial evidence on the applicability of EFCs from the perspective of the individuals as opposed to the national experts.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of financial management practices and competitive advantage on loan performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs).

In this cross-sectional study, the authors surveyed 70 MFIs in Kampala, Uganda. The authors applied principal component analysis to reduce the number of factors and identify the important elements that capture financial management practices, competitive advantage and loan performance of MFIs. The authors put forward and tested three hypotheses relating to the significance of the relationship between these three variables of MFIs using the statistical software package, SPSS and also apply the normal theory approach developed by Sobel (1982) and Baron and Kenny (1986) in testing the mediation by competitive advantage.

Robust financial management practices are associated with better loan performance of MFIs. Results also reveal a significant positive relationship between the competitive advantage of the MFIs and their loan performance. Furthermore, a significant positive relationship between competitive advantage and loan performance is found. Moreover results also show a full mediation effect of competitive advantage on the association of financial management practices and loan performance, implying that the association of financial management practices of the MFIs on their loan performance is entirely through their competitive advantage.

Although there is plenty of literature on loan performance, financial management practices and competitive advantage, there is scarce literature on their effective conceptualization. This together with the imprecise definition of competitive advantage may have affected conceptualization of the authors study. Thus, in this study, the authors do not claim highly refined measurement concepts. Moreover, many of the extant studies for instance have measured loan performance quantitatively, yet process factors which are inherently qualitative in nature can better explain variances in loan performance concept. More research is therefore needed to better refine qualitative concepts used in this study.

Efforts by the MFIs management to improve loan performance must be matched with adoption of financial management practices that provide MFIs with sustained competitive advantage over their rivals.

In order to explain loan performance of MFIs, and drawing from social economics, management and accounting strands, this study shows that assessing the role of competitive advantage in the relationship between financial management practices and loan performance is imperative. Also, many of the extant studies have measured loan performance quantitatively, yet process factors or antecedents which are inherently qualitative in nature can better explain variances in loan performance concept. Thus this study calls for the refinement of loan performance concept and accounting for endogeneity.