Abstract:
The resource endowment of business development service providers (BDSPs)
is crucial for the provision of services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
This paper assessed BDS providers’ resource endowment and the extent to
which it enhances service delivery to SMEs in Arusha City and Moshi
Municipality. A total of 65 BDS providers and 254 SMEs were sampled for the
study. A cross-sectional design was used for this study. Respondents were
sampled using purposive and simple random sampling. Data were collected
through a questionnaire-based survey, focus group discussions, observation and
documentary reviews. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data,
while quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS). The results indicated that BDS providers hardly have sufficient
resource endowment to deliver their BDS to SMEs in the form of human
capital, physical resources, networking ability and information systems.
However, the level of resource endowment differs among BDS providers.
Similarly, the surveyed BDS providers were not performing to their full
potential in service delivery due to a number of challenges they were encountering. Among the reported challenges facing BDS providers were
SMEs’ slow rate of adopting new knowledge and technology and insufficient
financial and human resources and geographical location. The study concludes
that resources such as human capital, physical capital, networking abilities, and
information systems available among BDS providers contribute to building
their capabilities to deliver services to SMEs. The study recommends that BDS
providers capitalize on their resources to be in a better position to provide
competitive services to their clients.
