University of Dar es Salaam Business School

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Browsing University of Dar es Salaam Business School by Subject "adoption of standards,"

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    Adoption of standards and certification among Tanzanian agribusiness firms for export: demystifying gaps in internationalisation theory
    (Business Management Review, 2016, 2016) Elly, Tumsifu
    This paper is based on the thesis that standards and their derivative certification are missing in the rubrics of the internationalisation theory. The paper draws on findings from a study that was carried out to explain the relevance of standards and their attendant certification in explaining internationalisation from the Tanzanian agribusiness context. The study’s three specific objectives were to determine the relevancy of standards in explaining export and internationalisation of agribusiness in the Tanzania context; determine the requirements for the adoption of standards for export; and find out the challenges to the adoption of standards among smallholder producers and exporters. Data from in-depth interviews of five cases were subjected to thematic and cross-case analysis prior to explanation building. The study findings show that, the adoption of standards and certification of agro-commodities constitute an important vehicle for internationalisation among smallholders in the context under review as such certification offers a new explanation to agribusiness firms’ internationalisation. However, the beneficiaries are those capable of guaranteeing smallholders’ vindication and ability to abide by the standards and produce enough quality commodities that meet the requirements and satisfy the demand. The study established that the major constraint defining Tanzania’s agribusiness export is related to the land tenure system, which causes diseconomies of scale. In consequence, production is fragmented into small pieces of land over a wide area. Moreover, neither the network nor the born global or international new venture theories perfectly explain …