Browsing by Author "Thomas, Christina"

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    The role of export processing zones on export growth and export diversification: a case of Export Processing Zones in Tanzania 1993-2008
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2009) Thomas, Christina
    The Export Processing Zones is an industrial zone with special incentives to attract foreign investment, in which imported materials undergo some degree of processing before being exported again. Tanzania adopted the Export Processing Zones in 2003 as one of the trade development tool aimed to promote investment for export led industrialization and increase exports. As envisaged in the Tanzania. Development Vision 2025 targets, Tanzania aims at increasing the share of manufacturing sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 25 percent by 2025. This entails diversification of the economy by introducing new agricultural and manufactured products for exports to that can be attained via Export Processing Zones. This study examines the role of Export Processing Zones in increasing diversifying and increasing exports in Tanzania from 2003 -2008 using a quantitative analysis model. The exports growth is proxied by export values, non EPZ export values, values of capital imports, World Gross Domestic Product and/or output, Average Commodity Prices and Real Effective Exchange Rates. The result from the Johansen co-integration indicates the presence of long run relationship between exports growth, exports from export processing zones and other determinants. In addition, the findings show that most important factors that determine the growth of exports have been captured in the model. The study finds the existence of a significant role of Export Processing Zones on exports growth and diversification. This justifies for improved policies that will spearhead the realization of the motives towards establishment of Export Processing Zones in Tanzania.
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    The role of social networks in building customer-brand relationships in Tanzania: case of study of Hotels in Dar es Salaam
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2015) Thomas, Christina
    This study assessed the role of Social media website in building Consumer-Brand Relationship (CBR). Specially, the study analyzed the extent to which the consumer knowledge on the use social media websites relates to consumer brand relationships. The data were collected from respondents/customers encountered during the time of data collection at the selected hotels in Dar es Salaam. To enrich sample fan-page followers were sent the link of the questionnaires online so as to reach customers outside Dar es Salaam. A total of 187(93.5%) questionnaires were collected and analyzed out of 200 questionnaires distributed. Basing on the nature of this study, both quantitative and qualitative data were generated and analyzed. The quantitative data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics which included both means and percentage. After conducting confirmatory factor analysis, the present study identified consumer attitude, consumer’s trust, consumer’s brand knowledge and the customer loyalty programs as the predictors of member participation in hotel and restaurant Facebook fan pages. The study found that customers attitude toward the hotel brands positively influenced by members ‘community participation in Facebook fan-pages; member participation were positively influenced by their trust toward a hotel brand. Biological gender had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between functional benefits and community participation in the hotel study. The findings of this study provide significant insights for the researchers and marketers. The present study recommends significant strategies for online community design by identifying how Facebook fan-page of a brand’s hotel used to create a strong CBR. The study identified customer attitude, brand knowledge, brabd trust and customer loyalty as important customer attitude, brand knowledge, brand trust and customer loyalty as important customer characteristic of the customer were found to be affected by the access and use of social networks. From a managerial perspective, marketers of hotel brands ‘pages first need to be aware of their members ‘characteristics and understand who their members are before developing strategies for successful Facebook pages.