An exploration of marketing entry strategies of SMES in Tanzania: a case of Dar es Salaam

The research focused on exploration of market entry strategies of SMEs in Tanzania. It attempted to establish the demographic characteristics of SMEs, business characteristics of SMEs, and cultural factors that influence the market entry strategies of SMEs in Tanzania. Questionnaires were distributed to 31 respondents who were asked to provide their views regarding the choice of market entry strategies of SMEs. The descriptive analysis was used to analyse data and Chi-Square analysis was used to test the difference between expected and observed variables related to the choice of market entry strategies. The research findings indicate that business’ characteristics of SMEs, political factors, economic factors and cultural factors have significant influence on the choice of market entry strategies by SMEs in Tanzania. Other factors like age, gender, types of business and ownership structure of business were observed to have no significance on the choice of market entry strategies .It is recommended that more research should be carried out to provide an in-depth knowledge about factors affecting choice of market entry strategies, the challenges which face the SMEs in selecting the market entry strategies of SMEs in Tanzania.