Factors influencing export performance:a case of gold industry in Tanzania.

The aim of this study was to analyze factors influencing export performance and the case study was gold industry in Tanzania. Specifically the study examined the influence of antecedent factors and mediating/interactive factors on export performances. Antecedent factors comprised managerial, organizational and environmental factors while interactive factors encompassed marketing mix (4P’s). Four hypotheses which comprised thirteen latent variables such as managerial experience and skills in international business, managerial commitment on foreign market opportunities, managerial attitude on export barriers, firm’s size in terms of employees, firm’s financial assets, firm’s age/experience, number of competitors, legal environment, Foreign direct investments, product strategies, pricing strategies, distribution strategies and promotion strategies were analyzed. A structured questionnaire surveyed a sample of 82 gold exporting firms operating in Dar es salaam city whereby chi-square together with multiple linear regression tests of SPSS were used to test each parameters of hypotheses to show to what extent they influences the dependent variable. Most of latent variable were found to be effective in influencing export performances. Due to these results it was therefore recommended that all exporting firms needs to abide to the combined antecedent and interactive model to enhance their export performances.