Factors influencing performance of shopping malls in Tanzania: a case of Mlimani city mall, Dar es Salaam.

This study assessed customers’ perception on factors influencing performance of shopping malls in Tanzania. The study was set to include the information about the influence of Availability of Options, Perceived Image, Accessibility of Shopping Mall, and Perceived Quality of Products factors on the performance of shopping malls. The study was designed to employ qualitative research approach that used purposive sampling technique to obtain 150 respondents from Mlimani City Mall in Ubungo municipality of Dar es Salaam City. Empirical data were collected through interview method by the means of self-administered questionnaire. The obtained data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel (MS-Excel) tool, and then presented in terms of pie charts and tables. The findings of the study reveal that all factors have positive influence on the performance of shopping mall. It was evident that Accessibility of Shopping Mall (t=9.896; Sig = .000), Perceived Image (t = 9.250; Sig = .000), Availability of Options (t=14.535; Sig = .000) and Perceived Quality of Products (t=13.648; Sig = .000) factors have strong, significant and positive relationships with performance. They have shown ability to predict and impact the performance of shopping mall in Mlimani City Mall. Overall, it was further indicated that three out of four factors have positive inter-correlation that positively influence the performance of shopping mall (the results of a Pearson correlation test are .336** for Accessibility of Shopping Mall and Availability of Options; .299** for Accessibility of Shopping Mall and Perceived Quality of Products; and .631** for Accessibility of Shopping Mall and performance). It was further shown that Perceived Image factor inter-correlates with Accessibility of Shopping Mall (.306**); Perceived Quality of Products (.277**); and performance (.605**). In addition, Availability of Options inter-correlates with Perceived Quality of Products (.438**) and performance (.767**), while Perceived Quality of Products inter-correlates with performance (.746**). This provides insights that the established factors are significant as they highly associate with each other (.3< │r│> 5). The findings imply that management of Mlimani City Mall should continue improving the performance by focusing more on Perceived Image factor. In the light of this study, it is recommended that Mlimani City Mall and other related authorities adopt the established model and review all significant predictors to improve performance of shopping malls in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.