Managerial capabilities and their drivers: Lessons from grain-milling firms in Tanzania

Abstract

Despite managerial capabilities being credited for driving business performance, little evidence exists about how those capabilities are acquired. This study investigated managerial capabilities and their drivers in grain-milling firms in Tanzania. Based on a qualitative analysis of ten enterprises, the study reveals four main managerial capabilities adopted by the grain-milling firms, namely, networking, learning, innovation and diversification. It shows that the managerial capabilities of those firms are driven by entrepreneurial vision, managers’ accumulated experience and training, ethnic and family attachments, firm size, feedback on firm performance, access to incubation services and challenges experienced by owner-managers. The study expands knowledge of the essential drivers of managerial capabilities in a developing economy context where the business environment is largely volatile, exhibiting a great variation in firms’ performance across sectors. It proposes strategies for nurturing managerial capabilities to achieve the sustained performance of firms.