Application of Local Government Authorities in Urban Tourism Development: Case of Tanzania

Abstract

The issue of climate change among the SMEs is becoming more and more pronounced, especially in the semi-arid parts of the developing economies like Tanzania, where the activity has become a very important issue in the spheres of providing jobs, generating income, and the economic development of the local environment as a whole. Besides discussing the impacts of climate change on the development and resilience of the SMEs in the Dodoma Region, whether the adaptive strategies mediate the association between climate change and the entrepreneurship development, and whether the entrepreneurial ecosystem support mediates the association between climate change and the development of the SMEs in the Dodoma Region are also discussed in this paper. It has been conducted on a questionnaire on 300 SMEs of manufacturing, service, and retail industries. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics analysis, reliability and correlation tests, the multiple regression, and bootstrapping of the mediation and moderation test with the help of SPSS and Smart PLS. The results imply that climate change might result in a significant reduction in income of the SMEs, jobs, productivity, and disruption recovery capacity. Some of the adaptive strategies, such as product diversification, realignments, and networking of operations, were also observed to partially offset these negative effects. Furthermore, supplementary counteraction of the negative outcomes might be attained by offering more successful support (by accessing more finance, information, and institutional resources) of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. These results indicate the need to build regional business ecosystems, such as SMEs in national systems of climate adaptation, and to expand access to climate-related finance (and technical support). SME practitioners should involve active adaptation measures as a means of increasing resilience, protection of livelihoods, and growth in an environment that is slowly transforming into a volatile one.