Abstract:
Tanzania is promoting industrialization with a motive to attain the middle economy status
and broaden employment opportunities to the country’s population. This study analysed the
competitiveness of textile industries in Morogoro and Dar es Salaam regions, Tanzania. More
specifically, the overview of textile industries, their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats (SWOC). Furthermore, were analysed by examining the competitiveness score among
the firms in the area of study. The study used both primary and secondary data, secondary data
were collected from official publications and records provided from the respective firms, while
and primary data were collected from seven operating textile industries in the study area. The
data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and observation. Descriptive analysis
was used to examine the firm’s performance, SWOC analysis was used to identify the strengths
and weaknesses and the GEM Model was used to examine the competitiveness score. The results
showed that, privately owned firms had a competitive advantage as opposed to public owned firms.
Furthermore, the overall average GEM scores for competitiveness of the textile industries was
178 and industries with below 178 were considered as having competitive disadvantage. On the
other hand, industries above 178 were considered as having a competitive advantage of above the
national level. Hence, such textile industries were more competitive than was the case with the rest
of textile industries and possesses the nationwide competitive advantage. Privately owned firms
had a higher GEM competitive score than public owned firms. From the study, it is recommended
that the textile and apparel firms need to consider adopting competitive strategies to enable them
compete in a sustainable manner. Thereby, firms need to take into consideration the dimensions
of diamond conditions in preparing for the corporate strategies that aim at attaining sustainable
competitive advantage.
