Abstract:
Worldwide including Tanzania, urban and rural women owned Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) have shown differences in entrepreneurial capabilities. This study compares the
performance between urban and rural women owned SMEs in Chamwino and Dodoma urban
districts in Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey involving use of a questionnaire was
administered to 240 respondents to collect quantitative data. Additionally, eight case studies
were developed from qualitative data collected using in-depth interview. Independent samples t-
test was used to compare existence of differences in business performance between urban and
rural women owned SMEs. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings
show that business performance between rural and urban SMEs were statistically different (p <
0.01) whereas the mean score for the performance of urban women owned SMEs was 3.0 times
that of their counterpart rural owned women SMEs. The findings further indicate that socio-
cultural factors such as low level of education, unbalanced family role, poor access to business
information, absence of role models, poor financial control, poor access to credit; poor societal
attitude and support were highly pronounced in rural areas. These findings imply that urban
women owned SMEs are entrepreneurially more favoured than those in rural areas. Based on
findings, the study concludes that differences in business performance between women owned
SMEs are due to socio-cultural factors differences which exist between rural and urban
business environments. It is recommended that such differences in socio-cultural factors need to
be addressed through different entrepreneurial programmes such as training and mentorship
