Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to establish the Critical Success Factors
(CSFs) for the primary Agricultural Marketing Co-operatives Societies (AMCOS) at
Rombo District in Tanzania. Specifically, the study aimed to establish factors that
members perceive to be critical to their success, and to assess their contribution to
the AMCOS performance. The study identified factors through intensive literature
review, then refining them before testing them through survey to members and employed survey by distributing 334 questionnaires to members to the AMCOS that
have the autonomy to do business directly without dependingon their umbrella
institutions. Qualitative data were also used in order to validate the quantitative
data. Data from survey were analysed by factor analysis in order to have factors
which were mostly accepted by the AMCOS members. After categorising the factors
obtained from the factor analysis, regression analysis was conducted to assess their
influence on the performance. Qualitative data were analysed using content
Analysis by the help of ATLAS Software. The study established Eleven (11) CSFs that
were categorised into: commitment (use of personal skills, members’ control and
promotion), governance (measurement system, governance structure, leadership
support, and transparency), strategy (self-evaluation, objective development,
strategy focused, living the vision of the institution). The study found the CSFs to
have positive significant influence on the primary AMCOS performance. The study
concludes that members of the primary AMCOS do have their common factors
which they believe to be key for the success of their institutions, that affect
positively the performance of their cooperatives. The study recommends that, the
CSFs suggested by the members should be given priority in any decision that is
intended to affect the cooperatives that can be easily translated according to their
expectations to have strong institutions.
