A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of Master of
Business Administration in Corporate Management (MBA- CM) of Mzumbe
University
This research examined the factors that influence the consumption of cultivated edible
mushrooms in Ilala Municipal. The main objective of this study was to examine
factors influencing consumption of cultivated edible mushrooms, with three specific
objectives: to determine whether psychological factors, personal factors and social
and cultural factors influence the consumption of cultivated edible mushrooms.
Conceptual framework, of this study, was the construct of the independent variables
composed of factors influencing consumption of cultivated edible mushrooms in the
categories of Psychological factors, Personal Factors and Social-cultural factors, and
the second part of the construct was made up of the consumption of mushrooms.
The study used a cross-sectional exploratory research design followed with the
descriptive analysis to examine factors that influence the consumption of mushrooms on
the participants of the study who happened to be involved in the study at one point in
time. The sample size was 157 participants obtained through convenience sampling
techniques where else, a method for data collections was questionnaires.
The findings indicated that the following factors influenced the consumption of
cultivated edible mushrooms particularly in Ilala Municipal: perceived nutritional
value, perceived toxicity, and perceived taste under the category of psychological
factors. Also, it was indicated that social-cultural factors such as ethnicity influences
consumption while personal factors and religion do not influence the consumption of
cultivated edible mushrooms. It is recommended that the Government should
incorporate mushrooms in the horticultural strategic plans in order to develop and
encourage mushrooms production for business and income generation while also
producers and marketing personnel should employ proper marketing strategies that
meet the needs of customers.