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In developing nations like Tanzania understanding on the significant of Intellectual
property rights in performance of SMEs is exceptionally low whereby a large portion
of enterprises fail within their five years of existence. The study aimed at assessing
the role of intellectual property rights on the development Small and medium
Enterprises in Tanzania. Specifically, the study aimed to determine the extent to
which SMEs in Tanzania own Intellectual Property Rights, to explore the profile of
SMEs that own Intellectual Property Rights in Tanzania and to examine the influence
of intellectual property Rights in SMEs performance in Tanzania. The study used
various theories to guide the study; theories such as resource based theory, Property
Right Theory, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the theory of innovation. Variables
like copyright, patent right, trademarks and designing developed from the theoretical
framework and empirical studies were used to determine the SMEs performance The
study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and used a simple random sampling to
get a sample size of 99 SMEs owners; data obtained from primary and secondary
source and questionnaires, interview and documentary reviews methods were used to
collect data. Data collected was analyzed descriptively using Statistical Package for
Social Science (SPSS). The study found that; the use of intellectual property rights
result in increased of SMEs investment and productivity. Additionally, formal rights
allow property to be used as collateral against credit while and Intellectual property
rights enable resources to be put to more productive uses. The results also show that
the average business sales turnover at the year has increased by 8 percent to the
SMEs with Intellectual Property Rights. The study concluded that secure property
rights are significant for guarantee-based money at full scale level. In the light of the
above findings, the study recommends that, the government should set up a policy
framework to enable SMEs exploit the potential advantages of IPRs in order to
enhance their financial performance. The study further recommends that the policy
should be supplemented by the IPRs laws with measures such as establishing procompetition IPRs standards, ensuring that the market environment is competitive,
developing complementary competition policies and developing internal capacity to
create, absorb and use IPRs |
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