Customer Orientation and Performance of Furniture Manufacturing SMEs in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: The Mediating Effect of Customer Loyalty

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of customer orientation dimensions on the performance of furniture-making SMEs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with a focus on the mediating role of customer loyalty. Design/Methodology/Approach: The survey employed a cross-sectional design, based on the quantitative research method, and covered 364 enterprise managers/owners selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was utilised to perform inferential analysis. Findings: Customer loyalty had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between responsiveness to customer intelligence and firm performance. In contrast, the effect of customer intelligence generation on firm performance was fully mediated by customer loyalty. Research Limitation: Cross-sectional data fundamentally limit the ability to make causal claims despite the use of sophisticated analytical techniques like structural equation modelling (SEM) Practical Implication: It highlights the need to establish a solid framework for collecting and reacting to customer intelligence in order to strengthen their competitive position. Social Implication: Customer loyalty had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between responsiveness to customer intelligence and firm performance. Originality/Value: It deepens understanding of how dynamic capabilities related to customer insight management indirectly drive firm performance.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  African Journal Of Applied Research

• Publication date

  2025-11-05

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.26437/6x8krc58
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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