Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of innovation strategy on economic sustainability in the hospitality industry. The focus is on the tourist hotels in Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach The study uses survey of tourist hotels (n = 346) in the country’s Coastal and Northern tourist circuits. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationship. Findings The findings indicate that innovation strategy in the industry emphasizes on standardized services; service quality; product introduction readiness and lastly on technology usage. Innovation strategy positively relates with the economic sustainability performance. Specifically, the strategy promotes hotels' sustainable growth, resource management long-term profitability, customer satisfaction and value chain management. Practical implications The findings elucidate on how sustainability can be integrated with core business strategies, to make corporate sustainability a reality. The findings also enlighten on the need for hotels to focus on innovation strategy to benefit from sustainability related opportunities. Moreover, the ability to understand customers’ needs and develop innovative services that offer social and environmental solutions can have an important implication on long-term economic success. Originality/value Most studies in the hospitality industry focus on innovative strategies geared towards environmental management. Hence, understanding how innovative strategy influences long-term economic sustainability as a core focus of any business endeavour is important. This study contributes to that body of knowledge as it uses innovation strategy based on Schumpeterian entrepreneurial approach in understanding the role of innovation on economic sustainability.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify and validate indicators of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the hospitality industry, as well as to examine its dimensionality in the context of emerging economies with a specific focus on tourist hotels in Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a mixed-method approach for data collection and analysis. The qualitative study involved 20 in-depth interviews with hotel managers. Based on interview insights, indicators of EO were identified and applied in contextualizing the study and develop the survey questionnaires. The second phase, which was quantitative in nature involved a survey of hotels (n = 346) in the Coastal and Northern tourist circuits of Tanzania for validation and generalization. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze the quantitative data. Findings EO in the studied context consists of proactive-risk-taking, innovativeness and competition approach. Hotels focus on proactive and risk-taking efforts concurrently, undertake wide-ranging acts; pursue bold and risk decisions in exploiting opportunities; being proactive on opportunity exploration but less emphasis on initiation speed on actions of competitors. Innovativeness focuses on providing quality services; standardization of services; product introduction; and technological advancements. Besides, the conventional dimensions, hotels use competition approach geared at extensive marketing; customer management; and flexibility in pricing based on competition. EO also exhibits multidimensionality with its dimensions exhibiting moderate-to-high correlations and with acceptable discriminant validity. Practical implications The study’s findings imply that EO and its respective indicators confirmed in western contexts are not necessarily a perfect reflection and applicable in the hospitality industry in emerging economies like Tanzania. Hospitality firms must be vigilant with contextual characteristics – economically, socially and culturally shaping entrepreneurial opportunities. Originality/value This study identifies and validates indicators of EO in the hospitality industry in emerging economies. Moreover, the study adds to the body of knowledge that EO in this context is also multidimensional in nature.

While entrepreneurship training is essential for the growth and sustainability of enterprises, the literature identifies several challenges which contribute to insufficient transfer (application) of trained materials to enterprises. Yet, the extant literature on training transfer is inconclusive, with minimal focus on trainee personal characteristics and scarce visualization of transfer as a dimensional concept. The study addressed this gap by examining the influence of selected trainee demographics on dimensions of near, far and creative transfer of entrepreneurship training. Based on a survey of 418 trainees in Tanzanian community‐based microfinance institutions, findings reveal that, each dimension of training transfer tested was influenced by a different set of demographic determinants. It was evident that elders were less enthusiastic about near and far application of entrepreneurship training. Males perceived slightly more training transfer in far and creative domains while those with higher education levels were more likely to apply training in all transfer dimensions. Those with exposure to entrepreneurship were more convinced of the value of applying the trained skills to near and creative domains. Consequently, the study advances Andragogy by showing the contextual nature of applicability of its principles, as well as the dependence of training transfer on contextual factors surrounding trainees.

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This article is informed by the planned behaviour and hierarchy of effect theories to examine the influence of five traditional promotion strategies on the performance of commercial banks in Tanzania, taking evidence from one of the leading commercial banks in the country - CRDB Plc. This quantitative based study used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from randomly selected 208 sampled employees. With the support of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, a hypothesised model that included promotion strategies as predictors of commercial banks’ performance was evaluated using a multiple linear regression model. The results supported the hypothesised model, indicating that all the promotion strategies had positive; and only four (excluding publicity) had important influence on the performance of commercial banks. From the findings, the study recommends that commercial banks need to innovatively prioritise adoption of the complementary use of the four significant promotion strategies of sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, and direct marketing to manage the performance of commercial banks. Nevertheless, publicity should not be entirely ignored as it also has some positive effect.