The The Interplay between Bidding Strategies and Tender Success Rate Among Small and Medium Enterprise Contractors in Tanzania

In a highly competitive construction industry, contractors must secure a sufficient volume of projects and execute them successfully to ensure long-term survival. However, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) contractors lack the requisite knowledge of effective bidding strategies, which hampers their ability to secure tenders. This study aims to assess the bidding strategies employed by SME contractors and examine their impact on tender success rates. A questionnaire survey was conducted with building contractors based in Dar es Salaam. The split sample model validation technique was applied, diving the data into training and validation sets. Pearson correlation was applied to identify bidding strategies with a significant positive relationship with tender success rates, which were subsequently incorporated into the regression model. Moderated multiple regression analysis was performed to model the relationship between independent and dependent variables, with company experience serving as a moderating variable. Among the bidding strategies examined, pricing strategy and market intelligence emerged as having a significant positive relationship with tender success rates. The developed model demonstrated moderate predictive power, with the moderation effect contributing to the explained variance. These findings provide valuable insights for SME contractors regarding the selection of effective bidding strategies to enhance their tender success. This study represents the first empirical investigation in Tanzania to model and quantify the influence of bidding strategies on tender success rates of SME contractors.