Lack of African competitiveness: Who to blame?

Firms located in developing countries generally encounter difficulties in meeting the challenging standards of the oil and gas supply chain. Starting from this consideration, the present study aims to reveal whom the Tanzanian firms blame for their lack of competitiveness (government, foreign companies, local firms). Quite surprisingly, this study reveals that more motivated and well-connected firms blame the government and – to a lesser extent – foreign companies, whereas less motivated firms tend to blame themselves. These results contradict the premises of theories about motivation and, therefore, lead to interesting implications for each of the actors involved in local content dynamics.