The purpose of this paper is to identify important university-industry linkage (UIL) activities that can stimulate the likelihood of employability among students. Design/methodology/approach A total of 404 respondents located in Tanzania, comprising students, faculty members and employees from 20 companies operating within the oil and gas industry and mining constitute the empirical basis for the study. Descriptive analysis, the Mann-Whitney U-test and a Kruskal-Wallis test were applied to help analyse the data.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the perceptions of both universities and the resource-extractive companies on the influence of university-industry linkages (UILs) on innovation in a developing country. Design/methodology/approach A total of 404 respondents were interviewed. Descriptive analysis and multinomial logistic regression models were applied to analyse the data. Findings The findings revealed significant differences between the three informant groups across the three main groups of linkage activities. The industry informants consider all three groups of UILs important for enhancing innovation, in terms of bringing student closer to the industry. The faculty members consider consultancy and research arrangements more important than collaboration, in training and educational activities. The student perceptions on all UIL activities were relatively weak on UIL activities as a vehicle to improve innovation. Research limitations/implications Based on the findings, it seems that the universities should take advantage of a positive attitude among industrial actors and intensify efforts to develop UILs. Practical implications The research can be used for sharpen international oil companies effort towards universities in petroleum rich developing countries. Social implications Implications for policymakers and universities in developing countries, and for the local industrial base. In a broad sense the UIL stimulated innovation has implications on poverty reduction in natural resource-rich host countries. Originality/value Research on UILs in developing countries is rare, particularly in a context in which international companies are faced with host country expectations and legal requirements to invest in knowledge sector and local industry.

Ugandan micro-and small enterprises (MSEs) still perform poorly. The paper utilizes data collected in Uganda in March and April 2003 to analyze the business constraints faced by these MSEs. Using a stratified random sampling, a sample of 265MSEs were interviewed. The study focuses on the 105 manufacturing firms that responded to all questions. It examines the extent to which the growth of MSEs is associated with business constraints, while also controlling for owners' attributes and firms' characteristics. The results reveal that MSEs' growth potential is negatively affected by limited access to productive resources (finance and business services), by high taxes, and by lack of market access.