Contribution/ OriginalityThis study contributes in the existing literature by comparing social capital in business set-up in countries belonging to the same regional block. Available literature concern largely with measuring it at the aggregate national and cross-country frameworks in informal groupings, political and democratic aspects lacking focus on business and regional orientations.

The world’s new ideologies of regionalisationism and globalizationism anchor on the role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for promotion of a healthy business climate for upgrading the private sector and engineering for economic efficiency and development. SMEs have been a mechanism of inclusion and equity for economic empowerment and deepening of economic and business services especially in developing countries. The SMEs‘cultural and socio-economic importance has driven the initiation of national SME development in many countries. SMEs have gained elevating importance in developed and developing economies, have the capability of quick adaptation, low cost of management, less capital and sometimes labor intensive for enabling cheap production. Despite their size related weaknesses, SMEs are less affected by economic crises due to their inherent flexibility and adaptability characteristics. SMEs are vital actors for enhancing entrepreneurial innovation and innovation system as well as competitiveness in economies. National SME development policies, being high level political intent, directives and guidelines are critical for development, coordination and deployment of potential and available resources and capabilities. The paper, therefore, aims at analyzing and comparing the presentations of SME development policies of Tanzania and Rwanda based on policy framework options namely, focus, significance, challenges and participation. The findings show elevating differences in various spheres of the policy processes including the SME definition, vision, mission and objectives in terms of activeness in presentation, political flavour, sharpness of intent and sense of anticipated commitment. This implies a continued gap of SME development between countries under review and other East African Community (EAC) member countries until policies affecting SMEs are harmonized.Keywords: SMEs, Policy Presentation, Policy Framework, Entrepreneurship, BDS, Tanzania, Rwanda

Analyzing the role of research and development (R&D) innovation and competitiveness in economic development is important for determining country's entrepreneurial stance, global economic and business positioning and competitiveness. The empirical synthesis of the connective relationship of R&D, innovation and competitiveness confirms their significance and indispensable role for entrepreneurial and sustainable developmental outcomes. This study isolates other development influencing factors such as good governance, effective public administration, law enforcement, protection of intellectual rights and other contextual-factors and only considers the outcomes of R&D, innovation and competitiveness in the analysis. The study aligns the outcome of investment in R&D, innovation activities and competitiveness of countries. Based on literature and examples from developed and developing economies, international benchmarks statistics on GERD and GERD percentage of GDP, innovation (GII) and competitiveness (GCI) are used for comparison between countries. The findings show that countries that invest more in R&D tend to be more innovate and competitive in both regional and global phenomena. Increased investment in R&D is recommended as policy and strategic priority for enhancing innovation and subsequently competitiveness of the national economy in a global playground. The implication is that countries that invest more in R&D can develop faster, have speedier promotion of prioritized sectors, tend to attract partnerships globally, and can enable public private partnership (PPP) and improve people's standard of living.

This paper contributed in covering this gap. Overall study findings revealed that Rwandan BAs internal performance was relatively better compared to Tanzanian ones. It is recommended that the structure of apex organization to be formally hierarchical to avoid multiple memberships and conflicts with other member-based associations.