Supplier Entry Barriers to the Mining Global Value Chain in Zambia: A Regression Analysis

There has been lots of questions on why there is continued escalating poverty levels in Zambia despite the presence of the commercial activities from the mining global value chain. These commercial activities would be helpful in linking small & medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate in the high grade market and supply for sustainable income. Unfortunately, there are barriers of entry that limit supplier entry and participation. The Zambian mines are marred with such barriers as tax compliance, registration processes, licensing requirements, technology upgrade, standards requirements, capacity requirements, managerial competencies, competition barriers and financial constraints. The main objective of the study was to perform a regression analysis and establish the predictor barriers to supplier participation. A survey questionnaire with 350 respondents showed a Cronbach reliability test of 0.812 indicating a good internal consistence. Further Statistics from the SPSS output show the following p-values; tax (0.036), standards (0.033), individual capacity (0.01), financial capital (0.00) as predictors of supplier participation to the mines while registration (0.524), licensing (.267), technology upgrade (.079), managerial skills (.853) and competition (.383) showing that they are not predictors of suppliers’ participation to the mines.？ This means that tax, standards, individual capacity and financial capital sit statistically significant and influence the functioning of the mining value chai