Title: Effect of compliance with public procurement legal regime on SME policy implementation in Zambia

Authors: Shem Sikombe

Addresses: Copperbelt University, School of Business, P.O. Box 21692, Kitwe, Zambia

Abstract: The study investigates how compliance with the public procurement regulatory framework improves the implementation of SME policy. Prior studies have reported varied findings on how policy familiarity, professionalism, sanctions and monitoring influence compliance. The research tested the hypotheses using multiple regression analysis and mediation with bootstrapping procedure on a sample of 104 public buyers. The results showed that policy monitoring and sanctions significantly influence compliance. However, policy familiarity and professionalism were not statistically significant. The results also show that the relationship between policy monitoring and SME policy implementation is mediated by compliance. Similarly, the relationship between the enforcement of sanctions and SME policy implementation is significantly mediated by compliance. Whereas the existing literature in public procurement research focuses on achieving primary objectives such as a competitive price, this study concentrates on public buyers' regulatory compliance and implementation of secondary goals such as SME-oriented policies.

Keywords: public procurement; regulatory compliance; SME policy; Zambia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2023.134628

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2023 Vol.18 No.4, pp.527 - 545

Received: 28 Apr 2022
Accepted: 19 Jun 2022
Published online: 01 Nov 2023 *

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