ABSTRACT
The DR Congo is one of the African countries rich in minerals ranged from amblygonite to Zinc. However, only three African countries namely Botswana, Namibia and South Africa are known as mineral-dependent economies which do not suffer from “the curse of minerals”. In 2006 Atalli predicted the collapse of the DR Congo owing to various reasons including large scale corruption in the coltan supply chain. Thus, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act requiring any company that might be using conflict minerals to register with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and then disclose its supply chain was introduced. As such, the Act curbed the fate of the “curse of minerals in the DR Congo”. However, the problem is that president Trump’s executive order to review the Dodd-Frank Act in effort to allow US companies to profit from armed-conflicts minerals threatens existing due diligence framework in coltan supply chain. That review has the potentials to fuel armed-conflicts, creates opportunism, erode relational norms, trust; thus undermines the country’s 2020 nation branding vision as emerging business destination. The study objective is to evaluate the impact of Trump’s Dodd-Frank Act revision in the coltan supply chain in the DR Congo and the country’s 2020 nation banding vision. The study focused only on the implications of Trump’s threats in coltan supply chain in the DR Congo; thus alternatively excludes other type of minerals. Hence, it contributes to the body of knowledge by providing new insights into nation branding theory and Congolese coltan supply. The study adopted a case study approach which was grounded in the theoretical framework of nation branding. The nature of study dictated qualitative and quantitative methodologies combined. Survey questionnaire and focus group techniques were used. The sample size N=74 respondents from coltan buying organisations was used. Non-probability purposive sampling method was employed.
References
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ABC News. (2016). What Is Coltan? Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=128631&page=1 [Accessed on 29/07/2016].
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Babbie, E. & Mouton, J. (2001). The Practice of Social Research. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
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Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2011). 3rd Ed. Business Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press.
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