Lease price differentiation and its influence on the attraction of micro, small and medium enterprises’ (MSMEs) to major shopping malls in Zambia

Subject and purpose of work: Based on community-wide charges that shopping malls discriminate against small business tenants, this paper seeks: firstly to identify the principal determinants of shopping mall rentals, and secondly to understand if there exists a statistically significant dispersion in rentals against MSMEs. Materials and methods: Relative Importance Index and SPSS (statistical tests) were used to analyze the survey-based data which was acquired from eleven shopping malls in Lusaka. Results: The MSME tenants pay on average $20.32/m2 more than anchor tenants and $19.12/m2 more than chain stores, ironically on account of capital limitations. MSMEs also face an additional risk during sudden economic shocks due to untenable lease provisions and poor negotiating influence. Conclusions: The study concludes by acknowledging that the MSME sector is covertly vitiated by the imposition of high rental premiums. It recommends that shopping malls should have an affirmative simpler letting policy. Furthermore, a shopping mall association should-be commissioned to exclusively safeguard the interests of MSMEs.