Examining the Relationship between Enterprise Risk management Practices and the Perceived Sustainability of the Emerging and Junior Mining Sector in South Africa
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The study sought to relationship between enterprise risk management practices (ERM) and perceived sustainability of emerging and junior mining sector in South Africa as it creates employments and mineral diversification. This sector remains vulnerable to various risks factors including financial and regulatory among others. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between enterprise risk management practices and perceived sustainability of emerging and junior mining sector in South Africa. The study was anchored upon the governance theory. The study adopted the use of a quantitative methodology with a cross-sectional design using a secondary data panel downloaded from Kaggle data repository. The sample size of the study was 500 which included 262 males and 238 females who work in different mining organisational sizes. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling were tested and run to test the hypothesised statements. The results of OLS regression model 1 show that ERM_Governance has a positive and significant effect on sustainability and ERM_Value shows a negative and significant association, and other ERM dimensions are positive but not statistically significant. OLS regression Model 2 for perceived socio-economic importance shows that ERM_learning is a positive and significant predictor of socio-economic importance, and other ERM dimensions are not significant in this model. On the SEM front, ERM practices exhibited strong positive effects on both perceived sector sustainability and socio-economic importance (p < 0.001). Perceived sector sustainability significantly mediated the relationship between ERM practices and socio-economic importance (p < 0.001). Additionally, organisations size and mining experience were found to significantly moderate the ERM-sustainability relationship (p < 0.05), indicating the presence of contextual effects within the emerging and junior mining sector. The theoretical implication suggests that ERM should be taken as a monolithic construct but rather as a set of complementary dimensions with distinct outcome pathways. Practically, the results imply that policymakers and mining executives should prioritise strong governance and accountability systems to enhance sustainability perceptions while simultaneously investing in learning and collaborative capabilities to maximise socio-economic impact.