Mike Morris

The Globalization of Product Markets and Immiserizing Growth: Lessons From the South African Furniture Industry

The central issue addressed in this paper is whether some developing countries will find it difficult to compete effectively in global product markets and will therefore be locked into processes of immiserizing growth. It focuses on the role of South African producers in the global furniture value chain, analyzing the factors affecting firm upgrading, particularly the role of global buyers. The paper observes a global industry characterized by increased competition and falling unit prices, with local firms dependent on a falling exchange rate. It concludes with implications for policy and future research, including generalizing the findings to other sectors and countries.

Class struggle and the periodisation of the state in South Africa

This article represents an attempt to periodise the South African state through an analysis of political class struggle. The analysis draws heavily on the theoretical work of Nicos Poulzantzas. The changing patterns of conflict and alliance between the different classes and “fractions” in the “power bloc” are traced in an attempt to identify changes in the form of state and form of regime. The analysis, concentrating on three historical periods — the Pact period, the Fusion period and the period between 1940 and 1948 — thus provides a fundamental reinterpretation of South African history, and shows how the ground was cleared for the capture of state power in 1948 by those class forces represented by the Nationalist Party.

Using learning networks to enable industrial development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of inter‐firm learning and the ways in which “learning networks” can be established and facilitated. Underlying this is the argument that significant traction on the problem of organizational learning – in this case around process innovations – can be gained through deploying structured and purposeful inter‐organizational learning networks.Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds on three case studies drawn from the experience of firms in South Africa, covering both vertical (supply chain) and horizontal (cross‐sector) groupings in automotive components and timber products.Findings – The paper reports on the ways in which the learning networks were set‐up and operated, mapping this experience against a model framework which emphasizes a number of core operational processes. It suggests that the success of both the automotive component groupings and the failure of the timber products network can be explained through reference to this mode...

South Africa: political violence, reform and reconstruction

The endemic violence sweeping South Africa is often said to be the fault of apartheid. If the point being made is a moral one then this is obviously true. However, if a holistic explanation rooted in material, social and historical processes is being sought then two questions have to be addressed: why is this occurring now when apartheid is in demise rather than 15 or 20 years ago when it was at its peak? Furthermore, why in a society where whites historically have dominated and oppressed blacks, often violently, are black people killing each other rather than whites? Posing these questions recasts ones whole way of looking at violence; that the roots of violence should be sought in the effects of the disintegration of apartheid rather than its continued implementation.

Does e‐commerce fulfil its promise for developing country (South African) garment export producers?

The adoption of e‐commerce applications is promoted in the developing world as a systemic innovation offering producer firms new exchange mechanisms that enable them to compete on a more equal basis in world markets. It promises a radical shift in the way in which international buyers and sellers trade with one another. Empirical evidence obtained from researching leading garment exporting firms in South Africa suggests that B2B e‐commerce is not as effective in reducing transaction costs or in opening up new global market opportunities as claimed by the “optimists”. It has only marginally altered trading and business patterns between international buyers and sellers in the garment industry. The findings indicate that trading relationships in this sector are fostered over extended periods of time, depend on non‐contract based activities and on complex information requirements and tend to be highly personalized. If B2B e‐commerce implementation is to become more widespread, much greater attention will need to be given to the tight and complex interdependencies between buyers and sellers, technological opportunities and constraints, related institutional issues, and the specific characteristics and positioning of South African garment producers within global value chains.

Globalisation, Welfare and Competitiveness: The Impacts of Chinese Imports on the South African Clothing and Textile Industry

The rapid spread of Chinese clothing exports globally is analysed with respect to their competitiveness and welfare industrial policy dimensions, using a framework of complementary/competitive relationships and direct/indirect impacts. The dynamics governing the South African clothing sector, the role of retailers in driving domestic value chains, and the reasons for the huge increase of Chinese clothing imports is discussed. The significant welfare benefit of cheap clothing imports for consumers is detailed. The impact on local manufacturers, forcing them to meet the competitiveness challenge and upgrade their production capabilities, as well as the policy challenges this creates for local producers, is explored.

Developing Manufacturing Competitiveness Within South African Industry: The role of middle management

Survival in highly competitive and fragmented markets requires producers to focus on both price and non-price factors such as quality, innovation, adherence to standards and rapid response as the basis for competitive advantage. In an effort to meet these new demands firms are deploying a range of innovations including advanced equipment and reconfiguration of both their internal organisation and their external relationships The literature on the nature of such innovations and the competitive forces driving firms to adopt them is extensive, but less emphasis is given to questions of how particular firms can choose and effectively implement them. Yet research consistently highlights this area as problematic and points to many influential factors including manufacturing strategy (or its absence), financial, industrial relations, work organisation and project management. One area which receives regular attention of this kind is ‘middle management’ — an organisational grouping which is often seen as a problem and as the source of resistance. It is clear that in a transition from essentially hierarchical organisational forms characterised by high division of labour and extensive use of bounded autonomy, decision rules and standard procedures to more fluid and flexible forms this group is likely to be extensively involved. This paper explores the role of middle management in innovation within the specific context of South Africa, and develops some proposals for mechanisms which might help enhance their contribution to industrial restructuring.

Local embeddedness, upgrading, and skill development: Global value chains and foreign direct investment in Lesotho's apparel industry

Abstract Many low-income countries (LICs) are integrated into apparel global value chains (GVCs) through foreign direct investment (FDI). This is also the case in Lesotho, which developed into the largest Sub-Sahara African (SSA) apparel exporter to the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). More recently, a new apparel export market opportunity has emerged in Lesotho, that of the regional market of South Africa. The two export markets, the US and South Africa, are supplied by different types of FDI firms, affiliates of largely Taiwanese transnational producers and of South African manufacturers that are incorporated into distinct value chains. This paper assesses the implications for upgrading integration into these two value chains in Lesotho, the first value chain characterized by Taiwanese investment and feeding into the US market under AGOA and the second characterized by South African investment and feeding into the South African market. These value chains differ with regard to ownership patterns, end markets, export products, governance structures and firm set-up, investors’ motivations and perceptions on the main challenges. These different characteristics have crucial impacts on upgrading possibilities, including functional, process and ‘local’ upgrading. Thus, from the perspective of upgrading and sustainability, ownership patterns, local embeddedness and market diversification matter. The emergence of South Africa as an alternative end market and the different value chain dynamics operating in the South African retailer-governed value chain open up new opportunities away from those of the AGOA-/Taiwanese-dominated value chain.

The Asian Drivers and SSA: Is There a Future for Export-Oriented African Industrialisation?

Export-oriented industrialisation is the orthodoxy and is widely indicated as a development path for sub-Saharan Africa. In recent years there has been a surge of clothing exports from a limited number of SSA economies to the US. In 2006 these exports accounted for more than half of SSA’s manufactured exports (excluding South Africa). However, the ending of quota controls on Chinese clothing exports to the US led to a significant fall in these exports. Is this a harbinger for the future of export-oriented industrialisation in SSA in a world of a level trading playing field?

Value chain analysis: a tool for enhancing export supply policies

Mainstream economics and the agenda promoted by Washington Consensus institutions focuses on the role played by markets. In recent years, this policy agenda has been concentrated on a series of behind-, beyond- and between-the-border trade-related issues. Whilst valuable, this agenda fails to address some of the major determinants of export supply in developing economies. By contrast, the value chain framework provides a rich agenda for the design and implementation of policies designed to enhance export supply. These issues are addressed in this paper through a discussion of the dynamics of rent and rent appropriation, the growing role of standards and turnkey production. Contemporary global value chains are in a state of flux, with a reduced likelihood of capability-building supply chain programmes in low-income economies outside of Asia.