Browsing by Subject "sydafrika"
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Barnes, Justin; Lorentzen, Jochen (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper addresses the innovation activities of automotive component manufacturers in South Africa. It looks at the technological trajectory of a handful of firms that stand out from the crowd and analyses the results of their endeavours in the context of their interaction with foreign capital, their internal upgrading and R&D agenda, and their interface with South Africa’s national innovation system (NIS). The analysis makes use of eight case studies, and illustrates the conditions under which indigenous innovation in the automotive industries can happen in a developing country. This finding contradicts at least part of the conventional wisdom concerning the location of innovation activities in global car value chains. Results also point to a deficient NIS insofar as there appears to be a disjuncture between the demand for engineering competence in the manufacturing sector on the one hand and output from the tertiary education sector on the other. Open questions that need further attention include among others the overall functioning of the NIS, and changes over time in the perception of local innovation potential by car assemblers. Keywords: automotive industry, developing countries, technology transfer, technology accumulation, innovation. JEL Classification: L62, O31, O32. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6546 Files in this item: 1
lorentzen_text_nov2003.pdf (547.2Kb) -
A firm level perspecitve on internal learning and organisational behaviourGranerud, Lise (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The auto-components industry has improved its performance significantly in South Africa during the second half of the 1990’s. However, it has not yet reached the level of the international competitors. The present paper suggests that a focus on the firms’ internal conditions is a way to identify obstacles preventing further improvement of performance and competitiveness. Organisational behaviour has increasingly become important internationally in the understanding of firm development and learning in the recent years. This paper argues that it is crucial to take into account the behaviour of the organisation in the perception of the problems connected to the development of technology and capabilities in South African SMEs. The paper builds on the immediate findings of a qualitative case study on technological learning in two auto-components enterprises in Greater Durban, where the organisational behaviour in different ways hinders internal learning. These findings are contrasted with a third firm within the metal sector, which has a very different learning environment. The paper emphasises the importance of including the informal organisational behaviour in the understanding of how to develop the technological resources. The study investigates the physical resources, and the human and organisational resources, and relates these to the routines in the organisational behaviour, including formal and informal work practices and social relations at the shop floor in the understanding of what influence technological learning in these firms. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6987 Files in this item: 1
csds working paper no.37.pdf (316.6Kb)
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