Prof Mike Morris

Prof Mike Morris, BA (UCT) BA Hons (UCT) MA (Sussex) PhD (Sussex)

Director: Policy Research on International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM)

Professor, School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Professor Mike Morris is Research Professor and Head of PRISM (Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing) in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town. He also has a joint appointment as Research Professor in the School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, of which he was founder and Head from 1995 – 2002.

Mike Morris undergraduate training was at the University of Cape Town. He obtained an MA (Comparative Politics) and a PhD (from the Institute of Development Studies) at the University of Sussex. Upon returning to South Africa in 1976 he lectured at the University of Cape Town, and spent a number of years working as a part time trade unionist, for which he was detained in prison for 3 months. In January 1982 he temporarily left academia and took up the full-time position, as Branch Secretary of the General Workers Union in Durban. In 1986 he returned to academia as a senior researcher at the University of Natal. Whilst an academic in 1988 he started a national association for academics opposed to the Apartheid regime - the Union of Democratic University Staff Associations - and was elected general secretary (1988-90) and deputy president (1991). He then concentrated on pursuing an academic and management career in the university and private sector environment.

Prof Morris’ major activities have centred on research, strategy development, institutional management, facilitation, policy work, funding networking, competitive assistance to firms, developing training materials, and undertaking various training programs.

Prof Morris has been the recipient of a number of major international research grants and managed a large number of research projects. He has published widely in the fields of: development, political economy, international competitiveness; industrial restructuring and industrial policy; global value chains; e-commerce; political conflict and violence; race and racial policy; union and labour movements; urban development; social differentiation and economic growth; state and economy; the politics of donor funding; telecommunications policy; political economy of agrarian issues. His recent research, policy activities and publications have focused on the power dynamics of global value chains, industrial restructuring and international competitiveness. During his career he has published in journals such as: World Development, European Journal of Development Research, Competition and Change, Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford Development Studies, Geoforum, Institute of Development Studies Bulletin, Technovation, Economic and Political Weekly, International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development Antipode, Telecommunication Policy, Review of African Political Economy, Labour Capital and Society, International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development Economy and Society, Journal of Development Studies, Transformation, South African Review, Development Southern Africa, South African Labour Bulletin, Urban Forum.

He was a founding editor of the journal Transformation, was on the editorial board of Development Southern Africa, and editor-at-large for Capitalism, Nature and Society.

In addition to his research experience, Mike Morris has also been intimately involved in policy work, both with respect to South Africa and internationally. In South Africa he has been a member of a number of committees assisting government with policy work around economic growth, manufacturing sector development, environmental issues, industrial restructuring and competitiveness, and telecommunication policy. In the early 1990s, he assisted COSATU and the ANC in opposition formulate policies for the transition to democracy. In post apartheid South Africa, some of the committee and policy work he has been engaged are: the advisory committee writing the Green Paper on Telecommunication Policy; the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Growth and Development Strategy team; the Northern Cape Manufacturing Development team; the Danish Co-operation for Environment and Development Program Formulation Mission to South Africa; the European Union/SA Department of Trade and Industry Policy Support Program; the Danish Foreign Ministry/SA Department of Trade and Industry joint evaluation of the business-to-business programme. He has been Oversight Member of the Micro-Economic Development Strategy for the Western Cape Provincial Government from 2005 to 2009.

In terms of international policy activities, Prof Morris has worked with the International Trade Centre in Geneva assisting with their programmes on export promotion and global value chains. To this end he has presented at workshops organised by the ITC and host governments in Kenya, Uganda, and Kyrgizstan. As international policy expert, he assists the African Clothing and Leather Research Network, institutionally located in the Institute of Development Studies, Nairobi, which has members from a number of African countries. Prof Morris was a member of a four person international panel review committee overseeing UNIDO’s Combating Marginalization and Poverty through Industrial Development (COMPID) programme. He is founding Advisory Board member of the "Centre for Business and Development Studies" at the Copenhagen Business School. He was a member of the Global Value Chain Network funded by the Rockefeller Foundation – a group of select international experts meeting and promoting research and policy work on value chains. In collaboration with colleagues at the Institute of Development Studies (Sussex), the Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM) at the University of Brighton, and Cranfield Management School, he developed a toolkit (a CD with six Manuals) - Manufacturing Excellence for World Class Standards - assisting firms to become internationally competitive. He was invited to present in the panel on Global Value Chains and Networks: opportunities and challenges at the UNIDO/UNCTAD XI Workshop (Sao Paulo, June 2004). He is currently a Steering Committee Coordinator of a large global programme run by the African Economic Research Consortium, on the impact of Asian Drivers on Africa. He is a project leader of Making the Most of Commodities Programme for Africa investigating an alternative industrialisation path for African countries.

In collaboration with international colleagues from IDS and CENTRIM, Prof Morris has also been active in devising and running training programs, delivered in paper manuals and also electronic CD format, directed at raising the international competitiveness of manufacturing industry. These have been for senior and line management as well as government.

He has undertaken substantial private sector work through various consultancy operations on a wide range of issues. In addition he is a director of Benchmarking and Manufacturing Analysts (BMA) which assists firms in industry and government on benchmarking, inter-firm learning, clustering, industrial restructuring, international competitiveness and operational performance. BMA’s major thrust has been to support firms in the automotive and clothing/textile value chains upgrade their internal performance operations, link successfully to their suppliers and customers, and co-operate in sharing knowledge to become more internationally competitive. Prof Morris was also appointed as the Convenor (2006-7) of the Business Alliance of the Clothing, Retail, and Textile Value Chain tasked with facilitating the relations between the three sector associations and negotiating appropriate an industrial policy for the sector.

Contact details

Email: mike.morris@uct.ac.za

Tel: +27 82 775 7830

Recent publications

Monographs

• ‘Globalization, the Changed Global Dynamics of the Clothing and Textile Value Chains and the Impact on Sub-Saharan Africa', UNIDO, Vienna, (2009). ( J. Barnes).
• ‘Micro-Economic Development Strategy for the Western Cape Synthesis Report: 2007', Western Cape Provincial Government, Department Of Economic Development, 2008, ( Dave Kaplan, Reza Daniels, Jo Lorentzen)
• ‘Micro-Economic Development Strategy for the Western Cape Synthesis Report: 2006', Western Cape Provincial Government, Department Of Economic Development, 2007, ( Dave Kaplan, Reza Daniels, Jo Lorentzen)
• ‘Micro-Economic Development Strategy for the Western Cape Synthesis Report: 2005', Western Cape Provincial Government, Department Of Economic Development, 2005, ( Dave Kaplan, Malcolm Keswell, Jo Lorentzen)
• ‘A Handbook for Value Chain Research', mimeo, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and School of Development Studies, University of Natal, (www.ids.ac.uk/global, www.globalvaluechains.org and www.nu.ac.za/csds) 2002 ( R. Kaplinsky).
• ‘The Global Wood Furniture Value Chain: What Prospects for Upgrading by Developing Countries?, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Vienna, 2003, also (http://www.unido.org/doc/12218) ( R. Kaplinsky, J. Readman, O. Memedovic).

Published Refereed Journal Articles

• ‘The evolving pattern of Chinese FDI in Sub Saharan Africa', European Journal of Development Research, (forthcoming 2009), ( R. Kaplinsky).
• ‘Globalization, the Changed Global Dynamics of the Clothing and Textile Value Chains and the Impact on Sub-Saharan Africa', UNIDO, Vienna, (2009). ( J. Barnes).
• ‘L'impatto della Cina sull'Africa Sub-Sahariana Visto Attraverso la Lente Del Commercial s', Afriche e Orienti,: Revista di Studi ai Confini tra Africa Mediterraneo e Medio Oriente, Anno X, N.2, pp 35-48, March 2008, ( R. Kaplinsky).
• 'Globalisation, welfare and competitiveness: the impacts of Chinese imports on the South African clothing and textile industry', Competition and Change, Vol. 12, No. 4, 2008, 355-376 ( G. Einhorn)
• ‘Value chain analysis: a tool for enhancing export supply policies', International Journal of Technology of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 1, 3, 2008, ( R. Kaplinsky).
• ‘Do the Asian Drivers Undermine Export-Oriented Industrialisation in SSA?' World Development, 36, 2, 2008 ( R. Kaplinsky).
• ‘Staying in the Global Automotive Industry: what can developing economies learn from South Africa about linking into global automotive value chains?', European Journal of Development Research, 20,1, 2008, ( J. Barnes)
• ‘The Asian Drivers and SSA: Is there a future for export oriented African industrialisation?', World Economy, (forthcoming 2009), ( R. Kaplinsky)
• ‘The Impact of China on Sub-Saharan Africa' (November 2007), IDS Working Paper 291, ( R Kaplinsky, D McCormick)
• ‘Undressing the Numbers: The Employment Effect of Import Quotas on Clothing and Textiles', Journal of Development Perspectives, 2, 2, 2007. ( L. Edwards)
• ‘Organising Cluster Cooperation and Learning Networks in South Africa, African Studies - a Special Festschrift Issue for Bill Freund, 65, 1, 2006.( J. Barnes)
• ‘Using Learning Networks to Enable Industrial Development: Case studies from South Africa', International Journal of Operations Management, (2006), 26, 5. ( J. Bessant, J. Barnes)
• ‘China's Dominance of Global Clothing and Textiles: Is preferential trade access an answer for Sub-Saharan Africa?', IDS Bulletin, 37,1, January 2006
• ‘Industrial Policy in Developing Economies: Developing Dynamic Comparative Advantage in the South African Automobile Sector', Competition and Change, 8, 2, June 2004 ( R. Kaplinsky, J. Barnes)
• ‘Driving Environmental Change: its Impact on the Furniture and Timber Products Value Chain in South Africa' Geoforum, 35, 2, 2004, ( N. Dunne)
• ‘The German Connection: Shifting Power in the Political Economy of the South African Automotive Industry', Industrial and Corporate Change, 13, 5, 2004, ( J. Barnes)
• ‘Does E-commerce Fulfil its Promise for Developing Country Garment Export Producers?, Oxford Development Studies, 32,2, June 2004, ( S. Moodley).
• ‘Governance Matters in Value Chains', Developing Alternatives, Vol. 9, No. 1, Winter 2003. ( R. Kaplinsky)
• ‘Developing Capability Through Learning Networks', The International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development, 2, 1, 2003, ( J. Bessant, R Kaplinsky).
• ‘The Globalisation of Product Markets and Immiserising Growth: Lessons from the South African Furniture Industry', World Development, 30, 7, July 2002 ( R. Kaplinsky, J Readman.)
• ‘Creating Value Chain Co-Operation' IDS Bulletin, 32, 3, 2001.
• ‘Globalisation and Industrial Restructuring in a South African City', Economic and Political Weekly, XXXVI, 24, 2001. ( J. Barnes, N. Dunne)
• ‘Middle Management And International Competitiveness In South Africa's Manufacturing Sector', Technovation, 21, 5, May 2001, ( J Barnes, J Bessant, N Dunne)

Chapters in Books

• ‘Impacts and Challenges of a Growing Relationship between China and Sub Saharan Africa'. In V. Padayachee, The Political Economy of Africa, Routledge, (forthcoming 2009). ( R. Kaplinsky, D. McCormick)
• ‘Skills Gaps and Shortages in the South African Clothing and Textile Industry', in Andre Kraak (ed) Sectors and Skills: The Need for Policy Alignment, HSRC Press, Pretoria, (forthcoming 2009) ( L. Reed)
• ‘The Competitive Dynamics of the Clothing Industry in Madagascar in the Post-MFA Environment.' In Dorothy McCormick, Joseph A. Kuzilwa, and Tegegne Gebre Egziabher, eds., Industrialising Africa in the Era of Globalisation: Challenges to Clothing and Footwear. Nairobi: University of Nairobi Press, (forthcoming 2009). ( L. Sedowski)
• ‘The Asian Drives and SSA: MFA Quota Removal and the Portents for African Industrialisation?' In Dorothy McCormick, Joseph A. Kuzilwa, and Tegegne Gebre Egziabher, eds., Industrialising Africa in the Era of Globalisation: Challenges to Clothing and Footwear. Nairobi: University of Nairobi Press, (forthcoming 2009). ( R. Kaplinsky)
• ‘Regional Development and Cluster Management: lessons from South Africa', in Allen J. Scott and Gioacchino Garofoli (eds.) Development on the Ground: Clusters, Networks, and Regions in Emerging Economies, London : Routledge (2007) ( J. Barnes)
• The role of government in creating an enabling environment for inter-firm cluster co-operation: Policy lessons from South Africa.' Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, B. and McCormick, D (eds.) ‘Industrial Clusters in Africa: Pattern Practice and Policies for Innovation and Upgrading' , United Nations University Press, (2007) ( G. Robbins)
• ‘Globalisation, China, and Clothing Industrialization Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa' in (ed) Traub, R ‘The Future of the African Textiles and Clothing Industries', FES, Bonn (2006).
• ‘What should be the role of government in fostering clusters?', in ‘Reviewing the first decade of development and democracy in South Africa', V. Padayachee, C. Skinner, J. May, (eds) HSRC, Pretoria, 2006, ( J. Barnes, G. Robbins)
• ‘E-commerce & Exporting Behaviour: Evidence from South African Apparel Firms', in McCormick D and Rogerson C (eds), Clothing and Footwear in African Industrialization, Africa Institute Publishers, Pretoria, 2004 ( S. Moodley, M. Velia)
• ‘Globalisation and the Restructuring of Durban's Industry', in Freund W and Padayachee V (eds). (D)Urban: South African City In Transition, University of Natal Press, 2002 ( J. Barnes and N. Dunne)
• ‘How do South African Firms Respond to Trade Policy Reform?' in Deindustrialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Jalilian, H., M. Tribe and J. Weiss (eds) Oxford University Press, 2000. ( R. Kaplinsky)