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Mike Morris
University of Cape Town
Mike Morris is Emeritus Professor within the School of Economics and and Honorary Research Associate in the IDS at the University of Sussex. Prior to this was the founder and Head of School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal from 1995 – 2002. His recent research, policy activities and publications have focused on the dynamics of global value chains, industrial restructuring and international competitiveness, sector analysis, industrial clusters, renewable energy, and industrial policy.
MORE ABOUT MIKE MORRIS >Jan 19, 2024
Mike Morris
Chinese Firms and Adherence to Global Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Standards in Developing Countries: Is there Potential to Create Common Ground?
This paper focuses on analysing how Chinese firms operate in Latin America, Asia and Africa in regard to ESG (environmental, social and governance) standards and sustainability issues. How do they respond to the increasing global value chain requirement to incorporate and maintain ESG standards? Is ...
Jan 1, 2020
Lindsay Whitfield, Cornelia Staritz, Mike Morris
Global Value Chains, Industrial Policy and Economic Upgrading in Ethiopia’s Apparel Sector
This article examines whether low‐income countries can still benefit from participating in manufacturing global value chains (GVCs) in terms of broader industrial development in a global context of greater competition and higher requirements. It contends that developing internationally competitive...
Jan 1, 2020
Morris M, Robbins G., Hansen U., and I. Nygard
Energy and Industrial Policy Failure in the South African Wind Renewable Energy Global Value Chain: The political economy dynamics driving a stuttering localisation process
This paper utilises a combination of a political economy approach and a GVC framework to analyse the dynamics of the wind energy value chain in South Africa. The paper focuses on the complex intertwined interplay between energy and industrial policy and shows how they negatively impacted on effor...
Jan 1, 2019
Raphael Kaplinsky, Mike Morris
Trade and Industrialisation in Africa: SMEs, Manufacturing and Cluster Dynamics
Trade in manufacturing through global and regional value chains has played an especially prominent role in global economic growth in recent decades. However, Africa faces severe challenges in growing manufacturing activities in the face of China and Southeast Asia’s competitive dominance of global...
Jan 1, 2019
Morris, M. and C. Staritz
Industrialization paths and industrial policy for developing countries in global value chains
Structural transformation to higher productivity and value-added activities remains a key objective for developing countries. Industrial policy has historically had an important role in supporting such transformation processes. Today, the external context is fundamentally different with the rise of ...
Jan 1, 2018
Dennis Davis, Raphael Kaplinsky, Mike Morris
Rents, Power and Governance in Global Value Chains
This paper addresses the generation of rents and the distribution of gains in the global operations of governed Global Value Chains (GVCs) and seeks to provide an architecture for analyzing the governance of GVCs. It distinguishes between f...
Jan 1, 2018
Raphael Kaplinsky, Mike Morris
Standards, regulation and sustainable development in a global value chain driven world
Regulations and standards have become an increasingly important factor affecting the capacity of producers to participate in global markets. Directly and indirectly, they not only determine the terms of market-entry but also affect the extent to which different producers are able to position themsel...
Jan 1, 2012
Mike Morris, Raphael Kaplinsky, David Kaplan
“One thing leads to another”—Commodities, linkages and industrial development
With a particular focus on low income economies in SSA, this paper addresses the nature and determinants of linkages from the commodities sectors and challenges the received view that enclave development is an inherent characteristic of resource extraction, particularly in the hard and energy commod...
