Training Materials

Outside of disciplinary silos such as formal economics, there is widespread recognition of the central importance of ‘Action Research’. Although there is a technical foundation to all insightful research – ‘positive’ in the nomenclature of economics – the ‘normative’ component (who gains and who loses) is deeply imbedded in research enquiry, either implicitly or explicitly. Hence, as with most colleagues in the development community and in modern business studies, research is best conducted in close collaboration with the subjects of the research enquiry. There is thus an inevitable two-way flow of learning between the researchers and their subjects. Hence ‘training’ is a natural component of research enquiry, as exemplified in our work in post-Apartheid South Africa and with the African Economic Research Consortium.

In a few cases it also led to the production of written handbooks and computer-based manuals.

Publications

A Handbook for Value Chain Research http://www.prism.uct.ac.za/papers/vchnov01.pdf, (2001) (Spanish translation ‘Competitividad: Conceptos y Buenas Practicas, una herramienta de autoaprendiza y consulta’, Santiago: Inter-American Development Bank, 2004) (with M. Morris)

Manufacturing Excellence in South Africa: CD and Accompanying Manuals, Output of three-year programme funded by Dept of Science and Technology, 2004 (with J. Barnes, J. Bessant and M. Morris).

‘Manufacturing Excellence for World Class Manufacturing: a resource package’, CD plus 6 printed manuals, Benchmarking and Manufacturing Analysts, 2003, (with J. Bessant, J. Barnes, N. Dunne and M. Morris) (435p)

‘Helping firms to hear their markets’, Policy Brief No 1, School of Development Studies, University of Natal, 2000 (with J. Barnes, N. Dunne, S. Moodley and M. Morris) www.nu.ac.za/csds

‘Enterprise restructuring: implementing world class manufacturing’, Policy Brief No 2, School of Development Studies, University of Natal, 2000 (with J. Barnes, N. Dunne, S. Moodley and M. Morris) www.nu.ac.za/csds

‘Supply chain management: assisting South African firms to upgrade’, Policy Brief No 3, School of Development Studies, University of Natal, 2000 (with J. Barnes, N. Dunne, S. Moodley and M. Morris) www.nu.ac.za/csds

‘Helping firms to work together to achieve collective efficiency’, Policy Brief No 4, School of Development Studies, University of Natal, 2000 (with J. Barnes, N. Dunne, S. Moodley and M. Morris) www.nu.ac.za/csds

‘Benchmarking: a tool for global competitiveness’, Policy Brief No 5, School of Development Studies, University of Natal, 2000 (with J. Barnes, N. Dunne, S. Moodley and M. Morris) www.nu.ac.za/csds

‘Successful Manufacturing in a Global Environment: A resource to help facilitate capability development in the South African metals industry’, mimeo and CD, Brighton: Centre for Research in Innovation Management, University of Brighton, Greanbean Publications, 2002, (with J. Bessant and M. Morris) (111 pages) 

‘Looking for World Class: A Guidebook for Assessing Competitive Performance and Practice’, mimeo and CD, Brighton: Centre for Research in Innovation Management, University of Brighton and Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2001 www.centrim.bus.bton.ac.uk (with J. Bessant, and M. Morris) (106p)