The purposes of this thesis are to examine the measurement, determinants and potential contribution to manufacturing output of capacity utilisation in the South African manufacturing sector. The thesis is based on the results of an empirical survey of plant level capacity utilisation practice. Experience elsewhere suggests that increasing capacity utilisation can contribute to raising the level of manufacturing sector output. The impact of changes in capacity utilisation on manufacturing output is estimated. The analysis suggests that prima facie, if capacity utilisation can be increased, there may be considerable scope to increase the level of manufacturing output. A literature review of two key aspects of capacity utilisation: its measurement and determinants, is conducted. A wide range of measures, used in the empirical literature elsewhere to estimate capacity utilisation, are examined. Existing measures for the South African manufacturing sector suggest that there remains scope for increasing the level of capacity utilisation. A detailed critique of the sole existing utilisation measure derived using the survey method is provided. It is found that this measure does not take account of the extensive theoretical and empirical developments which have taken place elsewhere in the past three decades. Consequently a detailed questionnaire-based survey is conducted to obtain information on new capacity utilisation in the South African manufacturing sector. Data from the survey are used to develop and apply for the first time several new measures of utilisation for the sector in South Africa, including the time-intensity, electricity and shiftwork measures. The new data are also used to estimate the effects of several variables on the firm's choice of utilisation levels for the sector.

The decline of South African textiles and clothing has been explained as the outcome of different influences depending on various ideological and methodological inclinations as well as theoretical traditions. For example, the rise in labour inflexibility or costs, or increased import and cost competition, are perceived to explain both South African and global textiles and clothing trends. Though these are important features of the decline, other factors precede and contribute to the poor production, trade, or employment trends, suggesting that it is misleading to focus on a few dominant factors. Instead, exploring the nature, evolution and the background to multiple, shifting, and interconnected causes, enables the emergence of new research questions concerned with the importance of situating the industry decline within a political, historical and structural setting. The findings point to the need to reconceptualise industry evolution as an outcome of a specific labour process in South African textiles and clothing, moving away from a homogenous or cost-based categorisation of labour. It is also argued that the particular developments be seen as the outcome and an integral (albeit marginalised) part of the SA economy, rooting explanations for sector trends within a unique set of industry processes and tensions. These lead the study to challenge the relevance of existing policy and production remedies, and to argue that prominent theoretical debates around sector development, such as the GVC or the information imperfection approach, are limited in their explanatory power and in their ability to generate appropriate research questions. The research concludes that a case-driven understanding of the complexities of the industry decline opens the space for new insights in theoretical and methodological approaches to exploring and explaining textiles and clothing industry development in South Africa, with relevance for broader debates on industrialisation.

The Industrial Development Corporation is the largest provider of development funding in South Africa. Despite having documented processes for assessing funding applications, which include traditional performance measures, the impairments as a percentage of outstanding funding book are increasing. However, scholarly literature indicates that traditional performance measures seem inadequate, with Economic Value Added providing more detailed performance company. The study assesses the Industrial Development Corporation employee’s perceptions on stipulated and additional performance measures and its funding processes. The study followed a quantitative research design using a questionnaire. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyse the data. The study found that stipulated performance measures are mostly used, but not Economic Value Added. Funding processes could be enhanced through more performance measures and additional pre and post investment processes. It is recommended that processes be enhanced and the addition of Economic Value Added be investigated to assist in reducing impairments. / Management Accounting / M. Phil.