The effect of government on competitive advantage theory has only been covered superficially in strategic management literature. This thesis incorporates government into competitive advantage and multinational enterprise (MNE) theory by demonstrating how politically derived firmspecific advantages (FSAs) and competitive advantages may accrue from noncommercial, political sources, to be manifested in commercial enterprises as 'political competitive advantages (PCAs)'. The empirical background to this thesis is a study of the global textile industry and the complexity, multidimensional and multi-level nature of the relationship between the wider textile complex and governments. Examples demonstrate the significant impact of governments upon the textile industry, across the globe and over a wide variety of time horizons. A review of the relevant strategic management and international business core theory forms a base on which the PCA concept is developed. A synthesis of the strategic positioning view (SPV) of competitive advantage, the resource-based view (RBV) and transaction cost/internalization theories is used to develop the PCA concept. MNEs can derive superior operator surpluses (rents) from complex government externalities that, due to their asymmetrical impact, enable some profit-centres to gain PCAs. PCAs are non-market-related, chiefly government-derived, political competitive advantages and form a new subset of firm-specific advantages (FSAs). The international business concept of nonefficiency, shelter-based advantages form a subset of PCAs. An eight-cell PCA analytical framework is developed and operationalized using case studies selected from the world-wide operations of Coats PLC, the world's largest producer and distributor of sewing thread, and one of Britain's oldest MNEs. This analytical framework enables firms to better understand the significant and dynamic nature of those government externalities that have a major impact upon firm efficiency. The framework can be used to assist practitioners in the search for sustainable reactive and/or proactive (endogenizing) strategies that can enhance PC As and reduce political competitive disadvantages (PCDs).

This study introduces the Fanonian thought on race and racism, rhetoric of modernity, and new humanism as three constitutive thematic areas in order to enable a new understanding of the South African situation. These thematic areas are examined with specific reference to socio-economic development within the limited context of post-apartheid South Africa. This is done by reading Fanon’s text in the context of South Africa to provide the background against which the unfolding of the post-apartheid era and its political discourses may be analysed. In essence, this study is based on Fanon’s predictions that he made in the text written more than 50 years ago about the future of post-colonial states. Therefore, this study argues that Fanon’s thought has proven to be more prophetic with regard to post-apartheid South Africa and its political reforms which left the fundamental question of structures such as land, economy, and labour unaddressed. What happened on 27 April 1994 is not genuine liberation, but a mere transition from apartheid to democratic dispensation that left the status quo in spatial arrangements uninterrupted. Indeed, it was an elite pact between the African National Congress and white monopoly capital, which betrayed the national liberation movement and the black majority. The contention is that South Africa celebrated the cosmetic reforms that attributed the term liberation incomplete in the absence of fundamental and structural changes. What is therefore recommended is that for there to be success, there must be genuine liberation that is consistent with the needs of society. This means bringing to an end the racially marked structures and reimagining the black condition, through jobs, education, social and economic programmes aimed at empowering the black majority to depend on themselves as opposed to relying on the State. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)