IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijesbu/v17y2012i1p57-117.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Will Black economic empowerment catalyse South African growth?

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Andrews

Abstract

Racial segregation has been South Africa's primary and defining characteristic. Non-whites were disadvantaged because of structures that limited their economic and social opportunities, leaving few from this vast group in the formal economy. Black economic empowerment (BEE and its more recent broad-based version) is a policy intervention driven from the economic and industrial complex in government. Aimed directly at addressing the economy's skewed racial profile, BEE calls the private sector to restructure itself and create opportunities for previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs). The policy requires change to intra and inter-firm relational patterns of capital and control, personnel selection, promotion and development, supplier selection, enterprise development and social engagement. Organisational theory argues that these kinds of intra and inter-firm relational structures and the networks they establish influence who participates in economies and how these people benefit. This argument supports the contention that BEE's focal changes are necessary to open the economy and adjust its racial composition. If the structures that have entrenched patterns of access to economic opportunities remain static they will not allow inclusion of previously excluded groups. The argument could also be used to view BEE as a potential South African growth catalyst.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Andrews, 2012. "Will Black economic empowerment catalyse South African growth?," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(1), pages 57-117.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:17:y:2012:i:1:p:57-117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=48651
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matt Andrews & Lawrence Bategeka, 2013. "Overcoming the Limits of Institutional Reform in Uganda," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-111, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Matt Andrews & Lawrence Bategeka, 2013. "Overcoming the Limits of Institutional Reform in Uganda," CID Working Papers 269, Center for International Development at Harvard University.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:17:y:2012:i:1:p:57-117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=74 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.