Status quo of the South African clothing industry’s university-industry-government collaborations

The South African clothing industry is among the industries viewed as strategic for socio-economic development by the South African government. The government’s industrial policies incorporated University-Industry-Government (UIG) Research and Development (R&D) collaborations in efforts to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063, among others. The literature on UIG R&D collaborations in the context of developing economies and the clothing industry is limited and requires attention to support the achievement of the SDGs and AU Agenda aspirations. This paper presents the status quo of the South African clothing industry using qualitative and quantitative data. The authors interviewed 12 respondents from: the university fashion departments (3), clothing firms (2), clothing consulting firms (2), clothing-related research institutions (2), clothing-related the government divisions (3) and surveyed 22 clothing firms. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data. The results show that the government plays a dominant role in these collaborations through policy, grants and incentives because of the lack of R&D activities in the South African clothing industry. The institutional sphere performs R&D activities mainly in isolation while some are pockets of R&D bilateral collaborations performed at arm’s length. In light of this, the results indicate that the South African clothing industry is currently at the statist stage. The current triple helix model in play may negatively affect the role that the South African clothing industry can play in achieving the SDGs and AU Agenda.