Industrializing through global value chains? The case of the South African automotive industry

Based on extensive fieldwork on the South African auto industry, we summarize the technological capability base of locally owned automotive component manufacturers in South Africa. We that show that even though South Africa has successfully integrated with the automotive global value chain (GVC), the local firm base remains shallow without any innovation capabilities. This can be explained with GVC dynamics, which are driven by lead firm power and phenomena like follow sourcing and follow design. These dynamics undermine local inter-industry linkages and indigenous innovation capability building.