IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/adz/wpaper/202111.html

Key Opportunities and Challenges for 4IR in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Rachel Alexander

    (Centre for Business and Development Studies, Copenhagen Business School, and SARChI ID, University of Johannesburg.)

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) can involve changes that range from minor adjustments to the features of products, to the creation of new sectors and technologies that transform how the economy operates and how people’s daily lives are structured. 4IR is spreading around the world at different paces. This fourth and concluding paper in SARChI Industrial Development Working Paper Series WP 2021-8 provides insight into two key questions. The first is, ‘What are the barriers and opportunities for South African firms related to 4IR?’ To answer this question, the paper presents a set of key drivers, opportunities and challenges. To guide action on identified opportunities and challenges, relevant recommendations that have been developed through a variety of recent publications are included. To answer the second question, ‘What are the risks and opportunities for South Africa as 4IR spreads?’, this paper considers the effects of the spread of 4IR systems on South Africa’s economy, environment, and employment and presents a variety of perspectives that have been shared by key stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Alexander, 2021. "Key Opportunities and Challenges for 4IR in South Africa," SARChI-ID Working Papers 2021-11, SARChI Industrial Development (SARChI-ID), University of Johannesburg (UJ), revised Oct 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:adz:wpaper:202111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.uj.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/sarchi-wp-2021-08d-alexander-october-2021.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods
    • L62 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Automobiles; Other Transportation Equipment; Related Parts and Equipment
    • L64 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Other Machinery; Business Equipment; Armaments
    • L91 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Transportation: General
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:adz:wpaper:202111. 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: Melanie Ridgard (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/secujza.html .

    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.