Factors affecting China's apparel manufacturing industry's international competitive advantage
Date
2018
Authors
Brubaker, Morgan, author
Hyllegard, Karen, advisor
Perry, Anna, advisor
Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
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Abstract
Since the early 1980s, China has grown its apparel manufacturing export industry by utilizing a large labor pool, low wages, and its access to a significant amount of raw materials (Zhang, Kong, & Ramu, 2015; Zhang & Hathcote, 2008). A world leader in apparel exports, China exported US $153.2 billion of apparel products in 2012 ("2016 Top Markets," 2016). In recent years, China's international competitive advantage in the apparel manufacturing export industry has faced a variety of challenges. China attributes its loss of competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing industry to increased costs of labor and raw materials ("2016 Top Markets," 2016). With an awareness of these challenges, China's new strategy for establishing competitive advantage has been to reposition itself in the global value chain and to become a stronger industry in the international marketplace (China National Garment Association, 2013). Challenges to China's world-renowned apparel manufacturing export industry, and the industry's awareness of the need to implement new strategies to meet these challenges, provided direction for this study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the economic, government, and social factors that were affecting national competitive advantage in China's apparel manufacturing export industry, as well as the competitive advantage of individual businesses as perceived by industry executives. Nine Chinese apparel manufacturing business executives were interviewed for this study and a qualitative research method was employed to capture the perspectives of the business executives, who were asked to respond to open-ended interview questions. The findings from this research study aid in better understanding two research questions. The first research question focused on what and how factors affect China's international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing export industry. The second research question focused on the changes Chinese apparel export manufacturers made in order to maintain their international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing export industry. The findings from this study revealed that three main factors were influencing China's international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing industry: labor and wages, China's apparel manufacturing supply chain and raw material suppliers, and the government's policies, actions, and improvements. Findings revealed the following changes in production processes and strategies as primary ways our participants were maintaining international competitive advantage: increased focus on research and design, efficiency and productivity, customer service, and increased focus on opportunities in producing apparel goods for China's domestic market.
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Subject
apparel manufacturing
competitive advantage
China
apparel industry