The Right to Garment

The Rana Plaza Collapse in 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh offers lessons in the garment industry on ethics, corporate leadership, and corporate social responsibility crisis. Given the circumstances of 1,134 workers deceased from its factory collapse in 2013, this chapter aims to inform the response in CSR Crisis in the garment sector of three major fast fashion companies. It also positions the most current labour standards in the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh. This chapter draws on literature in management and economics on informing the connections in labour and industrial growth. The chapter aims to shed light on other alternatives fashion companies can take in supporting ethical responses and practices in supply chain management. It then offers a variety of business/human rights recommendations in public policy for the Republic of Bangladesh.

Analysis of the Ethical (and Aesthetic) Framework and Its Relation to Corporate Social Responsibility

The objective of this research is not to produce a treatise on corporate social responsibility (CSR), but to go to a deeper level, exploring its evolution, analyzing its context, and providing a snapshot of its application and deployment in the textile sector. This study analyzes the functioning of transnational textile companies and their relationship with a favorable regulatory framework, together with their adaptation to globalization processes designed to promote their interests. This sector is characterized by elevated levels of textile production that place great demand on resources, which in turn triggers effects on the markets, environment, and working conditions in the contexts in which they operate. The exploration of this new field of legal asymmetry is necessary in order to identify its implications and to generate certainty in a large part of society. The conclusion examines the future outlook and possible consequences of emerging developments in the transnational textile sector.

Social Responsibility and Sustainability of Fast Fashion Retail Companies in the Textile Sector

Social and environmental sustainability in the supply chain has been a major concern over the last decade as public opinion has placed responsibility on the shoulders of retail companies for their lack of control over suppliers that go beyond the first tier, which are usually located in emerging countries with regulations far below international standards. The objective of this research is to identify the variables through which retail companies are building their brand equity with a fast fashion business model in the textile sector. An analysis has been carried out regarding the content of annual reports, as well as CSR and sustainability reports, of the main retail companies in the textile sector: The TJX Companies, Inditex, and H&M. Inditex, the company with the highest level of compliance, can be identified and considered as a case study.

Digital Transformation and Change Management at Organizations in the Textile Industry

Organizational changes are required for the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) at firms operating in the textile industry. Technologies for a new way of doing things will not provide good results if applied to an old established process. ICT allows putting into action processes in a different way, which may result in many cases, in more efficient and convenient process from the perspective of customer value generation. Textile firms highly invest in digital transformation to get new business models that constitute a challenge for traditional ways to operate. For that, they must face organisational changes. Change management implies leaving a group of structures, procedures, and behaviours and the adoption of new ones. Organizations must be able to identify potential efficient processes as a consequence of the application of new technologies. An appropriate management of more tangible aspects—equipment, financial resources—and intangible ones—people, users, and perceptions—will have impact on change management results.

The Development of Industrial Districts in Ecuador

This chapter analyses the leather goods and leather wear conglomerate of Quisapincha, Province of Tunguragua (Ecuador), in order to establish its contribution to the socio-economic development of the territory and determine whether it can be considered an industrial district in the Marshallian-Becattinian sense, represented by Prato. The main results of the qualitative analysis show that the Quisapincha conglomerate is still in a state of embryonic development of the district model, where there is no industrial atmosphere that allows for collective efficiency. The formation of micro-networks among some of its companies, which could potentially generate a district effect as in the case of Prato, clashes with an almost absent panorama of subcontracting initiatives and adequate institutional support. The economic decline evidenced in recent years could be reversed by encouraging vertical and horizontal integration processes between companies with a potential coordinating agent (the Italian ‘Impannatore'), represented by the firm Curtiembre Quisapincha.

Audiovisual Storytelling Approaches in the Marketing of Luxury Clothing Brands

Since ancient times, clothes have served to distinguish between different social classes. The marketing of luxury brands has been characterized by changing and full of multiple strategies. One of them is the use of storytelling, called the art of storytelling. This chapter delves into the use of audiovisual storytelling within the main brands of haute couture worldwide: Chanel, D&G, Versace, Dior, Prada, Burberry, Armani, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. The objective of the investigation is to analyze elements such as the narrative, the characters, the plot, or the aesthetics used. The sample consists of more than 50 ads, of which 24 were taken as storytelling. The results show different styles in the use of the narrative, as well as different archetypes in the characters and various aesthetic, formal and content patterns according to the brand under investigation.

Analysis of the Approach to Online Advertising of Leading Sportswear Brands

Brands like Nike or Adidas are predominant in almost every country. One of the keys of their success is due to the investment in advertisement and to their different strategies of promotion. This research analyzed 117 ads of five important sports brands (Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, and Converse) with the higher number of views in YouTube. Within the numerous variables, the study of the main important characters, the duration of the advertising, the year or decade of creation, the presence of violence, the context or environment where they were developed, the gender that is predominant (masculine or feminine), or the character's age stand out. The results showed that women still have a secondary role in sport advertisement and that younger and celebrities have the leading role, especially in the football scope, in the majority of the observed videos. It is concluded that brands are increasingly stand up for the feminine public and gradually are spreading out in the search of new market niches in order to keep innovation in promoting youth trends with this sport brands as promoters.

Cultural Identity in the Productive Matrix

The revolution in Ecuadorian shoe industry represents a big challenge because of the proliferation of imported products. This tariff advantage put the Ecuadorian entrepreneurs in a comfort zone, evidencing a stagnation in the evolution of products with differentiation strategies in opposition to globalized products. To this problem are added limiting factors such as raw materials and imported inputs. The current work studies the situation of the Ecuadorian entrepreneurs of the National Camera of Footwear in the Tungurahua province in order to know its reality and determine strengths and weaknesses of the sector and strategies to promote the productive matrix of Ecuador. The research exposes the impact that a proposed product can have from a strategic vision of differentiation through sustainability of Ecuadorian footwear.

Challenges for Measuring Value Chain Relation Coordination of SMEs of the Textile and Apparel Industry

The objective of this chapter is to propose a methodology for the measurement of value chain relational coordination of SMEs. For this purpose, the case of the measurement of relational coordination of the value chain of a small safety footwear company of Ambato, Ecuador is analyzed. The results of the analysis show that the measurement of relational coordination in the value chain of SMEs presents several challenges. Some of the challenges are the result of some characteristics of SMEs such as the lack of strategy, processes, and functions formalization. Other challenges are derived from the size and power asymmetry of chain members and the geographical distance between them. Five steps are proposed for the measurement of relational coordination of the value chain of SMEs.

Supply Chain Coordination in the Textile and Apparel Industry

The textile and apparel industry has been immersed in processes of deep changes during the last years that have impacted in the way firms produce and sell products in the international context. The need to make agreements with different supply chain partners and the evolution of information and communication technologies have promoted important changes on how relationships are coordinated. This chapter performs a systematical review of the literature on supply chain coordination in the textile and apparel industry and offers new research directions and managerial implications. According to the revision, previous research in this area mainly focuses on supply chain coordination mechanisms, especially contracts. However, there are also organizational and technological mechanisms that can become good opportunities to properly coordinate in this industry.