Supplier Selection Criteria and Perceived Benefits and Challenges of Global Sourcing Apparel Firms in the United States

Abstract

While nearly 90% of apparel consumed in the United States is sourced overseas, limited empirical research of this practice has been conducted. To provide an in‐depth understanding of U.S. apparel manufacturers’ global sourcing practices, this study examined the differences in selection criteria and benefits and challenges associated with global sourcing based on two firm characteristics (sourcing items and top management’s commitment to global sourcing). Analyses of data collected from U.S. apparel manufacturers revealed no significant differences in supplier selection criteria or in perceived benefits and challenges by sourcing items. However, a significant difference was found based on top management’s commitment to global sourcing. That is, firms with strong commitment from top management placed significantly more weight on sourcing country when selecting overseas partners, perceived more benefits of global sourcing, and perceived fewer challenges in risks associated with foreign trade than did firms with low commitment from top management. An implication for academia is that firms’ managerial characteristics should be taken into account in examining the effectiveness of global sourcing.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 14 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.