Exploring how garment firms choose international sourcing‐ and sales‐country markets

Bernhard S. Swoboda · Thomas Foscht · Cesar Maloles · Hanna Schramm‐Klein

18 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Fashion Marketing and Management

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Outsourcing and Supply Chain Management International Business and FDI Software Engineering and Design Patterns

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms that do both sourcing and selling choose which countries to source from and to which countries to sell. It also looked at the role of competitive strategy, vertical integration, and foreign involvement in the decision‐making. Design/methodology/approach A survey instrument that was designed based on personal interviews with 20 German garment industry executives was administered to 750 German, Austrian and Swiss garment manufacturers. In total, 93 questionnaires were usable. Factor analysis was employed in evaluating the data. Findings The results indicate that firms that both source and sell at the same time have more complex decision making than normative models suggest. These decisions tend not to be isolated decisions. The factors that are considered in sourcing are different in the decision as to where to sell. Foreign involvement, competitive strategy, and vertical integration influence the firms' decision making. Research limitations/implications The study is exploratory in nature and it is limited in its application. Moreover, the disproportionately large number of German respondents may skew the results. In addition, the total number of respondents is relatively small. The study may also suffer from any or all of the following deficiencies: lack of reliability and validity test, having only one executive per firm respond to the survey, not considering country‐specific characteristics, and lack of control for the market‐entry strategy and market size variables. Originality/value Most research in this area focuses on either the sourcing or the selling side. This study looks at how sourcing and selling decisions are made by firms engaged in both activities. Additionally, the roles of competitive strategy, vertical integration, and foreign involvement in relation to the decision making are investigated.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

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

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 18 citations exist upstream.

References

1990The Mechanism of Internationalisation 1986Modes of Foreign Entry: A Transaction Cost Analysis and Propositions 2000The eclectic paradigm as an envelope for economic and business theories of MNE activity 1988Entry Strategies for International Markets 1966The foreign investment decision process 1984International Marketing Research 1978An Attempted Integration of the Literature on the Export Behavior of Firms 2002Pace, rhythm, and scope: process dependence in building a profitable multinational corporation

Explore the map →

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

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.