Niche market strategy in the textile and apparel industry

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how the textile and apparel industry can utilize a niche market strategy in order to compete with lower priced imports. Design/methodology/approach The research design used for this study was an in‐depth case study method. The sample consisted of selected companies from the fiber, textile, apparel, and auxiliary sectors who are considered leaders in the US textile and apparel industry. Findings Results indicated that firms can approach a niche strategy from either a market or a product perspective. Findings also indicated variables that are used by firms for both approaches. The most important factor in which a firm needs to focus is understanding the consumer. Research limitations/implications Because of the limited sample size of US textile and apparel firms, the results can only be generalized to those companies that participated in the study and not the entire textile and apparel industry. Practical implications This research study showed that a niche strategy is a promising global competitive strategy for the textile and apparel industry that can be used to compete with lower priced imports. Originality/value This study clarifies not only how a niche market/product is defined by the industry, but also how firms can implement and maintain a successful niche strategy.

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 — 36 citations exist upstream.

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