Search results

This study aims to analyze the export competitiveness of Bangladesh's apparel industry by identifying the specific product categories that help sustain its export comparative advantage.

Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and market share (MS) are calculated between 2011 and 2020 at the two- and four-digit level apparel product categories within the harmonized system (HS) to analyze the industry’s growth and export dominance. Trade competitiveness (TC) at the four-digit level, revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and normalized revealed comparative advantage (NRCA) at the two-, four- and six-digit-level apparel product categories are computed for the same 10-year period to investigate the industry’s export competitiveness. Major export destinations of the top 5 exporting product categories are identified to understand the factors facilitating the industry’s growth. A non-parametric Spearman rank correlation analysis evaluated the association between the RCA and NRCA indices.

Among the 34 product categories at the four-digit level, 29 consistently demonstrated an export comparative advantage, as did 34 out of 217 six-digit level sub-categories. In contrast, 12 sub-categories at the six-digit level consistently exhibited a comparative disadvantage in Bangladesh's export competitiveness. Furthermore, the TC measure identified 28 categories at the four-digit level with a robust comparative advantage. 30 categories displayed a positive CAGR, and Bangladesh asserted significant market dominance over 26 product categories at the four-digit level.

This study's implications are significant for various stakeholders in Bangladesh and other apparel-exporting industries, encompassing government entities, industry officials, policymakers, investors, researchers and students. Nevertheless, limitations arise from the study's reliance on RCA and NRCA as competitiveness indicators, particularly its adoption of a macro-level approach for measurement without exploring a micro-level perspective. This constitutes a notable constraint in the study's analytical framework.

This study contributed novelty and enrichment to the existing academic literature by identifying distinct apparel product categories that contribute to the industry's growth.

Bengali sports history features very few women; some examples include enquiry into the representation of women in cricket stadiums as spectators (Naha, 2021) and the history of physical education in a women’s college (Bhattacharya, 2009). Likewise, young adult sports fiction in Bengali hardly engages with girls, with the notable exception of Moti Nandi’s Kalabati novels. This series of nine novels features the eponymous character as a high school student and a cricketer between 1984 and 2005. Belonging to a zamindar family, it is the possession of cultural capital post-abolishment of the zamindari system which allows Kalabati to play cricket. Situating the novel amidst India’s entry into neoliberalism, this chapter employs close reading to examine the ways adopted by the protagonist to manoeuvre new gender roles in conjunction with traditionally ascribed ones. Kalabati’s participation in a sport and a range of physical activities dominated by men goes against the societal codes prescribed for women. Despite that, masquerade and performativity allow Kalabati to assert her agency. Through alternately impersonating men and performing hyper-femininity, she effortlessly adjusts herself to different bodies, etiquettes and markers of gender identity. The fluidity in gender identities and emphasis on performance opens up the straitjacketed discussions around the former. This chapter argues that Kalabati’s exceptionality as a sportsperson is both an embodied and a genealogical trait.

The person who works in an office starts his or her day with a choice of attire. The way they look in the office depends on the decisions they make on their clothes. This study aims to identify the challenges faced by employees in the management positions in the Sri Lankan apparel industry who regularly come into contact with customers when they have to decide upon the most appropriate work attire for the position they are occupying in their organization.

Collection of data was primarily achieved through a well-structured questionnaire containing a mixture of open- and closed-ended questions. Targeted employees were managers, designers and merchandisers belonging to Generation Y whose total number was sufficient to obtain 50 feedbacks. Six more interviews were conducted with the intention of finding out more about this matter.

The majority of employees in the management positions in the Sri Lankan apparel industry who have regular contact with customers prefer to dress in “smart casual attire”, which means semi-formal clothes. Lack of availability of certain varieties of business attire in Sri Lanka proved to be a major challenge for some employees. Overpriced clothing, less comfortable clothing and lack of the right fabrics and designs were also challenges. These findings highlight the importance of manufacturing a wider variety of business attire using moderately priced but comfortable fabrics to make affordable and good quality products. There is a need to have a persuasive merchandising method to achieve good sales and provide a pleasant shopping experience to the customers.

Sri Lankan workwear retailers as well as apparel designers can benefit from the findings of this research as there is no evidence of any other studies on this subject. Therefore, this will help them to fill the market gap for business attire by addressing these challenges.

The aim of this paper is to achieve a reasonable microclimate between clothing and the human body and optimize the custom dress pattern.

An interactive design method of 3D modeling, virtual try-on and heat transfer simulation are used. First, a 3D dress is designed with nonuniform rational B-splines curves and tried on virtually. After that, the heat transfer in the body-air-clothing microclimate and temperature distributions on the clothing surface are obtained. Based on the heat transfer in the body-air-clothing system, we design a method to improve the thermal comfort by optimizing the garment pattern digitally. Then, this paper utilized two heat transfer validating indexes to quantify the improvement of thermal comfort, and evaluate the modified model of dress.

The microclimate under the clothing is varied with the air gap distance, and the heat transfer on the area of the clavicle, bust point and front abandon are higher than other parts due to the narrow air gaps. In view of thermal comfort, the pattern optimization changes the distance ease and reforms the air circulating efficiency. The mean heat transfer and its standard variance are changing by about 10% and more than 20%. Thus, the heat transfer evaluation indexes are suitable to represent the heat transfer and thermal comfort in the microclimate system.

It can be concluded that the methodology proposed in this paper has the advantage of interactive design, 3D visualization and local heat transfer simulation. This technology meets the need of personalized customization and well-considered garment and has broad application prospects.

This study demonstrates that modifying the distance ease on body key girths based on heat transfer is a reliable way to improve thermal comfort. This method meets the consumers’ demand of the comfort of body-fit clothing under the condition of daily activities.

• 3D air gap distributions.

• Heat transfer varies with air gap distance.

• Thermal comfort can be improved by optimizing garment pattern.

3D air gap distributions.

Heat transfer varies with air gap distance.

Thermal comfort can be improved by optimizing garment pattern.

This paper aims to investigate fit problems with some ready-to-wear garments, analyse the body measurements of Ethiopian young female consumers and draw implications for the improvement of ready-to-wear garment fit.

A random sample of 970 university students aged 18–35 years were interviewed, and their 35 body dimensions were measured manually according to the procedures in ISO 8559: 2017. The fit problems and body measurements were examined with the body mass index (BMI) and ethnicity of the subjects. Moreover, 15 body dimensions were compared with that of Chinese and US females of similar age.

The results showed that fit problems are frequent in lower garments for underweight consumers. Nearly consistent and smaller differences in body measurements were observed with BMIs and ethnicity of the subjects, while inconsistent and larger differences were found among the subjects from the three countries. The Ethiopian subjects were smaller than the Chinese in height and weight, between the Chinese and US females in most body measurements, and larger than the US subjects in across shoulder and arm and shoulder lengths. The results alarm the need for the development of Ethiopian national garment size standards.

The paper relates ready-to-wear garment fit issues to demographic factors and demographic factors to body measurements. Moreover, it considers young female consumers in Ethiopia, an African country with less explored consumer needs for clothing.

Based on qualitative data from a large study exploring Muslim experiences in the workplace, this chapter explains how Muslim dress standards inform identity and are influenced by US cultural ideals about self-presentation and perceived anti-Muslim hostility. Theoretical sampling was used to find 25 men and 59 women, 32 of whom are veiled. These individuals worked at major corporations as numerical minorities or held professions where they encountered non-Muslims regularly. Informed by theories of orientalism and social identity, findings examine hegemonic representations of organizational power and describe how men could employ masculine practices to navigate anti-Muslim discourse and foster a sense of belonging at work. Within immigrant-centered workplaces, women face cultural backlash for appropriating Western styles deemed immodest. While working outside their community, women who wore hijabs emphasized their femininity through softer colors, makeup, or “unpinning” their veil to offset the visceral reaction to their hijab. Thus, adapting to workplace dress expectations is structured by intersections of gender, religion, and workplace location. This chapter illustrates how Muslim dress strategies indirectly reflect how Western standards of dress, behavior, and self-expression determine qualifications and approachability within workplace structures, marginalizing Muslims and reproducing racial and gender hierarchies.

The aim of this study is to explore how women in Sri Lanka cultivate entrepreneurial personae to navigate the various gendered roles they situationally enact, as they attempt to secure legitimacy and acceptance and overcome their otherness. Drawing on Goffman's theorisation of symbolic interaction, this study investigates how gender informs the performance of entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. In this way, the study engages with the challenges women in the Global South navigate while undertaking entrepreneurship, and it contributes to the critical entrepreneurship literature on the intertwined nature of gender and entrepreneurship.

Following feminist standpoint epistemology (FSE), this qualitative study focuses on women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka by examining the performance of entrepreneurship through 44 life history interviews (LHIs) and 40 Field Observations conducted over a seven-month period.

The findings reveal that women carefully cultivate entrepreneurial personae by striking a balance between entrepreneurial ideals and patriarchal social expectations around womanhood. The findings of the study present how the entrepreneurial personae are constructed by way of appearance, mannerism and setting, which presents opportunities for future research to explore the dramaturgical aspect of gender and entrepreneurship.

This study contributes to the growing body of feminist research surrounding women entrepreneurs, by drawing on insights from the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs in the Global South. This study also expands Goffman's theorisation of audience segregation and shows that a subject's understanding of the audience shapes their personae. A further contribution of this research is how space becomes an extension of the personae at play.

This article details a research approach that created impact through suspending assumptions of Western research methods and positioning Indigenous research partners as experts and co-creators of the research process.

The research partnership placed Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing at the center of research design and methodological choices. At all decision-making points upon commencement of the research, Indigenous (non-academic) research partners were engaged and determined the outcomes of the research partnership.

The impact of this research partnership was three-fold. First, this partnership impacted women directly through employment of Australian Indigenous Environmental Rangers as research associates. Second, the partnership increased awareness and collectivism of Indigenous women’s voices as leaders and advocates for policy change, bringing a new cohort of women rangers wishing to participate as research associates in the project. Third, was the establishment of a National Forum and the formal application for a $1,000,000 Australian Research Council Linkage Project grant to continue research at the National Forum.

We offer readers the opportunity to observe our process of engaging in effective research collaborations with Australian Indigenous peoples who are typically not included as co-creators and equal partners in Western academic research. The research collaboration centered upon Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing to amplify impact. We demonstrate the impact of framing the research as storytelling, so enabling data collection through the culturally safe methods of “dadirri” as well as the “yarning circle”, both of which privilege Indigenous knowledge systems.

Little is known about gender relations in young African migrant families residing in Hong Kong (HK). This study aims to present a first-hand account of daily lived experiences of African international doctoral student couples residing in HK, with special emphases on their Africa–HK migratory motivations, perceptions of female-breadwinning status, the effects of HK Immigration policy on marital power structures and the influence of spousal relative statuses (“breadwinner” versus “dependent”) on couples gender role performances and decision-making participations.

This study used ethnographic method involving several indoor family visits, non-participant observations and 21 in-depth interviews in six African student families. Fieldnotes were taken and interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and interpreted using thematic content analysis.

Couples, especially dependent men, had a hard time deciding to migrate to HK for family reunion, unlike dependent women who willingly resigned to join their husbands in HK. Among the male dependents, the main reasons for migrating included anticipated economic returns, while women migrated in response to neolocal cultural expectations. Overall, patriarchy persisted – while men had the final say over key household decision-making domains, women remained primary performers of household chores, but manifested little bargaining power, restraining husband’s ability to spend family income when they are the family’s sole-earners. Women’s relative breadwinning status had very minimal significant impact.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of HK’s immigration policy on married African students’ migration motivations and the effects of female-breadwinning status on spousal gender relations in HK’s African student migrant households.

Online shopping has recently been evolving more toward the subject area of collaborative online shopping (COS), and customer satisfaction is one of the key determinants for the success of COS. In this study, we investigate the effect of product type and gender and their interaction with customer satisfaction through user involvement in a collaborative online shopping context.

We developed a lab experiment with a mixed two-by-two factorial design to test the proposed research model. We chose gender (male versus female) as the between-subjects factor and product type (utilitarian product versus hedonic product) as the within-subjects factor.

The obtained results indicate that collaborative shopping may require group members to be more involved for a hedonic product than a utilitarian product. When collaboratively shopping for utilitarian products, male groups tend to show a higher level of involvement than female groups. In contrast, female groups show a higher level of involvement than male groups when collaboratively shopping for hedonic products. Furthermore, our results indicate that greater involvement in COS may lead to higher satisfaction.

Websites that sell hedonic products should first adopt the design elements that support COS. Meanwhile, online sellers should be aware that the gender gap still exists as online shopping evolves toward social online shopping. In addition, COS websites should provide more design elements (e.g. co-browsing, avatar embodiment, video chat and voting tools) to stimulate user involvement.

In this paper, we employ the theory of consumption values, which decomposes COS value into the utilitarian and hedonic dimensions, as a theoretical foundation to investigate the effect of product type and gender together as well as their interactions in the COS context. The obtained findings may provide various insights and empirical evidence to improve the understanding of how to target male and female customers across different product types in the COS context.