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This study aims to examine the effects of the characteristics of apparel professionals on their attitude toward sustainability-related technology in the context of a developing country, Bangladesh.

A quantitative approach was used to investigate the apparel professionals’ perception of sustainability-related technology. A survey was conducted, and 204 valid responses were used in data analysis. The structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the data.

The findings demonstrate that apparel professionals’ personal innovativeness positively impacts their knowledge of apparel technology. Knowledge of apparel technology and environmental issues in apparel manufacturing both significantly and positively impact their level of awareness of sustainability-related technology in apparel manufacturing. The findings also suggest that managers’ level of awareness of sustainability-related technology has a significant positive impact on their attitude toward sustainability-related technology.

Fishbein’s attitude theory was applied to examine how the various characteristics of apparel professionals (i.e. personal innovativeness in technology, knowledge of apparel technology, knowledge of environmental issues of apparel manufacturing) affect their awareness of and attitude toward sustainability-related technology. This study expands our understanding of the causal flow among cognitive variables of apparel professionals, including their innovativeness, knowledge, awareness and attitudes. The findings of the study can be helpful to the apparel industry to improve apparel professionals’ adoption of sustainable technology.

This study aims to measure the competitiveness of top apparel exporting nations competing with China in different apparel product categories across the global environment.

Compound annual growth rate, trade competitiveness, market share percentages, revealed comparative advantage and its variant normalized revealed comparative advantage using two-, four- and six-digit harmonized system codes for the period of 2016–2021 were used to understand the comparative advantage of competing apparel exporting nations.

The findings revealed that China still holds a more decisive comparative advantage than its competitors over the majority of the product categories within the knitted or not knitted apparel and clothing accessories. The other competing nations hold better export competitiveness over China in specific categories. However, that is not sufficient to be the “Next China.”

The study has important implications for different stakeholders of the global apparel industry, such as governments, industry officials, policymakers, investors, researchers and students. The study’s limitations arise from using product categories as competitiveness indicators, notably relying on a macro level approach for measurement while the micro level perspective is not analyzed, which constitutes a significant limitation of the study.

This research thoroughly analyzes the competitive position of the top ten apparel-exporting countries in the global market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why multi-tier apparel suppliers integrate social sustainability practices into their supply chains and what barriers these suppliers encounter while embedding social sustainability practices.

This study employs a qualitative research design, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 46 owners and managers from 33 multi-tier apparel suppliers in Bangladesh, an important outsourcing hub for the global apparel industry. To corroborate research findings, the views of owners and managers were triangulated by further interviewing 11 key representatives of institutional actors such as third-party auditors, a donor agency, industry associations, regulatory agencies and a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The authors' findings suggest a range of divergent institutional drivers and barriers – coercive, mimetic and normative – that determine the implementation of multi-tier suppliers' social sustainability practices. The key reported drivers were buyers' requirements, external stakeholders' expectations, top management commitment and competition. Conversely, cost and resource concerns and gaps in the regulatory framework were identified as key social sustainability implementation barriers. In particular, owners and managers of second-tier and third-tier supplier firms experienced more internal barriers such as cost and resource concerns than external barriers such as gaps in values, learning and commitment (i.e. compromise for mutual benefit and non-disclosure of non-compliance) that impeded effective social sustainability implementation.

Social sustainability in supply chain management has received significant attention from academics, business practitioners, governments, NGOs and supranational organisations. However, limited attention has been paid to investigating the drivers and barriers for social sustainability implementation from a developing country's multi-tier supplier perspective. The authors' research has addressed this knowledge gap.

The evidence from the authors' study provides robust support for key assumptions of institutional theory and has useful implications for both managers and policy-makers.

The authors' study contributes to the embryonic research stream of socially sustainable multi-tier supply chain management by connecting it to the application of institutional theory in a challenging institutional context.

In the highly competitive business landscape, manufacturing firms need to adopt an effective manufacturing strategy to attain a successful world-class manufacturing status. Over the past few decades, the lean manufacturing (LM) approach has gained recognition as one of the foremost strategies for enhancing performance. However, the implementation of LM poses significant challenges due to several barriers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the primary barriers to lean implementation within the apparel industry.

This paper used an exploratory study approach, using a three-part structured questionnaire to assess the level of agreement on different lean barriers. The measurement of these barriers was conducted using a five-point Likert scale. Empirical data were collected from 177 apparel companies located in Bangladesh.

The findings of the research highlight that the primary obstacles to implementing LI include a lack of understanding of the lean manufacturing system (LMS), the manufacturing process, the company culture and resistance from employees.

This paper could potentially limit the generalizability of this research, as it exclusively examines a single manufacturing sector – the apparel industry.

This paper will help practitioners in finding solutions to resolve discrepancies between current manufacturing practices and the LMS.

This paper fulfills an identified need to examine the extent of lean adoption within the apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Using resource-based theory and social cognitive theory, this study aimed to investigate crucial resources that new US fashion ventures need to survive the initial stage of business development. It also intended to discover the role and characteristics of founders that contribute to the success of a fashion business, as well as challenges and struggles that fashion entrepreneurs face.

For the study, a qualitative research method with in-depth personal interviews was conducted. Participants were recruited through purposeful sampling methods. Using a grounded theory approach, we analyzed the approximately 308 pages of primary source data, transcribed from the records of the interviews.

Findings were categorized into three major themes. First, financial resources and literacy, marketing, merchandising, as well as legal resources were identified as critical resources at the firm level. Second, at the individual level, four important human agency factors, including intentionality, forethought, reactiveness and reflectiveness were revealed as essential for the success of fashion entrepreneurs. Lastly, relationships and networks were highlighted at both firm and individual levels.

This study contributes to the understanding of fashion entrepreneurship, an understudied area. The study identified critical resources for the success of fashion startups, especially during the initial business development process. The findings also emphasized the importance of human agency factors and networks at both firm and individual levels.

This paper aims to analyze the ethical responses of the fashion industry to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when the entire world was shocked by the rapid spread of the virus. The authors describe lessons from emergency ethics of care in the fashion industry during the initial months of COVID-19, which can assist fashion managers in improving ethical decisions in future operations.

Rapid qualitative research methods were employed by conducting real-time, in-depth interviews with key informants from multinational fashion companies operating in Spain, a severely affected region. A content analysis of news articles published during the first months of 2020 was conducted.

Five critical disruptions in the fashion industry were identified: (1) changes in public needs, (2) transportation and distribution backlogs, (3) defective and counterfeit supplies, (4) stakeholder relationships at stake and (5) managers' coping challenges. Additionally, five business survival responses with a strong ethics of care component were identified, implemented by some fashion companies to mitigate the damage: (1) adapting production for public well-being, (2) enhancing the flexibility of logistic networks, (3) emphasizing quality and innovation, (4) reinventing stakeholder collaborations and (5) practicing responsible leadership.

Despite the well-documented controversies surrounding unethical practices within the fashion industry, even during COVID-19, our findings inform managers of the potential and capability of fashion companies to operate more responsibly. The lessons learned can guide fashion companies' operations in a post-pandemic society. Furthermore, they can address other grand challenges, such as natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts and climate change.

The purpose of the study is to explore the role of affective commitment (AC) consumer empowerment on webrooming behaviour (WB) in a multichannel context of the fashion industry, with mediating (attitude [ATT]) and moderating (product involvement [PT]) effect. We used the stimulus– organism–responses theory as a theoretical underpinning.

We collected 307 responses from fashionable consumer who was purposed fashion products recently through convenience sampling approach and analysed the data with structural equation modelling and PROCESS macro.

The results illustrated that AC and consumer empowerment had a significant impact on consumer attitude and their WB. Likewise, consumer attitude had a positive mediating association between AC, consumer empowerment and WB. PI significantly moderated the relationship between ACs, consumer empowerment with attitude and attitude with WB.

This study is one of the new research works of its kind, which examines the role of AC and consumer empowerment on WB in the fashion industry. This study contributes to the growing amount of literature on fashion marketing by analysing the rapidly growing phenomena of WB in a multichannel context of the fashion industry.

The effect of dynamic capabilities on operational excellence and the moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between operational excellence and dynamic capabilities in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka were investigated while developing new psychometric scales to assess operational excellence and dynamic capacities constructs.

We followed the exploratory sequential research design with a mixed-method research approach, aligning with the pragmatic research philosophy. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were followed.

Dynamic capabilities positively affect operational excellence, and environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between operational excellence and dynamic capabilities in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka such that when a higher environmental dynamism exists, a weaker positive relationship exists between dynamic capabilities and operational excellence. The two main dimensions of the operational excellence construct are continuous improvement of sustainable operational performance and sustainable competitive advantages. It empirically confirmed that sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities are the three main dimensions of the dynamic capabilities construct.

This study was limited to the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. This research phenomenon should be explored in other industrial sectors worldwide to generalize the findings. The practitioners in the apparel sector may improve the organizational dynamic capabilities to achieve operational excellence and keep a strong positive relationship between dynamic capabilities and operational excellence in a highly dynamic environment if they address out-of-family situations with out-of-the-box thinking.

We generated two new empirical findings: (1) dynamic capabilities positively affect operational excellence, and (2) environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and operational excellence. Also, we introduced validated new scales for assessing operational excellence and dynamic capabilities.

This study aims to examine the export competitiveness of Vietnam’s apparel sector by identifying the precise product categories that create its comparative advantage.

Revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and normalized revealed comparative advantage (NRCA) form the research methodology, and the RCA/NRCA values are calculated for the 2011–2020 period.

In total, 29 out of 34 product categories at four-digit levels and 65 out of 217 subcategories at six-digit levels elicited a consistent export comparative advantage throughout the 10-year study timeframe. The study also identified 13 subcategories at six-digit levels, which indicated 10 consecutive years of relative disadvantages.

The study’s findings have far-reaching implications for economic policy, development strategies and global economic integration. By providing a nuanced understanding of a country’s export strengths in the international apparel trade, this study offers valuable guidance for informed decision-making at various levels. The findings will serve as a significant source of information for policymakers and help them formulate novel policies aiming to diversify Vietnam’s apparel product offerings and export destinations. The results will also inform the government regarding the industry’s potential and attract necessary support, enabling it to grow further. This study reveals patterns in Vietnam’s apparel trade but does not provide insights into the underlying causes of comparative advantage.

The study provides an in-depth overview of Vietnam’s comparative advantages and disadvantages at two-, four- and six-digit harmonized system levels and helps understand Vietnam’s apparel export competitiveness.

The apparel and textile sector poses a significant environmental challenge due to its substantial contribution to pollution in the form of air, water and soil pollution. To combat these issues, the adoption of sustainable practices is essential. This study aims to identify and analyse the barriers that hinder the progress of sustainability in the apparel and textile industry. By consulting experts in the field, critical barriers were identified and given special attention.

To achieve the research objective, an integrated approach involving Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and fuzzy MICMAC decision-making techniques was employed. The results were further validated through the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method.

The findings highlight that barrier related to clothing disposal, inadequate adaptation to modern technology, challenges affecting sector efficiency and issues related to fashion design are crucial in influencing the remaining six barriers. Based on the outcomes of the DEMATEL method, a comprehensive cause-and-effect diagram was constructed to gain a deeper understanding of these challenges.

This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders in the apparel and textile industry. It offers a strategic framework to address and overcome sustainability barriers, promoting the development of a more environmentally responsible and resilient sector.

The purpose of this research is to conduct an in-depth investigation of the barriers apparel and textile sectors. It is feasible that both the management team and the medical experts who provide direct patient care could benefit from this research.