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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.

This paper examines the socio-emotional identities of handloom artisans in Sri Lanka as a novel technique for new product development.

Qualitative research methods, including observational research and semi-structured interviews with 27 artisans from different handloom communities in Sri Lanka were conducted and analyzed in thematic approach.

By highlighting the maker of the craft through their socio-emotional identities in an artisan-oriented approach, this paper provides insight into new product development for handloom in alignment with up-and-coming trends. Ultimately, this can increase the demand for handloom and sustain the sector in both local and international fashion markets.

This research study is one of the first of its kind to propose a novel approach for artisan-oriented product development through the application of artisans’ socio-emotional identities.

This study examines consumer online purchase behaviour in the Nigerian fashion industry.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a total useable sample size of 241 respondents contacted through on-site visitation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to test the influence of customer value on online purchase behaviour in the fashion industry.

Consumer values are categorised into terminal (happiness, love and satisfaction) and instrumental (time-saving, price-saving discount, service convenience and merchandise assortment) values. The findings show that both values have significant influence on online consumer purchase behaviour, while fashion consciousness moderates the relationship between consumer values and online purchase behaviour.

Online fashion retailers should focus on increasing the terminal and instrumental values of their products and making available goods that meet the needs of different generational cohorts in society.

Studies have examined various factors, for example, consumer values that are determinants of consumer online purchase in the fashion industry; however, there has been limited focus on the nature of fashion and online purchasing in emerging markets, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper aims to examine and compare the export performance and competitiveness of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing industry in post-multifibre arrangement (MFA) era.

Balassa’s revealed comparative advantage Index is used to assess the competitiveness of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing exports.

The results indicate that China’s textiles and garments sector holds a greater proportion of the global market compared with India. India has a robust comparative advantage in silk, carpets and cotton post-MFA. Vegetable textile fibers, paper yarn and woven fabrics of paper yarn are also competitive. China had a strong comparative advantage in silk and fabrics; special woven fabrics, tafted textile fabrics, lace, tapestries, trimmings and embroidery in 2005. China also recorded comparative advantage in silk, man-made filaments: strip and the like of man-made textile materials, fabrics; special woven fabrics, tafted textile fabrics, lace, tapestries, trimmings and embroidery and fabrics; knitted or crocheted in 2021.

This study’s results and recommendations could assist the Indian and Chinese Governments develop policies to upgrade their garment industries.

Though vast literature reviews are available for textile and apparel export performance in India and China separately, there are few studies on comparisons. This study is a significant attempt to evaluate India and China’s competitiveness in the global market.

Technology and market pressures are encouraging localized and small-series production in customer-driven industries. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the supply chain-, product- and process-design factors for small-series production in EU’s textile and apparel industry, to understand configuration decisions, priorities and challenges.

An interview study was undertaken with ten companies that represent diverse small-series production models and value chain roles. Interview data was analysed to identify supply network configuration characteristics, decision priorities and challenges.

Three small-series production models emerged from the analysis, differing with respect to adoption of process postponement and customization. The findings confirm and extend past research regarding diverse decision priorities and product, process, supply chain structure/relationship configurations. Challenges identified relate to planning (priorities) and implementation (configuration). Whereas competence availability and digital technology challenges are common, several difficulties are linked to production model like tensions related to priorities and small volumes, which are not found with customization.

Future research can make comparisons with other industry and location contexts; adopt dynamic approaches to distinguish between design and reconfiguration processes; and address indicated paradoxical-tensions.

The study findings can provide guidance for companies regarding identification of priorities and management of (planning/implementation) challenges impacting small-series production in T&A.

The paper brings a configuration perspective at the supply chain level to the problem of small-series production implementation, which demands holistic and context-specific understanding.

This study applies the modified brand avoidance model to examine factors that influence sustainable fashion avoidance behaviour among millennial shoppers in South Africa.

A positivistic approach and a web-based online survey were employed to collect cross-sectional data from 423 millennial fashion shoppers. Standard multiple regression analysis was used to test proposed hypotheses.

Unmet expectations, materialism and symbolic incongruence emerged as major predictors of millennials' intention to avoid sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion avoidance intention was found to have a positive effect on sustainable fashion avoidance behaviour.

This study relied on self-reported data collected from millennial shoppers. Future studies may improve the generalizability of this study's results by conducting a comparative study with other cohorts such as baby boomers and Generation X who espouse different shopping values. Future studies may benefit from the use of longitudinal data in order to understand how millennial shoppers relate to sustainable fashion as it evolves.

The results of this study suggest the importance of developing value propositions that align sustainable fashion with cultural, personality and symbolic cues valued by millennial shoppers. Consumer education on the benefits of sustainable fashion is recommended as a long-term behavioural change strategy.

The purchase behaviour of sustainable fashion should be encouraged as it enhances environmental sustainability including safeguarding the livelihoods of future generations.

This study contributes to literature on sustainable fashion avoidance behaviour. This is one of the pioneering studies to empirically examine the influence of unmet expectations, symbolic incongruence and ideological incompatibility in the context of an emerging market, such as South Africa.

Cambodia's sustained and robust growth performance since the post-reform era in 1993 has been attributed to the boom in inward foreign direct investment (FDI) attracted to the country's labor-intensive industries, where it has comparative advantages. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it aims to assess the consistency between Cambodia's revealed comparative advantage in exports and its sectoral inward FDI. Second, it examines the relationship between industry-level FDI and growth performance by accounting for heterogeneity across industries.

The paper uses descriptive methods and an industry-level dataset provided by the Council for the Development of Cambodia to elucidate the issue. Additionally, it applies instrumental variable two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) regression to investigate the impact of industry-specific FDI on economic growth from 1994 to 2017, which also aims to address the endogeneity issue.

On the one hand, our research finds that Cambodia's FDI has been attracted to sectors in which it has a comparative advantage during the aforementioned period. On the other hand, both FDI and the comparative advantage index significantly impact economic growth in Cambodia. The greater the flow of foreign investment into sectors with comparative advantage, the stronger the impetus for growth.

This study fills a gap in the literature and contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between FDI and economic growth in Cambodia. It is the first paper to investigate the heterogeneity of industry-specific FDI and provides practical recommendations for policymakers to effectively harness foreign investments and avoid malign FDI inflows.

The purpose of this study is to develop a novel general mathematical model to find the optimal product mix of commercial graphite products, which has a complex production process with alternative sub-processes in the graphite mining production process.

The network optimization was adopted to model the complex graphite mining production process through the optimal allocation of raw graphite, byproducts, and saleable products with comparable sub-processes, which has different processing capacities and costs. The model was tested on a selected graphite manufacturing company, and the optimal graphite product mix was determined through the selection of the optimal production process. In addition, sensitivity and scenario analyses were carried out to accommodate uncertainties and to facilitate further managerial decisions.

The selected graphite mining company mines approximately 400 metric tons of raw graphite per month to produce ten types of graphite products. According to the optimum solution obtained, the company should produce only six graphite products to maximize its total profit. In addition, the study demonstrated how to reveal optimum managerial decisions based on optimum solutions.

This study has made a significant contribution to the graphite manufacturing industry by modeling the complex graphite mining production process with a network optimization technique that has yet to be addressed at this level of detail. The sensitivity and scenario analyses support for further managerial decisions.

This study seeks to explore the importance of digital platforms in restoring global supply chains interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, the research focuses on internally developed digital platforms and their potential to ensure supply chain continuity between developed and emerging markets.

Multiple comparative case studies have been selected for the research methodology. Eight cases concerning digital platform implementation for global SC management – four from developed countries and four from emerging markets – have been selected. The four pairs of cases represent four global supply chain mechanisms.

The results revealed that the use of internally developed digital platforms serves as a quick solution for immediate problems caused by ripple effects in global supply chain and negative environmental conditions. Digital platforms could therefore facilitate reciprocal monitoring and information exchanges between SC partners in different countries.

The digital platform research stream is in its early stages. Research thus far has mostly focused on externally developed digital platforms managed by an orchestrator. The platforms' usefulness in the dialogue between developed and emerging markets requires further exploration.

The research paper examines the impact of perceived social media marketing activities (SMMAs) (interaction, entertainment, customization, trendiness and word of mouth (WOM)) on customer loyalty (CL) toward e-commerce providers. The study also explores the mediating role of customer relationship quality (CRQ) (commitment, trust and satisfaction) on the relationship between perceived SMMAs and CL.

The study is based on the S-O-R model, which states that characteristics of the environment (stimulus) arouse a cognitive state (organism) that results in positive or negative behavior (response). The present study proposes the characteristics of the e-commerce environment as stimuli (S), the inner state of customers as an organism (O) and consumer behavior as the response (R). This study investigated the responses of 487 social media users through structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results offer three crucial findings. First, the study validated that perceived SMMA comprises five dimensions (interaction, entertainment, customization, trendiness and WOM) in the Indian e-commerce context. Second, perceived SMMA significantly influences CRQ (commitment, trust and satisfaction). Third, CRQ significantly mediates the relationship between perceived SMMA and CL.

The study attempts to understand the effect of perceived SMMA on CL via CRQ in an e-commerce context, especially in an emerging economy like India. The present study argues that the SMMA of e-commerce is likely to be reflected in CL when the consumers experience CRQ through commitment, trust and satisfaction. Thus exploring the mediating role of CRQ is the authors' contribution.