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The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel integrated approach using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods for evaluation and prioritization of appropriate manufacturing flexibility type required in the face of multiple environmental uncertainties.

Using a case study of an Indian fashion apparel firm, the study demonstrates the application of the proposed integrated framework for evaluation and prioritization of manufacturing flexibility. The study uses AHP method to determine importance weight of environmental uncertainty criteria and subcriteria and then employs TOPSIS method to determine the final ranking of manufacturing flexibility types required to cope up with these uncertainties.

The findings of the case suggest that the proposed integrated approach is feasible and practically implementable for manufacturing flexibility assessment.

AHP has been extensively studied and used, but the major limitation of this proposed approach is the involvement of large number of pairwise comparisons leading to difficulty in maintaining consistency in pairwise comparisons.

The proposed approach can work as a benchmarking tool to practitioners in evaluating and prioritizing manufacturing flexibility alternatives and to suggest strategic allocation of resource by prioritizing different manufacturing flexibilities types.

Unlike conventional approaches, the study provides meaningful knowledge to decision makers by demonstrating a simple, flexible, and efficient method to evaluate and rank the appropriate manufacturing flexibility types.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different drivers and volume flexibility strategies employed in manufacturing firms. It also examines contingent factors, which determine volume flexibility requirement in manufacturing firms.

Using a multi-case study approach, the study examines and analyses drivers, strategies and contingent factors that affect volume flexibility in four Indian manufacturing plants belonging to automobiles, auto ancillary, fashion apparel and electrical industry.

The empirical analysis suggests various drivers of volume flexibility and different strategies employed by firms to enhance flexibility. The study also illustrates various contingent factors that determine the need of volume flexibility in firms.

The sample of the study is majorly confined to the northern region of India. Methodologically, the analysis is solely based on the qualitative data.

The study suggests practitioners to consider a range of contingent factors, while evaluating the need of volume flexibility in manufacturing plants. Rather than relying on a single strategy, a mix of strategies should be used to develop volume flexibility in firms.

The identification of a range of strategies employed by volume flexible firms as well as contingent factors that need to be evaluated before employing volume flexibility are the major contributions of this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing manufacturing flexibility adoption and simultaneously explores some of the key issues prevailing in manufacturing flexibility adoption in Indian context. The study also stratifies critical factors for successful manufacturing flexibility adoption.

Using exploratory sequential design, a series of focus group interviews were conducted with Indian manufacturing professionals and these interviews were supplemented by 127 follow-up structured questionnaires.

Two major themes emerged from the first phase of the study – role played by some of the unexplored antecedents of manufacturing flexibility and key issues in manufacturing flexibility adoption. In the second phase, a list of factors was categorized based on their degree of importance in manufacturing flexibility adoption.

Being qualitative in nature, the study suffers from inherent risk of subjectivity associated with manufacturing practitioners. A large-scale survey and rigorous quantitative analysis would be helpful to further validate the list of factors and underlying relationships among proposed factors.

The identified list of factors and some of the key issues in manufacturing flexibility adoption can be of great help to practitioners. The stratified list of factors can be further used by academicians to develop an instrument for manufacturing flexibility adoption.

The paper identifies a set of factors that affects manufacturing flexibility adoption. It offers a basis for instrument development for manufacturing flexibility adoption and provides direction for future quantitative research in manufacturing flexibility area.

The purpose of this paper is to reconfigure a new component of dynamic capabilities across firms, and to summarize propositions and to construct a conceptual framework of the dynamic capabilities in fashion apparel industry.

The author used the interviews with the industry experts and trade association executives to develop an understanding of the strategic and technological issues facing the industry and to gain a historical perspective on the evolution of the industry.

This study explored the establishment of dynamic capability and market competitiveness in the fashion apparel industry from the perspectives of dynamic capability and resources embedment, and brought out the insight that commonalities/component has been overlooked. The “conceptual framework of dynamic capabilities in fashion apparel industry” developed by this study, which consists of the major key factors for the maintenance of fast fashion apparel industry in market competitive advantage.

Although the five top fashion apparel groups interviewed in this study are representative, there are limits in classification of other brands, which is one of the limitations in this study. Second, although qualitative research can achieve understanding of the utmost layer of situations, its greatest limitation is that it cannot investigate massive amount of interviewees, which is a second limitation in this study.

The theoretical contribution of the study is to construct a conceptual framework of dynamic capabilities in the fashion apparel industry using eight theoretical propositions. Such conceptual framework will become a basic knowledge system for firms in the fashion apparel industry to develop strategic directions, as well as an important knowledge reference to other firms when choosing what to establish as their core competences.

This study examines consumer brand associations, focusing on the differences between association held for western brands and eastern brands by young Singaporeans under the country‐of‐origin umbrella. The study also examines consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CET), finding very low levels of ethnocentrism among respondents, and results indicate CET had no effect on brand preference or purchase intention.

The advent of media and technology has led to growing inclination among Generation Y (Gen-Y) consumers towards diverse fashion influences and they tend to dress either to fit in with their peers or to articulate self-identity and conform to the society. This trend has become a fashion dilemma and the purpose of this paper is to leverage on this matter by investigating the factors influencing the Gen-Y consumers’ attitude and purchase intention towards fashion apparel.

A sample of 250 respondents is used to assess the measurement and structural models, by applying a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach.

The results indicate that brand and self-identity are the factors that most shape Gen-Y consumers’ attitudes towards fashion apparel. Furthermore, brand, style, price, and social identity are the most influential factors of Gen-Y consumers’ purchase intention for fashion apparels. The findings also show that style, price, country of origin, and social identity are not relevant to Gen-Y consumers’ attitudes towards fashion apparel, and that country of origin and self-identity do not have any relationship with the Gen-Y consumers’ purchase intention.

This study is among the few attempts to investigate the Gen-Y consumers’ buying behaviour of fashion apparel based on the theory of planned behaviour, optimal distinctiveness theory, and social identity theory. PLS-multi-group analysis reveals that age, gender, and income are moderating variables of several proposed structural relationships.

The relationship between sustainability, traceability and transparency in the fashion-apparel industry, characterised by complex, labour-intensive and geographically dispersed supply chains (SCs), needs further clarification. The first goal of this study is to revise, refine and adapt to the scope of this industry, the conceptualisation of traceability and transparency and their interrelations with sustainability. The second goal is to uncover the key elements responsible for fostering and hindering their relationship in the fashion-apparel practice.

A Delphi study with fourteen experts representing key stakeholders in the entire fashion-apparel SC was carried out.

Operational definitions for and clear boundaries amongst sustainability, traceability and transparency are identified, and a relational model including stakeholder groups and roles, drivers and barriers is developed. Traceability, defined as an ability, together with transparency, conceptualised as an internal decision and assisted (inter alia) by cross-sector collaboration are found to be necessary but not sufficient conditions to achieve SC sustainability, which is conceived as an outcome.

The work adapts concepts from the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature to the particular fashion-apparel context, incorporating the practical vision and nuances of all the key stakeholder groups and highlighting the mutually reinforcing relationship among traceability, transparency and cross-sector collaboration for effective SSCM in the fashion-apparel industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how attitudes towards sweatshops, social norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) factors influence consumers’ attitudes towards luxury fashion apparel made in sweatshops. It also examines how these variables influence purchase intention and ultimately the willingness to pay more for luxury fashion apparel not made in sweatshops.

A self-administered questionnaire was designed using established scales. A survey was conducted through the “mall intercept” method.

Underpinned by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model, attitudes and PBC were found to have an influence on intention to purchase luxury fashion apparel made in sweatshops. The intention to purchase luxury fashion apparel also significantly influences the willingness to pay more for luxury fashion apparel not made in sweatshops.

The research findings can be used to formulate strategies for academia, practitioners and, more importantly, policy makers to help curb sweatshop activities.

This paper focuses exclusively on luxury fashion apparels made in sweatshops. Status consumption is also added as a potential antecedent towards purchase intention.

This study aims to investigate the shopping behaviour of consumers, mainly in fashion apparels, and intends to understand consumer buying patterns in Indian context. The study was designed to determine the level of consumer's sense of belonging towards apparel shopping by applying the concept of self-congruence.

The study used variance-based partial least squares structural equational modelling (PLS-SEM) on a cross-sectional study conducted on 569 consumers. The study was conducted by using questionnaire to collect the responses from the central zone of India. The results support most of the projected hypotheses.

The study focused on the shopping behaviour of consumer such as self-congruence, impulse buying, hedonic values and consumer satisfaction. The results of the study highlight the association of constructs and analysed the mediation relation of hedonic and impulse buying constructs. The results revealed a positive association among the constructs and also found a partial mediation effect in their relation with constructs.

The findings are outcomes of an empirical study conducted in the fashion apparel industry of India based on the sample set of urban consumers. The study is restricted to the direct and indirect relationship of constructs. Further, research can examine by using moderating constructs like demographic factors (gender, age, income, etc.) and other shopping behaviours (like brand loyalty, brand love, brand attachment) for more clarity in results. Moreover, the study limited is with fashion apparel, whereas there are many categories in the fashion industry like accessories, perfumes, cosmetic products, footwear and also other products industry.

The study provided valuable inputs to the literature of marketing where self-congruence affects consumer shopping behaviour such as impulse buying, hedonic values and consumer satisfaction. The study proposes a practical approach that can help the marketing professionals and product developers to have a deep understanding about consumer shopping behaviour for facilitating consumer-oriented goods in the Indian fashion industry.

This is one of the first studies in the fashion industry to test the association of self-congruence with hedonic value and consumer satisfaction. This relation is not tested in context of fashion apparel. Additionally, this study also examined the mediating effect of hedonic value and impulse buying in relation with self-congruence and consumer satisfaction in the Indian context.

Although interest in sustainability within the fashion apparel industry has increased over the last decade, ethical fashion remains a minority trend due to low consumer awareness and consumption behaviour. The aim of the paper is to explore empirically the relationships between general consumer support for ethical fashion, buying intention and willingness to pay, focussing on the effect that consumer concern and knowledge and beliefs have on these variables.

Data were collected from 450 general consumers in Spain, who are not specifically dedicated buyers of fashion apparel goods. Responses were collected with a structured questionnaire that included multi-item scales to measure all the variables of the causal model. After corroborating the reliability and validity of the measurement scales with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), 11 research hypotheses were explored using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach.

The findings demonstrate that whilst beliefs are not predictors of consumer support for either social or environmental issues, concern and knowledge are antecedents of consumer social and environmental support, which determine general support for ethical fashion, intention to buy and willingness to pay. Consumer social support has a slightly higher impact on consumer support for ethical fashion, intention to buy and willingness to pay than environmental support.

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the literature by empirically comparing general consumer perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards the social and environmental dimensions of ethical fashion. In doing so, the authors aim at shedding light on the complex concept of ethical fashion and how general consumers understand it. The findings suggest that promoting educational marketing especially focussed on environmental issues is necessary to raise consumer awareness, knowledge and ethical consumption.