Jung Ha-Brookshire

Do Transparent Business Practices Pay? Exploration of Transparency and Consumer Purchase Intention:

Information transparency has mostly been associated with financial institutions, and little is known about its application in the apparel supply chain. The aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that may influence consumer attitude and purchase intention with respect to apparel products from businesses that are transparent about their supply chain. An interpretive analysis, through interviews with consumers, revealed that attitude and intention seemed to be affected by prior knowledge about the apparel industry, distrust on the business’ efforts, values (hedonic and social responsibility value) gained by consumers by consuming transparent products, as well as price and quality of the product. The study uses the theory of reasoned action to explain the relation between attitude and intention and combines with the concepts of consumer value and price and quality. Implications, limitations and scope of further research are also discussed.

Korean Apparel Manufacturing Industry: Exploration From the Industry Life Cycle Perspective

Under the industry life cycle framework, the study (a) explored Korean apparel manufacturing firms’ business activity profiles (what firms do) and competitive advantages (what they have or do to compete) as described by firms; and (b) examined the relationships between business activity profiles and competitive advantages. Based on content analysis, canonical correlation analysis, and correspondence analysis of 200 Korean apparel manufacturing firms’ Web sites, the study found that the Korean apparel manufacturing industry showed consistent characteristics of the mature or declining phase of the industry life cycle. The majority of these firms were engaged in value-added activities such as retailing and product development with an emphasis on brand, quality, and customer service. Results also showed the three clusters of Korean apparel manufacturing firms, Domestic Manufacturers, Foreign Manufacturers, and Retailers, all of which had different competitive advantages. The study concluded with contributions and implications of the results.

The Impact of Firm Capabilities and Competitive Advantages on Import Intermediary Performance

ABSTRACT Import intermediary firms, domestic firms that serve U.S. industries by linking domestic wholesalers/retailers and foreign distributors/manufacturers, handled a whopping U.S.

How do they create ‘Superpower’? An exploration of knowledge-creation processes and work environments in the wearable technology industry

1.85 trillion of commodity good imports in 2006. This study focused on these important firms by assessing the role of capabilities and competitive advantages as key determinants of import intermediary performance. The empirical results showed that market interpretation, sourcing, and service capabilities, overall, positively affected cost, product, and service competitive advantages. These competitive advantages, in turn, positively affected their relationship performance with business partners. Results, however, also indicated some interesting negative associations among sourcing capabilities, service advantages, and relationship performance with foreign partners, raising questions about extant firm performance theory.

Gender Differences in Information Processing and Transparency: Cases of Apparel Brands' Social Responsibility Claims

ABSTRACT Wearable technology (WT) offers tremendous opportunities for growth and innovation for many of todays businesses. It presents unique challenges in organising heterogeneous productive teams from multi-disciplines. However, little is known about how these WT firms operate to facilitate innovations. Therefore, this study explored the meaning of successful WT, the knowledge-creation processes, and the work environments described by WT professionals in the USA and the Netherlands. An interpretive analysis of 16 in-depth interviews revealed that, a successful WT makes life easier by ‘making you do more with less’, and solving multiple problems, that gives ‘super power’ to human beings. The findings were mostly consistent with the organisational knowledge creation theory in that knowledge is created through socialisation by personal communication, internalisation of knowledge by experimentation, and combination by learning from and teaching other members of WT communities. A productive WT work environment was explained to be respectful and nurturing.

Consumer Trade-Off Analysis and Market Share Estimation for Selected Socially Responsible Product Attributes for Cotton Apparel

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to understand how male and female consumers differently evaluate sustainability claims from brands and how brands’ sustainability efforts and the presence/absence of information transparency in the claims affect their brand schemas differently. Design/methodology/approach – Five hundred participants were recruited for an online experiment implementing both treatment and message variance. PROCESS, a recently developed regression-based bootstrapping technique was used to test the hypotheses. Findings – Males were more likely than females to rely on their existing schemas for judgment in case of Made in USA but not Fair Labor claims. The presence of information transparency in claims reduced participants’ reliance on their schemas. Practical implications – The findings might be helpful for brands to design marketing claims with specific customer segments to stand out amidst advertisement clutter. Especially, brands targeting male consumers might try to build strong bra...

Organizational Identities and Their Economic Performance: An Analysis of U.S. Textile and Apparel Firms

In light of the growing interest in socially responsible apparel consumption, this study examined the effect of fiber origin, fiber production method, and price on consumer purchase preferences for cotton apparel. Using data collected from a nation-wide telephone survey and conjoint analysis, the relative importance of product attributes and the potential market shares for products with different levels of each attribute were estimated. Analyses based on the average of each respondent’s part-worth utilities indicated that price is the most important criterion for cotton apparel with a relative importance value of 58.5%. The importance values for U.S.-grown fibers with transparency and fibers grown with sustainable farming methods were 30% and 11.5%, respectively. Cotton apparel with the combination of the aforementioned attributes was estimated to garner 32% of market share among U.S. consumers. Cotton apparel made from U.S.-grown fibers with transparency, using sustainable farming methods and offered at a medium price level accounted for a 7% market share. In general, the results indicated that consumer placed greater importance on fiber transparency relative to sustainable farming.

Trends of Research Published by Clothing and Textiles Research Journal (1993–2012) and Outlook for Future Research:

As the U.S. textile and apparel industries have globalized, firm activities within the industry have changed, impacting organizational identity. Given that organizational identity is a viable strategic element for organizational competitive advantages, this study explored how today’s U.S. textile and apparel firms describe themselves as organizations, compared the findings with business classification descriptions provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, and investigated the relationship between organizational identity congruence and performance. Results of content analysis of web-based communication data and multivariate statistical techniques suggested that the majority of U.S. textile and apparel manufacturers and wholesale merchants use self-descriptors such as product provider, service provider, or business partner, rather than Census Bureau terms such as manufacturers or wholesalers. The findings also showed that organizational identity congruence is positively associated with various organizational performance outcomes. The study concludes with the contributions and implications of the study findings, limitations, and future research opportunities.

India, the next China? Analysis of the unique firm resources claimed by Indian apparel export firms

In response to Ha-Brookshire and Hawley’s (2013) domain of clothing and textile-related (C&T) discipline through the sustainable global supply chain management perspective, we (a) reviewed the past research topics and contents and (b) assessed the gap between what has been done and what needs to be done, to offer new research opportunities within the global supply chain management perspective. Content analysis of 476 articles published by Clothing and Textile Research Journal from 1993 to 2012 shows that social/ psychological aspects of clothing dominated research topics. In comparison, there has been a lack of research on product development, design, sourcing, and production related topics that may help improve consumers’ economic gains, society, and environments. Research addressing global issues and creative problem solving within the C&T global supply chain were rare. The gaps in research topics within the global supply chain have been identified and specific future research questions are presented.

The impact of cultural authenticity on brand uniqueness and willingness to try: The case of Chinese brands and US consumers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique resources that Indian apparel exporting firms claim to have and the key resources that help provide competitive advantage to these firms. Design/methodology/approach – A web-based content analysis of texts available on “About Us” or related sections of the Indian export firms was conducted. Text data were coded and interpreted. Findings – Physical resources seemed to be one of the most critical resources for their competitive advantages for the study samples. The ability to provide affordable and competitive prices for their products and experience in exporting were recognized as important firm resource described by the study samples. Research limitations/implications – The study results supported the resource-based theory of the firm by showing additional key firm resources, such as ability to maintain domestic operations and to provide competitive prices that Indian apparel exporters claimed to have. Generalizability of the results is cautione...