Asymmetrical power relations and upgrading among suppliers of global clothing brands: Hugo Boss in Turkey

The costs of compliance? Views of Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers in times of global economic crisis

“…Despite such advantages, operating in an uneven global terrain is not without its pressures and pervasive imbalances of power, which is an endemic feature of the apparel industry at all geographical levels. Many of our Sri Lankan management interviews confirmed the risky, compromised and weakened position that this placed suppliers into-especially in the context of the rise of what has come to be known as 'fast fashion' (Tokatli, 2007a(Tokatli, , 2008Tokatli et al, 2008) with its associated exactingly tight production deadlines and frequent design changes. Indeed, academics have perceived these uncompromising dynamics to have produced a tension-reflected in debate between civil society organizations and retailers-concerning whether fast fashion sourcing strategies of retailers are incompatible with implementation of codes of conduct at sites of production (Hale, 2000;Hughes, 2001;Pearson and Seyfang, 2001;Knutsen, 2004;Pickles et al, 2006;Barrientos and Smith, 2007).…”

From smiling to smirking? 3D printing, upgrading and the restructuring of global value chains

“…The GVC literature has emphasized the role played by particularly powerful groups of companies, especially those that exert 'buyer power' by placing large orders in their supply chains (Gibbon et al 2008), and how they shape a specific GVC scholars initially focused on a 'high road' to upgrading eventually leading to performing functions in a value chain that entailed more skill and knowledge (functional upgrading) (Gereffi 1999). Recent literature, however, highlights a more complex set of upgrading (and downgrading) trajectories (Cattaneo et al 2010;Ponte and Ewert 2009;Tokatli 2007), while other scholars are reframing the upgrading discussion in relation to the charting of 'value capture trajectories' (Coe and Yeung 2015) and by linking value capture possibilities to the strategic management decisions of suppliers and their technological innovation approaches (Sako and Zylberberg 2016). In this article, we apply the simpler typology of product, process, functional and inter-chain upgrading when assessing the impact of 3DP on GVC upgrading trajectories in manufacturing.…”

Supplier strategies to compensate for knowledge asymmetries in buyer-supplier relationships: implications for economic upgrading

“…In contrast, the nature of production in labour-intensive industry is fairly standardised, codified and requires modest skill (Strange and Newton, 2006). The transfer of tacit knowledge, such as design, advertising and information technologies, is not needed to create value for MNEs in such industries (Ernst and Kim, 2002), although it is essential for suppliers if they are to elevate their position in the value chain through economic upgrading in order to achieve higher economic rewards (Gereffi and Memedovic, 2003;Tokatli, 2006). These economic rewards may include higher profit margins achieved by selling higher-value-added goods, supplying to value-conscious buyers who are less price sensitive and thus offer better prices, and finally by creating their own brands and global production networks (cf.…”