Social Sustainability in Apparel Supply Chains—The Role of the Sourcing Intermediary in a Developing Country

The effect of supplier sustainability risk management strategies on supply chain performance

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate the adoption of four types of supplier sustainability risk management (SSRM) strategies, namely, risk avoidance (RA), risk acceptance (RAC), collaboration-based risk mitigation (CBM) and monitoring-based risk mitigation (MBM) in Sri Lankan apparel and retail industries, and to investigate their effect on supply chain performance (SCP).

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses the dynamic capability view (DCV) to develop its hypotheses. Data collected from 89 firms were analysed using partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling and PLS-based multiple group analysis.

Findings

Sri Lankan apparel and retail firms adopt RA and MBM strategies relatively more than CBM and RAC strategies, whereas there is no significant difference between the two industries in terms of the use of SSRM strategies. The path analysis revealed significant effects of RA and RAC strategies on SCP of both industries. The effect of CBM strategy on SCP is moderated by industry, while MBM has no significant impact.

Research limitations/implications

While managing supplier sustainability risks effectively, RA and RAC strategies provide more opportunities for managers to improve SCP. In achieving SCP, CBM strategies are proven to be more effective for retail industry compared with the apparel sector. Although MBM strategies offer sustainability advantages to firms, their contribution to improving the performance of apparel and retail supply chains is not significant. This research is limited to only two industries (apparel and retail) in Sri Lanka, where the evidence for the effects of SSRM strategies is not available for other contexts.

Originality/value

Either the effects of the four types of SSRM strategies on SCP or the moderating effect of industry on these effects have not been empirically confirmed in the literature. Evaluating the extent to which different strategies are implemented in Sri Lankan apparel and retail industries is another significant contribution of this research. Furthermore, this study contributes by using DCV to a sustainability-based supply chain risk management research.

Sustainability trends and gaps in the textile, apparel and fashion industries

Textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industries contribute significantly to global environmental pollution at every point of the supply chain. Clothing manufacturing and transportation produce a large volume of waste and high greenhouse gas emissions, often taking advantage of cheap labor in developing countries. As a result, stakeholders are becoming more aware of the effect of the textile, apparel, and fashion industries on the climate and human rights, thus pushing businesses to mitigate their environmental damage. This paper offers a systematic literature review of sustainability trends in the TAF industries in the last 20 years. Bibliometric tools are also used to support the content analysis of the papers. The findings reveal three primary research areas in the TAF context: consumers' behaviour towards sustainable clothing, circular economy initiatives, and sustainability challenges across the whole supply chain. As a result, this study highlights literature gaps and provides future research suggestions for each identified research cluster. In addition, drivers and barriers to implementing corporate social responsibility and circular economy practices are identified. Consequently, this study will help researchers and academicians work in this area to identify unexplored sub-fields, which reflect some potential investigation areas for expanding scientific literature on the topic. Finally, this study supports practitioners and managers in exploring the main research themes addressed in the scientific field, providing knowledge to improve and align business models with current sustainability trends.

A thematic analysis-based model for identifying the impacts of natural crises on a supply chain for service integrity: a text analysis approach

Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the effects of natural crises on supply chain performance. Conventional analysis methods are based on either manual filter methods or data-driven methods. The manual filter methods suffer from validation problems due to sampling limitations, and data-driven methods suffer from the nature of crisis data which are vague and complex. This study aims to present an intelligent analysis model to automatically identify the effects of natural crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain through metadata generated on social media. This paper presents a thematic analysis framework to extract knowledge under user steering. This framework uses a text-mining approach, including co-occurrence term analysis and knowledge map construction. As a case study to approve our proposed model, we retrieved, cleaned, and analyzed 1024 online textual reports on supply chain crises published during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019-2021. We conducted a thematic analysis of the collected data and achieved a knowledge map on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the supply chain. The resultant knowledge map consists of five main areas (and related sub-areas), including (1) food retail, (2) food services, (3) manufacturing, (4) consumers, and (5) logistics. We checked and validated the analytical results with some field experts. This experiment achieved 53 crisis knowledge propositions classified from 25,272 sentences with 631,799 terms and 31,864 unique terms using just three user-system interaction steps, which shows the model's high performance. The results lead us to conclude that the proposed model could be used effectively and efficiently as a decision support system, especially for crises in the supply chain analysis.

Text Mining for Supply Chain Risk Management in the Apparel Industry

Text mining tools are now widely used for the efficient management of information and resources in business, academic and research organizations. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of research articles on the application of text mining techniques in the field of Supply Chain Risk Management and the apparel industry. Research articles published between 2000 and 2020, were obtained from various journals through two online databases, i.e., SCOPUS and IEEE Xplore. Through a systematic approach following PRISMA guidelines, 370 research papers were screened, filtered and finally classified into three main areas: Supply Chain Risk Management and outsourcing in the apparel industry, application of text mining in Supply Chain Risk Management and application of text mining in the apparel industry. In this study, we have identified a comprehensive list of various available data sources for text mining, methodologies and risks associated with outsourcing in the apparel industry. We classify the gaps in expanding the application of text mining in the apparel industry’s Supply Chain Risk Management. Extracting useful information from online newspapers through text mining could vividly enhance the ability to monitor supply chain risks and provide the ability to link data to provide decision makers with the right information at the right time.

Corporate Social Responsibility Influencing Sustainability within the Fashion Industry. A Systematic Review

The fashion industry, one of the largest industries in the world, is a complicated phenomenon, driven by aspirations of symbolic lifestyle and the creativity of architecture and design. It pushes the use of natural resources to its limits by mass production and a low-cost structure that motivates consumerism at large. The purpose of this study is to explore corporate social responsibility and how it influences sustainability within the fashion industry. A systematic literature review was carried out. This encompassed the academic publications available in two scientific databases focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and fashion, covering the period 2003–2019. The findings indicate that the CSR approach taken by managers within the fashion industry is focused on sustainability, business models, and/or supply chain innovation, with commitments undertaken concerning the economy, environment, and/or society, wherein the production of eco-friendly products and workers’ safety are emphasized. Actions that tie CSR and sustainability with companies’ actions are presented in a micro-meso-macro framework, where brand equity, culture, supply chain management, activism, and human rights are evident. The findings of the study are relevant for academia, practitioners, and policymakers, as they provide insight into the operations and impacts of domestic and multinational fashion companies, outlining the most relevant studies on the topic, and also highlighting research trends and gaps in the field.

Global Sourcing in Fast Fashion Retailers: Sourcing Locations and Sustainability Considerations

For decades, apparel companies have profited from moving their manufacturing to low-cost countries and several academic studies have focused on understanding whether low-cost locations could support optimal supply chain configurations. However, the exploitation of resources in foreign sourcing countries often resulted in many environmental and social issues and apparel companies became progressively more concerned about the negative exposure that they could face with a limited supply chain transparency. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating global sourcing strategies of fast fashion retailers in order to understand whether the decision criteria influencing sourcing locations have changed over time to also embrace sustainability considerations. Drawing on a literature review on sustainability in fashion supply chains, offshore outsourcing, and fast fashion global sourcing, a new theoretical framework concerning fast fashion retailers’ sourcing locations is proposed together with a content analysis of their reports. The findings show that fast fashion retailers identify sustainability as a key element to consider in selecting sourcing locations since sustainability issues at suppliers’ factories may represent relevant hidden costs. Moreover, actions aimed at checking and improving sustainable practices in global sourcing policies are proven to support the development of a strategic sourcing reputation for their fast fashion brands.

Sustainability Benefits of RFID Technology in the Apparel Industry

Digitalization and big data are currently moving many industries forward and creating value-added efficiency improvements, new services, and business models. One area in industrial digitalization is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and related sensor technologies with benefits in asset visibility, employee productivity, risk management, loss, and theft mitigation. This literature review article is focused on specifically looking at digitalization in the apparel industry. Due to its complex global network, it has been a challenging industry to implement such technological advancements. Recent novel RFID system integrations have included highly innovative solutions in new store concepts, business models, and product traceability in the value chain. Inventory management has been improved by using RFID technology for creating and updating and for more efficient controls. Also, chain of custody of the various products in apparel and fashion can be more traceable and efficient. Improved customer connectivity and, therefore, customization are also important benefits using these technologies. Most benefits in using RFID in the apparel industry are related to economics and efficiencies. Similarly looking at scientific literature, the majority is focused on the more business-related value creation. In this publication, results of a systematically made literature review focusing on the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, and economic systems) is reported. This review is done using value chain analyses, and it focuses on reported case studies to highlight the sustainability benefits of the RFID technology. According to the literature findings, this is the first review article that reports on the broader sustainability impact of RFID in the apparel industry. The findings show a very limited number of articles and the main focus of the articles found was in environmental aspects (44%). Following that was economic benefits (36%), and only a limited amount of research articles was found in social aspects of sustainability (20%). In addition to identifying the sustainability areas that RFID technology is related to, this article shows other areas of improvements using RFID technology in different parts of the apparel value chain.