The Competitive Status of the U.S. Fibers, Textiles, and Apparel Complex A Study of the Influences of Technology in Determining International Industrial Competitive Advantage (1983) / Chapter Skim
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3. Corporate Responses and Strategies
3. Corporate Responses and Strategies
Pages 56-65
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From page 56... ...
On the other hand, Japanese firms made a strategic decision to invest and contract production in countries that were gaining the comparative advantage in order to develop and gain increased control of the textile complex in developing countries, particularly in East Asia and the PRC. 1 As for companies in the other countries involved, their responses were highly.
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From page 57... ...
As the domestic apparel industry weakened, many fabric companies put increased emphasis on non-appareFuse fabrics. The larger firms also put increased
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From page 58... ...
However, smaller producers generally lacked the management expertise and the capital required to follow the strategies of the larger firms, particularly given the mandated management attention and capital outlays to comply with increased government regulation. Apparel Firms Of all three major segments of the textile complex, the apparel segment in the 1970s faced the greatest increase in competition.
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From page 59... ...
JAPANESE FIRMS In some respects the problems facing the Japanese textile complex have been identical to those facing the U.S. complex growing comparative disadvantage in labor cost, reduced employm ent and number of firms, increasing government regulations, increasing imports, and a host of new competitors in foreign markets.
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From page 60... ...
Via a mixture of foreign investment, licensing, loans, and extensive intricate supplying and buying contractual arrangements, the large Japanese firms played an active role in the emerging textile complex in East Asia and the PRC In many activities and pro jects, the Japanese manufacturer s worked closely with the Japanese trading companies. The latter's extensive marketing and distribution capabilities and expertise, comprehensive knowledge of changes in foreign government policies and supply and demand conditions, and financial strength were often critical to the success of the Japanese manufacturers' strategy.5 With their combined global activities and viewpoint, it made little difference where a process was done.
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From page 61... ...
As noted in Chapter 2, some West German apparel firms moved aggressively into offshore processing while concentrating domestically on product upgrading and making good use of the West German textile and equipment industries' technologically advanced m achines. Yet, because of the West German government's essentially laissez-faire policy of non-intervention, many of the smaller textile and apparel companies could not successfully pursue these strategies.
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From page 62... ...
Unlike the rather clearly stated and consistently applied policies of the Dutch, West German, and Italian governments, the policies of the French, Belgian, and the British vacillated back and f orth between those oriented toward increased protection and those oriented toward industrial restructuring and competitive enhancement. Several of the larger French and British man-made fiber firms established operations of various kinds in the United States, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and experimented (not too successfully)
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From page 63... ...
Rather than following the historical method of shopping around for existing garments and fabrics in excess supply, the retailers began to contract with foreign production under a method called specification buying, a method they had already developed domestically. The entire process means that the- retailers themselves design a particular garment (or join with a leading i ndependent designer to provide an exclusive design for the retailer)
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From page 64... ...
The combined sales of the U.S. department stores represented by coop buying offices and U.S.
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From page 65... ...
. By averaging foreign and domestic production costs of garments, these firms gained a price advantage over strictly domestic producers and better supply capability than offered by strictly foreign producers.
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