Production and supply network strategies within the fashion industry

Decisions on where and how to locate a production and supply network have become an increasingly important part of a firm’s global supply network strategy and are critical to obtain competitive advantages. This paper contributes to extend knowledge in the field of production and supply network strategy in the fashion industry. Analysing the supply network strategy literature, the paper investigates production and supply network configurations that fashion-industry firms implement to remain competitive in a global context. Statistical analyses on survey data from 132 Italian fashion companies highlight the existence of three different clusters of companies that have identified alternative ways to organise their production and supply networks that are aligned with their specific competitive priorities (e.g., critical success factors). The study characterises the three different clusters of production and supply strategies of fashion companies, and provides useful interpretation of differences among clusters. In particular, the research distinguishes which subset of managerial capabilities (e.g., ability to trace supply network processes, collaborate along the chain and realize production, prototypes and samples in local networks linking brand reputation to Made-in-Italy,) fashion companies should possess and nurture to successfully develop and implement different, either local or international, production and supply network configurations.