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How apparel global supply chains finance shareholders
Who captures most of the profits created in the global apparel industry? When discussing distributive issues in apparel global value chains, scholars, policy makers and activists tend to focus on distributive struggles between five groups of actors: Consumers, fashion brands and retailers, manufacturers, workers, and states. Much of the analysis concludes that the rise of global value chains since the 1990s has enabled fashion brands and retailers (also known as ‘lead firms’)
Mar 24


Are the geographies of textile and apparel supply chains shifting?
The global economy has faced major disruptions in recent years, challenging the stability of the globalized production model and prompting expectations for more resilient, localized supply chains. These discussions mirror broader debates in economic geography and political economy on the possible ‘regionalization’ or ‘de-globalization’ of production networks. Across industries, these debates are shaped by disruptions such as climate change, digitalization, and geopolitical te
Mar 23


China–Ethiopia Relations and Industrial Development: What Went Wrong?
Over the past two decades, Ethiopia has pursued an ambitious goal: to become Africa’s light manufacturing hub and reach lower middle-income status by 2025. Inspired in part by China’s state-led development model, Ethiopian leaders embraced industrial policy, special economic zones, and export-oriented manufacturing as the path to transform. For a while, the story looked promising. Ethiopia recorded doble-digit economic growth between 2004 and 2017. Industrial parks proliferat
Mar 13


How do apparel supplier firms capture value?
Supplier firm value capture in global value chains (GVCs) has typically been approached through the lens of economic upgrading. In the seminal work, Gereffi’s (1999) argues that East Asian apparel suppliers could increase value capture by moving beyond assembly into input sourcing, transnational subcontracting, and design within the apparel GVC. The prevailing assumption was that progression from contract manufacturing to design and eventually to own-brand production would g
Mar 3


Wage Determinants in Global Apparel Value Chains: Insights from Ethiopia and Kenya
As global brands have expanded their supply chains, apparel production has increasingly shifted to low-wage countries in the Global...
Jul 21, 2025


Are shareholders the main beneficiaries of the global apparel industry?
Who captures most of the profits created in the global apparel industry? When discussing distributive issues in apparel global value...
Apr 23, 2025


Why do labor regimes change? Introducing a labor-led profit squeeze approach
The ‘Creating and Capturing Value’ project seeks to understand how various actors in the global apparel industry – including brands and...
Feb 3, 2025


Lived experiences of women workers at an apparel export factory in Ethiopia
The global apparel industry is characterized by the outsourcing of labor-intensive production to countries with low-cost labor, and as a...
Jan 2, 2025


Worker power and decent work in apparel export industries
Explaining variation in apparel workers’ wages and working conditions, both between producer countries and over time, is a key objective...
Dec 12, 2024
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