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The Rise of Tier 1 Firms in the Global Garment Industry: Challenges for Labour Rights Advocates

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  • Jeroen Merk

Abstract

The garment industry can be considered an archetypal global sector in which production processes have been transnationalized since the late 1960s. The possibility of fragmenting and outsourcing production across a spatially dispersed network of manufacturers has "freed" lead companies from surveillance of their production processes, helped reduce costs and, ultimately, relieves them of the organizational requirements associated with mass labour processes. The role of branded companies and retailers in the garment industry has been studied extensively over the last two decades. However, much less attention has been paid to those companies that have appeared as their mirror image, namely to the emergence of Asian garment manufacturers-or tier 1 firms-that have also expanded their businesses significantly over the last few decades, but have little or no control over end-consumer markets. This paper seeks to map and discuss the importance of, and commonalities between, tier 1 companies in the actual production of garments, and discusses their main characteristics. Special attention is paid to the consequences for labour strategies focused on improving working conditions at these companies' factories.

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  • Jeroen Merk, 2014. "The Rise of Tier 1 Firms in the Global Garment Industry: Challenges for Labour Rights Advocates," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 259-277, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:42:y:2014:i:2:p:259-277
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2014.908177
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Janaka Wijayasiri & Jagath Dissanayake, 2008. "The Ending of the Multi-Fibre Agreement and Innovation in Sri Lankan Textile and Clothing Industry: Trade and Innovation Project - Case Study No. 3," OECD Trade Policy Papers 75, OECD Publishing.
    2. Harvey, David, 2005. "The New Imperialism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278084.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chikako Oka & Niklas Egels‐Zandén & Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1306-1330, September.
    2. Sarah Castaldi & Miriam M. Wilhelm & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Taco Vaart, 2023. "Extending Social Sustainability to Suppliers: The Role of GVC Governance Strategies and Supplier Country Institutions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 123-146, February.
    3. Hyunji KWON & Sun Wook CHUNG & Joonkoo LEE, 2021. "South Korean first‐tier suppliers in apparel global value chains: Upgrading and labour implications in the Asian context," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 553-569, December.
    4. Giorgos Galanis & Ashok Kumar, 2021. "A dynamic model of global value network governance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(1), pages 53-72, February.
    5. Oka, Chikako & Egels-Zandén, Niklas & Alexander, Rachel, 2020. "Buyer engagement and labour conditions in global supply chains: the Bangladesh Accord and beyond," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106695, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Giorgos Galanis & Ashok Kumar, 2018. "A dynamic spatial model of global governance structures," Working Papers PKWP1804, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    7. Matthew Amengual & Salo Coslovsky & Duanyi Yang, 2017. "Who opposes labor regulation? Explaining variation in employers’ opinions," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 404-421, December.
    8. Azmeh, Shamel & Nadvi, Khalid, 2014. "Asian firms and the restructuring of global value chains," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 708-717.
    9. Tatiana López, 2021. "A practice ontology approach to labor control regimes in GPNs: Connecting ‘sites of labor control’ in the Bangalore export garment cluster," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1012-1030, August.
    10. Enrico Fontana & Niklas Egels-Zandén, 2019. "Non Sibi, Sed Omnibus: Influence of Supplier Collective Behaviour on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Bangladeshi Apparel Supply Chain," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1047-1064, November.
    11. Azmeh, Shamel & Nadvi, Khalid, 2014. "Asian firms and the restructuring of global value chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56666, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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