To read this content please select one of the options below:

Apparel import intermediaries' secrets to success: Redefining success in a hyper‐dynamic environment

Barbara Dyer (Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA)
Jung E. Ha‐Brookshire (Textile and Apparel Management, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA)

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management

ISSN: 1361-2026

Article publication date: 29 February 2008

1581

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to obtain an immediate and deeper understanding of apparel import intermediaries' (AII) secrets to success in the hyper‐dynamic US apparel market environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Personal in‐depth interviews were conducted with 13 US apparel industry experts who provided an insider's lived experience of the industry. Within a holistic hermeneutic analysis, emergent themes were classified into two broad theme categories: the meaning of success and secrets to success.

Findings

The study's informants defined success as a long‐term presence, a platform from which they could impact the industry through creative expression. AIIs' secrets to success emerged as immersion knowledge management; simultaneous dual relationship management; and flexibility saturation.

Research limitations/implications

Although qualitative research methods are designed for a deeper understanding of the topic of interest, the study findings of an immediate and lived experience within the apparel industry should be viewed within a narrower context than survey research.

Practical implications

These findings offer timely best practices for apparel firms' success and furnish insights into some of the rarely accessible elements of firm management. The study's results may also offer guidelines for firms in other industries moving toward the apparel industry model of hyper‐dynamism.

Originality/value

The study offered a definition and description of a new type of industry environment‐hyper‐dynamism. The study also revealed for the first time the reality of AIIs, especially how these firms defined success and took action to achieve it. Finally, the findings suggested a possible extension of resource‐advantage theory.

Keywords

Citation

Dyer, B. and Ha‐Brookshire, J.E. (2008), "Apparel import intermediaries' secrets to success: Redefining success in a hyper‐dynamic environment", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 51-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/13612020810857943

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles