IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/19294_2.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Supplier internationalization in the global apparel value chain from Bangladesh to Ethiopia: the buyers business model, institutions and entrepreneurial capability

In: Upgrading the Global Garment Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad B. Rana
  • Matthew M.C Allen
  • Per Servais

Abstract

Current research highlights the internationalization of firms in downstream value chains, such as marketing and sales; however, studies have overlooked supplier internationalization into up-stream value chains. Drawing on internationalization and GVC perspectives, we examine the critical case of DBL Apparel Company from Bangladesh, which supplies many global brands, including Sweden’s H&M, and has internationalized into Ethiopia. As the company appears to be the first Bangladeshi garment firm to have internationalized, we conduct an in-depth examination over a three-year period of the process and the antecedents affecting the firm’s overseas expansion. We explore how the buyer’s business model, institutional features, and the supplier’s entrepreneurial capability influence DBL’s internationalization. In particular, our study demonstrates how the buyer’s market-driving approach, value creation, delivery, and proposition shape how the buyer shows commitment to the supplier’s internationalization. At the same time, the supplier’s entrepreneurial capability, consisting of visionary leadership, commitment, learning intent, absorptive capacity, and dynamic management skills contribute to its decision to internationalize. Our analysis reveals that a supplier firm does not move toward internationalization based on one-sided commitment only; instead, it is the ‘shared commitment’ of both buyer and supplier in the GVC that contributes to the supplier’s decision to internationalize. We also demonstrate the influence of institutional characteristics in both home and host countries, particularly the role of government and the logics of doing business that facilitate the internationalization decision and process. Our study contributes to internationalization business and GVC literatures.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad B. Rana & Matthew M.C Allen & Per Servais, 2021. "Supplier internationalization in the global apparel value chain from Bangladesh to Ethiopia: the buyers business model, institutions and entrepreneurial capability," Chapters, in: Mohammad B. Rana & Matthew M.C. Allen (ed.), Upgrading the Global Garment Industry, chapter 2, pages 13-45, Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19294_2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781789907643/9781789907643.00008.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19294_2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.