scholarly journals Brands, ‘weightless’ firms and global value chains: the organisational impact of trade mark law

Legal Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-301
Author(s):  
Andrew Griffiths

AbstractThe Rana Plaza disaster of April 2013 was the most prominent of several incidents that have highlighted poor standards of business behaviour in the supply chains of well-known brands. Analysis of these incidents has attributed these poor standards to an institutional structure in which lead firms with strategic power outsource production into global value chains and pursue business models that involve rapid product upgrading and require low costs and fast turnarounds in production such as the garment industry's ‘fast fashion’ business model. This paper aims to complement that analysis by showing how trade marks, as the main legal anchors of brands, have reinforced the strategic power of lead firms, enabled them to outsource production and encouraged them to adopt business models of this kind. The paper will also evaluate the claim that brands mitigate their harmful effects by transmitting countervailing pressure back onto their owners because they provide salient targets for bad publicity and blame, as coverage of the Rana Plaza disaster showed, which can threaten their owners with reputational damage. It will be argued that this countervailing pressure has a limited effect and cannot be relied on without more to address the issues that the Rana Plaza disaster revealed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (13-14) ◽  
pp. 1609-1626
Author(s):  
Yuran Jin ◽  
Xiangye Song ◽  
Jinhuan Tang ◽  
Xiaodong Dong ◽  
Huisheng Ji

The research on the business model of garment enterprises (BMGE) has expanded rapidly in the last decade. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive reviews of it, let alone visual research. Based on scientometrics, in this paper 118 papers and their 4803 references from Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Science, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Social Science & Humanities for the period 2010–2020 about the BMGE were analyzed by visualizing the co-cited references, co-occurrence keywords, burst references, dual-map overlays, and more with CiteSpace, Google Maps, and VOSviewer. The research revealed the intellectual landscapes of the BMGE for the first time and mapped the landmark papers, hotspots and trends, national or regional distributions and their cooperation networks, highly cited authors, and prestigious journals and disciplines related to the BMGE. The results show that the biggest hotspot is the fast fashion business model; social responsibility, smart fashion, Internet of Things, and sharing fashion are the main emerging hotspots; and the research focuses has evolved from traditional business models to business models driven by new technologies, then to new issues such as circular economy models. The institutions are mainly distributed in China, the United States, and Western Europe, and there is cooperation between more than 11 countries. The most popular disciplines are economics and politics, while psychology, education, and social science are the essential basic disciplines. The Journal of Cleaner Production and Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, among others, actively promoted the research.


The Business Model (BM) notion has become popular because of a business environment shaped by ICT and globalization and characterized by an increasing complexity and uncertainty. Innovative ICT industry coupled with ever-growing products, services, and applications have placed business models at the heart of the new digital revolution. In this chapter, the authors examine how the concept has been applied in the field of ICT and is used in contemporary debate. These new BMs are based on new forms of organization and/or on new products and services offerings. The BM concept has attracted attention both from practitioners and academics. The concept has received wide recognition; yet in practice, it is a new and evolving concept. It has inspired numerous researchers and academics and has given rise to different interpretations, one around which there is not always a perfect consensus. However, despite its wide use, the notion of the business model has become more complex.


2020 ◽  
pp. 000765032097518
Author(s):  
Jordis Grimm

Base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) business models aim to achieve profitability and poverty reduction by including poor people into corporate value chains. This goal duality creates tensions. Actors’ responses to these tensions are influenced by their cognitive frames of the phenomena building the tension. Applying a cognitive perspective, I investigate how corporate actors with different frames of poverty respond proactively or defensively to the poverty–profitability tension by adapting business model elements. I find that proactive and defensive responses differ for actors holding different cognitive frames of poverty. The responses have consequences for the poverty impact potential of BOP business models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 175-194
Author(s):  
AGNIESZKA KARMAN ◽  

Circular Economy (CE) can be promoted and supported by the creation of new and innovative business models which embed CE principles into organisations’ value chains. This paper provides a review of approaches to the circular business model (CBM). We conducted a literature review, including content analysis, and examined publications (51 papers) on circular business models published in English in peerreviewed journals. Our objective was to provide an overview and systematize the stateof-the-art in CE-oriented business model approaches. The following research questions were posed in relation to the objective: Which sub-processes and components are included in the Circular Business Models (CBM)? Which CBM archetypes have already been established? Which strategies and other factors support the creation/ transformation of the CBM? The results of the studies were presented in five areas encompassing the following: 1) development (including the methodologies of development and transformation), value proposition, creation and delivery, 2) CBM archetypes, 3) circular strategies, 4) the determinants of development and transformation of business models for CE. The paper contributes to the improved understanding of circular business models. It consolidates related research by offering an overarching conceptual framework. It also points to the directions of future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Guercini ◽  
Andrea Runfola

Purpose This paper aims to deal with the issue of business model change in industrial markets. It considers the fast-fashion supply chain by addressing the following research questions: What are the paths of change of the supplier’s business model to match the business model of fast fashion customers? How can a supplier’s business model be adapted to customer’s requirements in these paths of change? Design/methodology/approach Empirically, the paper presents a multiple case study of 10 semi-finished textile suppliers, carried out through a long-term research programme in the Italian textile industrial district of Prato. Findings The multiple-case study shows some key drivers of change in the suppliers’ business models. Three main paths emerged from the interactions with fast fashion clients. Paradoxes in the supplier’s business model changes are identified and discussed. Research limitations/implications The paper proposes implications for suppliers interacting with fast fashion clients and discusses how the adaptation of business models may be interpreted. This study points out how matching the business model of the customers does not call for alignment of similar features. Originality/value The paper deals with an understudied topic within the literature: business models change in business to business markets, taking into consideration the perspective of the supplier. It considers buyers-seller relationships in industrial supply chains as being part of a chain of business models and the need for the supplier’s business model to adapt and match one of the clients. The paper proposes two potential interpretations of such adaptation.


Author(s):  
D. Mukha

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of Industry 4.0, the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on the key aspects of the companies’ economic activity, including multinational corporations. It was revealed how Industry 4.0 affects the placement and organization of global value chains. It was established that Industry 4.0 technologies contribute to the transformation of existing and the emergence of new (digital) business models, thanks to which companies can achieve a significant reduction in their own costs, gain additional income and enter international markets. It shows how Industry 4.0 can influence investment decisions, change the global flows and directions of foreign direct investment. As a result of the research, conclusions are drawn about the role of Industry 4.0 in the transformation of the business environment, industries, markets, and economy as a whole.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 959-975
Author(s):  
Dawei Zhang ◽  
Xiuli Huang ◽  
Yunfeng Wen ◽  
Pooja Trivedi ◽  
Shanmugan Joghee

Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM) incorporates the economy concept into supply chain concepts, which gives the supply chain sustainability domain an innovative and convincing viewpoint. The challenging factors in the circular economy are cooperation, trust, and transparency. Therefore, to achieve sustainable results, collaboration, and openness between organizations within networks and value chains are required. This paper explores the sustainability success using the Sustainable Circular Business Model (SCBM) to incorporate the principle at an operational level and suggest a structure for combining Circular Business Model (CBM) and CSCM for sustainable growth. The proposed structure shows how various circular business structures power the global supply chain in multiple loops. The circular business models differ according to the difficulty of the Circular Supply Chain (CSC) and the value proposition. Proposed SCBM shows that circular market and supply chain aid in reaching goals for sustainability has been discussed in this research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 223-243
Author(s):  
Attila Pohlmann ◽  
Rodrigo Muñoz-Valencia

The prevalent business model of fast fashion has received widespread criticism for being antithetical to sustainability. Therefore, many Gen-Y fashion entrepreneurs routinely base their business models on principles of sustainability. Additionally, the green-feminine stereotype not only hinders male consumers’ adoption of ecofriendly products but also poses cultural obstacles for male slow fashion entrepreneurs. By example of the Ecuadorian slow fashion company Remu Apparel, this article investigates how male entrepreneurs craft alternative masculinities through both personal and marketing narratives with the intent to mobilize the adoption of slow fashion and to overcome the aforementioned stereotype by reframing hegemonic masculinity. Interviews with the company’s founders indicate that the causal fast fashion business model is recognized as harmful and unsustainable; consequently, a sustainability-oriented, effectual, slow fashion business approach is implemented, which opposes the globalized hegemonic business system and concurrently challenges and reframes traditional masculinity. Through respect for natural growth, intermittent compromises and career as self-discovery, an alternative, reflective masculinity is crafted and enshrined in Remu’s business objectives. A visual content analysis indicates that social media tools are used to promote and stabilize the image of this alternative masculinity. The findings highlight avenues to mobilize slow fashion adoption within entrepreneurial networks and how sustainable, ecofriendly fashion can be promoted among male consumers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Lotfi ◽  
Bilal Lotfi

Abstract Globalization has changed the way goods and services are produced. The activities that form the value chains of many products and services are increasingly fragmented across the globe and between firms. But the question is how we get positive economic and social benefits by taking part in these global value chains. In the case of Morocco, it appears that the current form of its integration in Global Value Chains (GVCs) has only a limited effect on economic growth in the long-term. Indeed, despite the continued growth of Moroccan exports since 2011, the local added value in these exports has not increased so much. Consequently, the current stage of Morocco in GVCs does not allow improvement of per capita income and employment rates. In this respect, moving upmarket in GVCs and discovering of a new, more complex sector is no minor detail, but proves to be an absolute necessity for the territorial development of Morocco.


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