Global fashion value chains are expanding rapidly, driven by forces of globalization. Large-scale outsourcing has led to long lead times and forecastdriven apparel value chains, resulting in increased forecasting errors and overproduction- related difficulties. Typically, in the developed countries in Europe, United States, and Japan, we see the emergence of strong fashion brands as core manufacturing has faded from the scene, leading to several other challenges related to sharing responsibility in the value chain, unsustainable consumption, etc. This has a lasting impact on the key financial performance of the fashion brands along with the detrimental environmental and social impacts, thus challenging the right balance of the strategic vectors for sustainable business development (SBD) in fashion value chains. Various stakeholders have realized that the future of fashion value chains increasingly depend not only on economic sustainability but also on safeguarding the environment, safety, and welfare of those associated with it. In this context, the work addresses these strategic issues motivating the sustainable design of closed-loop fashion value chain to propose a holistic model towards developing a design for sustainable business development (DfSBD).
Sponsorship:
University of Borås