Skip Navigation


Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access originally published online on September 23, 2006
Journal of Economic Geography 2007 7(1):67-92; doi:10.1093/jeg/lbl017
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
7/1/67    most recent
lbl017v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tokatli, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Related Collections
Right arrow O14 - Industrialization; Manufacturing and [...]
Right arrow L14 - Transactional Relationships; [...]
Right arrow L24 - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures
Right arrow F14 - Country and Industry Studies of Trade
Right arrow F23 - Multinational Firms; International Business
Right arrow L67 - Other Consumer Nondurables: [...]
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Asymmetrical power relations and upgrading among suppliers of global clothing brands: Hugo Boss in Turkey

Nebahat Tokatli*

* Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, The New School, New York, NY 10011, USA.

email: tokatlin{at}newschool.edu

When a relatively powerless clothing supplier encroaches on the core competence of its dominant network partner and emerges as a competitor in its own right, this calls for detailed documentation and explanation. In this paper, we provide such an explanation through inquiry into the Turkish firm Sarar. A 13-year manufacturing contractor of Hugo Boss, it withdrew from its partnership with the German lead firm in 1998 and has since created its own brands of men's suits that are now sold at home and abroad. After the withdrawal, Hugo Boss established its own manufacturing facilities in Turkey. Here we investigate the relevancy of the national origin of the lead firm Hugo Boss and of the broader institutional and market setting of the post-1980 Turkey in which the relationship between the two firms was embedded. The findings are in some tension with the organizational frameworks that are frequently used to describe the clothing industry.

Keywords: clothing industry, globalization, power relations, functional upgrading, branding, retailing, Hugo Boss, Sarar, Turkey,
JEL classifications: F14, F23, L14, L24, L67, O14
Date submitted: 17 March 2006     Date accepted: 14 August 2006


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J ECON GEOGRHome page
L. Thomsen
Accessing global value chains? The role of business state relations in the private clothing industry in Vietnam
J. Econ. Geogr., November 1, 2007; 7(6): 753 - 776.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.