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Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access published online on September 23, 2006
Journal of Economic Geography, doi:10.1093/jeg/lbl017
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received March 17, 2006
Accepted August 14, 2006

Original Papers

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

Nebahat Tokatli 1 *

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nebahat Tokatli, E-mail: tokatlin{at}newschool.edu


  Abstract

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.
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