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Hong Kong's prominent position in international textiles and the clothing trade will continue to shift under the transition of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA). To provide a better understanding of the relationships between the local clothing manufacturers' generic marketing strategies and their deployment for future challenges, some 33 industrialists were interviewed. The results reveal no difference between the marketing‐oriented firms and the less marketing‐oriented firms in relation to the adoption of strategic actions in response to the abolition of the MFA. The results also indicate that firms, irrespective of their marketing approaches, shared similar views regarding the perceptions of the impact of the MFA upon Hong Kong industry and the overall future prospects of the Hong Kong clothing industry. Nevertheless, an interesting finding was that there might be a relationship between a firm's marketing approaches and its attitude to experimenting with strategies under different business environments. Less marketing‐oriented firms are found to be less proactive towards future uncertainties than the more marketing‐oriented firms.

As Hispanic American women’s businesses continue to grow in the USA, there is a greater need to understand success factors relevant to these women entrepreneurs. In this chapter, I explore the market access and reach of Hispanic American women entrepreneurs. In doing this, I take into consideration issues of (1) collectivist orientation, (2) level of acculturation, and (3) social network size and composition (strong versus weak ties). The various combinations of these issues enable go-to-market strategies that will likely need to be customized to meet the needs of different groups of Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers.

As a world leader in the textiles and clothing trade, Hong Kong has played an important role in world denim products trade. To obtain a sound understanding of the current status and position of Hong Kong in the world denim trade, the authors carried out a comprehensive statistical survey of the Hong Kong denim industry. This paper reports detailed analyses on the production, sales and trade of denim products in Hong Kong. The analysis on trade covers imports, domestic exports and re‐exports of denim fabric and apparel products.

This chapter explores the phenomenon of organizational resilience. A comprehensive model was advanced and tested while utilizing a quantitative study conducted in the education system in Israel with 98 schools, involving 1,132 educators. Statistical analysis based on structural equation modeling revealed significant relationships between three antecedents (social capital, team empowerment, goal interdependence) and organizational resilience. In addition, a positive significant relationship was found between organizational resilience and organizational functioning in crisis. Organizational resilience was found to be a mediator between three of the antecedents (social capital, team empowerment, goal interdependence) and organizational functioning in crisis. Furthermore, organizational functioning in crisis was found to mediate the relationship between organizational resilience and organizational innovation. Implications for policymakers, managers, and change leaders in organizations are discussed.

This paper examines the impact of both the China-Hong Kong free-trade agreement and quota phasing-out on Hong Kong's textiles and clothing manufacturing industry in the post- MFA regime. In particular, it answers the question whether CEPA benefits companies in the short term and strengthens their strategic decisions in the long run as shown by evidence from various data sources and other related studies in the literature. Findings show that the industry will continue to consolidate even in light of the zero import tariffs in China provided by the agreement. We conclude that, from strategic perspectives, the agreement can act as a test-bed to enhance China's regulatory reform and govern the trade restructuring. Some other implications for the industry will be mentioned.

This study aims to examine the full mediating role of supply chain flexibility (SCF) between lean production (LP) and business performance (BP) found in the previous literature. This effect negates the direct LP-BP effect (the so-called “total eclipse effect”). The authors analyze the individual contributions that the different SCF dimensions (sourcing flexibility; operating system flexibility, distribution flexibility and information system [IS] flexibility) make to the “total eclipse effect” between LP and BP produced by SCF. The relational resources-based view and resource orchestration theory are used to support the theoretical framework.

Covariance-based structural equations modeling (CB-SEM) is used to test the SCF LP-BP total eclipse hypothesis and four additional mediation hypotheses, one for each of the SCF dimensions. Data obtained via a questionnaire given to 260 companies are analyzed with CB-SEM, and SPSS Process is used to evaluate the mediation effect.

Research results indicate that only one of the dimensions (operating system flexibility) has a full mediation effect between LP and BP and is, therefore, the main contributor to the eclipse effect. Two other dimensions (sourcing flexibility and distribution flexibility) have partial mediation effects, so they also contribute to developing the eclipse effect, although to a lesser extent. Finally, IS flexibility is neither a full nor a partial mediation factor and does not contribute to the eclipse effect.

These findings have some important implications. For academia, they generate new knowledge of the role that each of the SCF dimensions or components plays in the LP-BP relationship. For company management, the findings offer supply chain managers specific information on the individual effects that the different types of SCF flexibility have between LP and BP. This will allow companies to target their efforts to develop certain types of flexibility in LP contexts depending on the outcomes that senior managers want to achieve with their SCs.