Maria L. Mpampa, Philip N. Azariadis and Nickolas S. Sapidis
The purpose of this paper is to derive a new method for developing sizing systems for the mass customization of garments.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to derive a new method for developing sizing systems for the mass customization of garments.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of recently published works has been studied. A new method is derived by following a basic statistical analysis on anthropometric data which are supported by an iterative mass customization model and introduced “satisfaction performance” indices. The derived method is applied successfully to an anthropometric data consisting of 12,810 Greek men.
Findings
With the proposed method, it is possible to control the degree of mass customization and the corresponding number of garment sizes. Under this way, a balance between the number of sizes (in other words: production cost) and the percentage satisfaction of consumers can be achieved. The proposed method consists of six subsequent tasks which are applied to the target population data for the development of mass customization models for male shirts, coats and trousers.
Research limitations/implications
Future work could be focused on the development of methods for the automatic garments grading with respect to the proposed mass customization models and practise.
Originality/value
The methodology presented in this paper can be applied to the development of mass customization models for other categories of garments and target population.
Details
Keywords
Aims to explore the possibility of developing a neoclassical theoryof institutional failure, based on “transaction costs”.Critically assesses the role of institutions in General…
Abstract
Aims to explore the possibility of developing a neoclassical theory of institutional failure, based on “transaction costs”. Critically assesses the role of institutions in General Equilibrium theory and concludes that, with the exception of the market (price mechanism), this is institution‐free. This is unsatisfactory, given the importance of the firm and the state, in particular, which have received wide attention recently in the theory of transaction costs. It is claimed that General Equilibrium theory can be given microfoundations based on transaction costs. This provides the possibility of a neo‐classical theory of institutional failure. It also has important implications on the nature and scope of economic theory in general and the plan versus markets debate in particular.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the causes of unemployment in Ghana from both labour demand and supply perspectives based on most recent cross sectional data set from one…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the causes of unemployment in Ghana from both labour demand and supply perspectives based on most recent cross sectional data set from one nationally representative household survey and a baseline survey for Millennium Development Support.
Design/methodology/approach
A logit regression estimation technique is applied to two different household survey data sets of 2008 and 2013 to capture the effect of labour demand and supply on unemployment.
Findings
Using education and age as capability variables to represent supply factors, unemployment is found to increase with education, and declines with age, confirming higher unemployment rate among the youth, than the old. The paper also observes strong influence of demand factors on unemployment based on relatively higher incidence of unemployment fulltime jobseekers relative to part-time jobseekers and seekers of formal or wage-employment and self-employment or SMEs compared with those seeking any job. Other factors such as the individual’s reservation wage, marital status, sex and poverty status as well as their rural-urban location are also found to cause unemployment in Ghana.
Practical implications
Unemployment as a result of the inability of individuals to obtain a job of their choice in the midst of strong economic growth in Ghana suggests weak employment content of growth. In contrast, an increasing phenomenon of unemployment with education also reflects a problem of skill mismatch between skills churn out by education and training institutions and skills requirement by firms in the labour market.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper and its contribution to existing literature largely emanate from the inclusion of demand factors in a cross sectional analysis of causes of unemployment.