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Introduction
The global fashion industry has rapidly grown and become an important part of the world economy, and the competition in the industry has intensified ([30] Grail Research, 2009). As a result, the industry is characterized by high level of market demand uncertainty and short product life cycles ([71] Sen, 2008). It is now essential for a successful fashion company to design an effective supply chain strategy to become more responsive to the constantly changing market conditions ([19] Christopher et al. , 2004; [47] Masson et al. , 2007). But, such a strategy must be consistent with the company's overall corporate strategy as well as its business environment ([23] Djelic and Ainamo, 1999): one of the most important dimensions of corporate strategy is concerned with the company's goals or visions, which in turn influence the company's target market to a great extent. This paper explores a research question "How companies in the fashion industry align their supply chain strategy with their goals and visions, i.e. competitive priorities" ([19] Christopher et al. , 2004).
The fashion industry is a global industry with estimated sales of US$755 billion in 2010. It is also a challenging one. First, there are simply too many players from raw material suppliers to retail channels in the global supply chain, adding complexity. Second, as the customer's requirements are changing fast, the whole life cycle in the fashion industry shrinks so quickly that achieving an appropriate level of responsiveness is becoming more difficult. As such, effectively coordinating diverse activities and functions in the supply chain has become one of the top priorities faced by fashion companies. In this paper, using the rich interview data with top managers at four global fashion companies, propositions are developed regarding the firms' competitive priorities and their supply chain strategy.
The paper is structured as follows. In the next section, the relevant literature, is followed by the discussion of the research methodology. Then, propositions are developed by establishing causal links in the detailed interview data. Finally, in the concluding section, there is recapitulation of the research to discuss managerial implications as well as the future research direction and also potential limitations of this research.
Literature
[14] Chandler (1962, p. 13) defined strategy as:
[...] the determination of the...