Taiwanese clothing industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Taiwanese clothing industry - Essay Example Many countries in the third world have closely studied the phenomenon, especially the countries' model are exported-led development. During the 1960s Taiwan experienced rapid growth with steady prices, without the fluctuations of a boom-bust cycle. Private enterprises, especially small and midsize firms, took full advantage of this environment to start up business. With the growing economic of Taiwan, the inevitability of moving into different industries is also foreseen. The emergence of a global economy where production and consumption are organized and mediated in the world scale has spread all sectors of manufacturing activity in recent decades, especially clothing. This industry has some specific features, which make clothing suitable for implementation of networking strategies by Taiwanese manufacturers. Although, clothing manufacture is a small firm sector, truly global strategies can be pursued only by large companies. That is why networking can be an essential force to unite small businesses to compete on the global market. There is little doubt that clothing trade, employment and production have taken on an increasingly international dimension since 1960s. Meanwhile smaller companies usually cannot compete on geographically remote markets. Business networks help those firms to reach distant customers by sharing expenditures on transportation, production, purchasing, etc. therefore making it possible for SMEs to participate in global trade. Additionally, small businesses usually don't have the resources to make investments into research and development. Innovation is an important part of what it takes to be competitive on a global market. Sharing technological know-how and innovative knowledge is also a strong argument for networking. The economy of Taiwan economy remains export-oriented, it primary depends on an open world trade regime. Networking strategies implemented by Taiwanese clothing manufacturers allow them to remain competitive on a worldwide scale, regardless of their size. Networking strategies help them in three ways: reaching out to distant markets, lowering production costs and sharing knowledge and innovations between members. The next part deals with more detailed description of how it is achieved. 2.2 Networking Strategy A business network can be defined as linkages among firms. It provides external sources for various type of input that complement or substitute for a given firm's inadequacies (Malecki and Tootle 1996). Surprisingly, there are few studies based on strategic linkage and networking (Chen and Tain-Jy, 1998). Business networking is about cooperative relationships between companies. Networking is an adaptation process: it is because interdependent production, logistics, development, and administrative activities and resources need to be modified and coordinated to bring about a better match between the firms in the network (Chen and Chen, 1998). Network resources are particularly useful in entering an early stage of market where institutions that facilitate internationalization are still lacking. Business networking can take a lot of different forms, each one of them with its own purpose, advantages and drawbacks. I