Bangladesh's Emergence as a Ready-Made Garment Export Leader: An Examination of the Competitive Advantages of the Garment Industry

Abstract

Bangladesh is the second-largest ready-made garment (RMG) manufacturer and exporter in the world. The RMG industry of Bangladesh has become one of the fastest-growing industries globally since the 1990s and is the main source of its foreign earnings for the last three decades. To gain an in-depth understanding of the Bangladeshi RMG industry’s competitive advantages, a semi-structured qualitative interview approach was employed with 14 executives currently working in the Bangladeshi RMG industry. Porter’s (1990) diamond model of national competitive advantage was adopted as the study’s conceptual framework. Interpretation of the study data revealed four key competitive advantages for the Bangladeshi RMG industry: (a) price, (b) on-time delivery, (c) quality, and (d) product advantages. This study explores the RMG industry of Bangladesh and identifies the competitive advantages from the executive’s perspective, thereby adding value and originality to the academic literature.