Chinese Textile Industry Research Articles

Influential Mechanism Research of Environmental Control on Chinese Textile Export Trade

This study constructs a regression model of textile industry export trade. The panel data of nine importing countries or regions from 2006 to 2022 are used to verify whether environmental control has short-term cost effects and long-term technical effects on Chinese textile industry export trade. First of all, the panel data from 2006 to 2022 are empirically analyzed for the short-term effects. The results show that the cost effect of environmental control makes environmental control inhibit the export of textile industry in the short term. Then, the same panel data is used to empirically analyze the impact of environmental governance input on textile export trade, that is, the long-term effects. The result shows that the technical effect of environmental control is greater than the cost effect in the long run. It means environmental control has a role in promoting the export of textile industry. Finally, combining the influence factors of textile export trade, two suggestions are put forward from the enterprise level. This study constructs a regression model of textile industry export trade. The panel data of nine importing countries or regions from 2006 to 2022 are used to verify whether environmental control has short-term cost effects and long-term technical effects on Chinese textile industry export trade. First of all, the panel data from 2006 to 2022 are empirically analyzed for the short-term effects. The results show that the cost effect of environmental control makes environmental control inhibit the export of textile industry in the short term. Then, the same panel data is used to empirically analyze the impact of environmental governance input on textile export trade, that is, the long-term effects. The result shows that the technical effect of environmental control is greater than the cost effect in the long run. It means environmental control has a role in promoting the export of textile industry. Finally, combining the influence factors of textile export trade, two suggestions are put forward from the enterprise level.

Tackling sustainable development challenges: A fuzzy set examination of textile industry 4.0 and green supply chain barriers

AbstractCircular supply chains transform linear manufacturing into closed‐loop systems that promote Industry 4.0 and sustainable development. However, the barriers to China's textile sector have not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, this study analyzes the contextual links between identified barriers and their prioritization for effective circular economy and green product development. This study enlisted 75 specialists to evaluate various obstacles utilizing the q‐ROFS approach for comprehensive quantitative analysis. The results revealed the interdependence of barriers and identified major devising from the market, financial, and organizational sides. The significant impact of market barriers on other challenges is shown by high similarity (90%), showing market problems' profound effects. Financial constraints significantly impact organizational and market barriers, stressing the role of economic factors in adoption challenges. Sociological, financial, and market issues are interconnected with organizational barriers, emphasizing the need for an integrated strategy. Finally, the assessments rank market‐related constraints, followed by economic and organizational barriers. Then there are society, the environment, and technological, supply chain, and government barriers faced by the Chinese textile industry. These results emphasize the need for comprehensive policies to overcome market, financial, and organizational barriers and the role of economics and market dynamics in adoption.

A comparative study of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing exports in post-MFA environment

Purpose This paper aims to examine and compare the export performance and competitiveness of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing industry in post-multifibre arrangement (MFA) era. Design/methodology/approach Balassa’s revealed comparative advantage Index is used to assess the competitiveness of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing exports. Findings The results indicate that China’s textiles and garments sector holds a greater proportion of the global market compared with India. India has a robust comparative advantage in silk, carpets and cotton post-MFA. Vegetable textile fibers, paper yarn and woven fabrics of paper yarn are also competitive. China had a strong comparative advantage in silk and fabrics; special woven fabrics, tafted textile fabrics, lace, tapestries, trimmings and embroidery in 2005. China also recorded comparative advantage in silk, man-made filaments: strip and the like of man-made textile materials, fabrics; special woven fabrics, tafted textile fabrics, lace, tapestries, trimmings and embroidery and fabrics; knitted or crocheted in 2021. Research limitations/implications This study’s results and recommendations could assist the Indian and Chinese Governments develop policies to upgrade their garment industries. Originality/value Though vast literature reviews are available for textile and apparel export performance in India and China separately, there are few studies on comparisons. This study is a significant attempt to evaluate India and China’s competitiveness in the global market.

Analysis of the factors influencing the international competitiveness of Chinese textile and garment industry

Analysis of the factors influencing the international competitiveness of Chinese textile and garment industry

ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION, INDUSTRIAL AGGLOMERATION, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CHINESE TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Is it possible for the imposition of environmental regulation to develop the textile industry? Is it possible to balance quality and efficiency with energy conservation and emission reduction and achieve the sustainable development of the textile industry? The main objective of this study is to analyze the effects of the environmental regulation on industrial agglomeration and industrial efficiency within the textile sector. The findings reveal that, first, environmental regulation has significantly facilitated the agglomeration of the textile industry to regions with less stringent environmental standards. The restructuring and optimization of domestic value chains have also been promoted. Second, environmental policies in the process of the promotion of the industrial agglomeration are accompanied by a significant improvement in industrial efficiency. This improvement has contributed to the achievement of sustainability goals in the textile domain. Third, the influence of environmental regulations on industrial agglomeration and industrial efficiency improvement of the textile industry is strongly heterogeneous in terms of ownership. This impact is more significant in state-owned industries and private industries. This study holds substantial theoretical significance and practical relevance in promoting environmentally friendly and sustainable progress in the Chinese textile industry.

Assessing Chinese Textile and Apparel Industry Business Sustainability: The Role of Organization Green Culture, Green Dynamic Capabilities, and Green Innovation in Relation to Environmental Orientation and Business Sustainability

The current study aims to evaluate the role of environmental orientation (EO) on green dynamic capabilities (GDCs), organization green culture (OGC), and green innovation (GIN) toward business sustainability (BUS) in the context of Chinese textile and apparel manufacturing firms. Natural resources-based view (NRBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV) were used as the theoretical lenses of the research. This study is quantitative, and a purposive sampling technique was employed to collect data from the managers working in textile and apparel manufacturing firms in China. The sample size consisted of 339 managers. Partial least-square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the data. The study’s findings show that EO significantly and positively influences OGC and GDCs. However, the positive influence of EO on GIN was insignificant. Moreover, the result indicates that GIN is a significant mediator in the relationships between OGC and BUS and GDCs and BUS. The results demonstrate how the Chinese textile and apparel industry EO improves GDCs, GIN, and OGC, which, in turn, benefits achieving long-term business sustainability.

Carbon neutrality and green technology innovation efficiency in Chinese textile industry

The present trend of rapid expansion in the textile industry is highly polluting and energy intensive, and the government intervention is necessitated. This study develops a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, examines the green technology innovation of listed textile enterprises, and explores its determining factors in order to address the issue of carbon emission reduction in the textile sector. The research sample for this study is obtained from 42 listed textile enterprises from 2017 to 2020. The research demonstrates: (1) the green technology innovation efficiency of domestic listed textile enterprises remains marginal; (2) from 2017 to 2020, the mean value of total factor productivity (TFP) and its decomposition index of listed enterprises in China's textile industry exhibit a downward trend, primarily as a consequence of the slowdown of technological progress; (3) the green technology of the entire industry is in recession from 2017 to 2020; (4) green technology innovation efficiency is inversely correlated with government subsidies, but positively correlated with net profit and asset size of enterprises. In light of the above information, enterprises should boost their ability to innovate with green technologies and implement a research and development (R&D) management development strategy that gives equal consideration to both economic and environmental benefits.

Digitalization and environmental performance: An empirical analysis of Chinese textile and apparel industry

Although digitalization has attracted much attention in research and practice, the implications of firm digitalization for environmental performance are still unclear. Building on the knowledge management perspective, this study focuses on the Chinese traditional high-polluting textile and apparel industry and aims to empirically explore the effects of firm digitalization on environmental performance. We collected secondary data from 553 firm-year observations of 74 listed Chinese textile and apparel firms from the CSMAR database. By panel data analysis, the results highlight a U-shaped relationship between firm digitalization and environmental performance, and strong technical background, financial background and high education levels of the top management team (TMT) positively moderate the relationship. This study contributes to the literature on the digitalization-environmental performance relationship, breaks new ground by focusing on textile and apparel listed firms, and has implications for managers in optimising the TMT structure to increase the returns from digitalization endeavours.

Productivity, agglomeration, and exporting directly: evidence from the Chinese textile industry

This paper estimates the effect of total factor productivity (TFP) and agglomeration on the choice of a firm to export directly or indirectly through an intermediary. Using Chinese firm-level textile industry data, we apply a spatial autoregressive probit model. We find agglomeration is several times more important than productivity for a firm choosing to export directly. The marginal effect of agglomeration, however, is decreasing as the number of neighbors increases beyond 10.

Digital technology adoption, digital dynamic capability, and digital transformation performance of textile industry: Moderating role of digital innovation orientation

In the new manufacturing area, the Chinese textile industry is facing the opportunities and challenges under the sustainable development model and advanced manufacturing technology. It is urgent to use digital technology to realize digital transformation. In this process, digital dynamic capability and digital innovation are significant for textile firms to achieve digital transformation performance. Drawing on the data from 367 questionnaires of Chinese textile firms, we apply multiple regression to examine how a firm's digital transformation is affected by adopting digital technology. A conceptual model based on framework of resource–capability–performance is developed to examine how adoption of digital technology, digital dynamic capability, and digital innovation orientation affects a firm's digital transformation performance. The results indicate that the positive relationship between digital technology adoption and digital transformation performance is less significant; this path is fully mediated through digital dynamic capability. Digital innovation orientation has a positive moderating effect and that the efficiency digital innovation has the most significant moderating effect among all digital innovation types. In addition, compared with textile firms in the low level of digital technology adoption, the firms in the high‐level group show a significant positive relationship between digital technology adoption and digital transformation performance. These findings confirm the validity of the model and contribute to existing literature on technology efforts in firms and provide guidelines to help managers implement informed decisions about digital transformation.

Business model renewal and environment changes: Insights of Chinese textile industry

AbstractChinese small and medium‐size enterprises (SMEs) in the textile industry adapt and reshape their business models to cope with the environmental changes resulting from increasing labor costs and decreases in profits. Comparing with big firms, SMEs face more challenges when renewing their business operations. Reactions of SMEs are influenced by the extent of changes in the business model renewal process. The renewal of the business model includes resource configuration, updating purchasing and distribution channels, refining market segments, and rebuilding brands.

Path of Smart Servitization and Transformation in the Textile Industry: A Case Study of Various Regions in China

This study uses 31 provinces and municipalities from China’s textile industry as a research sample and divides the region into four geographical areas: eastern, central, western, and northeastern. It quantified smart servitization in the textile industry using input–output data and applied the fuzzy set qualitative comparison analysis to identify potential pathways for promoting smart servitization in the textile industry. The study’s findings indicate that there are significant geographical differences in the level of smart servitization in the textile industry across China. Moreover, the transformation and development of the textile industry require the co-operation of numerous factors, and the Chinese textile industry’s transformation paths can be summarized as “high-input” path, “technology—aggregation” path, “open” path, and “economic-agglomeration” path.

The development of e-commerce in China during the COVID-19 pandemic on the example of the textile industry

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current situation with e-commerce in China’s textile industry and new business models during the COVID-19 epidemic. The author studied the vital problems of the Chinese textile industry from the point of view of electronic commerce. In order to solve research problems, the method of qualitative content analysis was used to classify and summarize the research situation. Data sources include the latest academic papers, industry analytical reports of securities research institutions, reports of consulting companies (Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, etc.), as well as government and organization documents (ITMF, United Nations, etc.). Based on the research process, it can be concluded that during the COVID-19 period up to the middle of 2021, China’s textile industry experienced four stages, having switched from traditional e-commerce to interested e-commerce. Innovation and digital transformation seem to be necessary conditions for China’s textile industry to overcome the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the author puts forward a long-term development trends of the textile industry after the COVID-19 epidemic.

Policy mix comprehensiveness, resource availability and green innovation of firms

The functionalist view of policy mix comprehensiveness always regarded it as the extensive use of policy instruments and strategies to solve the multiple failures in sustainability transitions, but ignored the politic and power relations embodied in. To fill this gap, this study extended the concept of policy mix comprehensiveness from the perspective of political sociology, and proposed that the policy mix comprehensiveness represented the complex and tangled relations between governments and the governed, which might increase risks and administration burdens, thus impaired the green innovations of firms. This study further proposed that the resource availability of firms could moderate the relations between policy mix comprehensiveness and green innovation of firms. 22989 firm level data from Chinese textile industry were collected to verify the hypothesis. Our research found that policy mix comprehensiveness has positive correlations with green management innovation of firms, while has negative correlations with green technology innovation of firms, thus impaired the overall green innovation of firms. The financial resources, political resources and knowledge resources could moderate the relationship between policy mix comprehensiveness and green innovations. In doing so, our study provided a foundation for future research to explore the interactions between government and the governed and the organization behaviors in policy mix research.

Metals pollution from textile production wastewater in Chinese southeastern coastal area: occurrence, source identification, and associated risk assessment

The metals used in textile wet processing are of significant concern for the environment and human health. However, our understanding of metals released by the Chinese textile industry and their potential risks to ecology is limited. This work quantified the concentrations of seven metals in 199 wastewater samples from 77 textile enterprises in the southeastern coastal area of China. In the water discharged after end-of-pipe treatment, the mean concentrations of Sb, Hg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cr, and As were 0.289, 0.009, 0.579, 0.277, 0.035, 0.016, and 0.013mg/L, respectively. Alkali deweighting effluents, dyeing effluents, and influents into regulation tanks were observed to be "hotspots" for metal distributions. Among the seven target metals, only Sb was found to be significantly correlated with COD, NH3-N, TN, and TP. The results of one-way ANOVA suggested that the Sb mainly came from the processing of polyester fibers. Overall, the majority of discharged wastewater samples were at safe levels, according to six health indicators. Sb posed elevated risks in comparison to other elements, which necessitated further concern. The findings can help decision-makers prevent hazardous metal contamination in the textile and dyeing industry, and provide a basis for the further study of the mechanisms of metal migration in the environment.

On the Academic Value of "The Textile Weekly"

“The Textile Weekly”, as an academic witness of Chinese textile industry throughout the 20th century, is a significant legacy recording the development of China’s domestic textile industry. Under the contemporary context of high-tech industrialization and “Belt and Road” Initiative, the study on “The Textile Weekly”, is of great referential significance for learning today’s industry policies and market status. Therefore, this paper, based on multiple literature reviews and substantial textual analysis, has built up the argument that “The Textile Weekly” mainly sheds light on social policy construction, establishing the foundation for comparative academic research, contemporary textile talent development, as well as the improvement on the overall R&D ability of China’s domestic industry. Studying “The Textile Weekly”, from both academic and practical point of view, will help us better understand how the domestic textile industry had been developed with the challenge and opportunities imposed by the increase of technological input into global textile production.

Development of a novel process-level water footprint assessment for textile production based on modularity

Serious regional water scarcity and pollution of wastewater have become a focus of public attention. As a large producer and exporter, Chinese textile and garment industry has not yet developed beyond high water consumption and pollution. The key to overcoming this challenge is to assess how much water is being consumed and how much wastewater is being generated. Water footprint assessment for textile production is helpful in solving this issue. Due to the long production chain and scarce data in textile production, a quickly and easily accounting for the process-level water footprint remains an international problem. This paper established a novel process-level water footprint assessment for the textile industry based on modularity. Firstly, the water footprint unit was defined and the water footprint assessment for each unit was discussed. Secondly, the water footprint unit encoding was determined by using location, scale, product-category, process and technology codes. What’s more, the reuse and assembly methods were proposed. It was intended to be practical and effective based on 80 representative dyeing and printing factories in China. Compared with the old ones, the new approach showed two advantages by the case study of cotton fabrics. The results for different products and processes can be compared. Through such comparisons, their causes, and influencing factors can be analysed. The most promising water-saving opportunities can be found, and measurements can be taken to eliminate wastewater discharge and pollution. Besides, when the water footprint database is established, it is fast and easy to reuse the water footprint unit and only needs to collect data which cannot be found in the database. The assessment makes full use of the database and cuts down double counting. Usage of a limited set of modules to create unlimited product variants. The benefits of this assessment will become stand out obviously as more and more water footprint units are added into the database.

Need for development of low carbon economy in China using analysis of Guangdong textile industry as case study

Textile industry is a high energy-consuming industry, which depends on oil, coal and other energy resources. This paper takes Guangdong textile industry as case study and analyses its current carbon emission from the statistical yearbook. Chinese textile industry should transform and develop a low-carbon economy model. Firstly, the government should strengthen the top-level design and improve the relevant legal system. Secondly, new energy and renewable materials needs to be vigorously explored to save energy. Thirdly, the textile enterprises must speed up the industrial transformation and upgrade to enhance the added value in the industrial chain. Finally, consumers are required to update their concept of low-carbon consumption. These ways are helpful to ensure the minimization of “carbon footprint”. Only by developing a circular economy and low-carbon economy, can we build a resource-saving, environment-friendly and low-carbon-oriented society.

Developing and leveraging platforms in a traditional industry: An orchestration and co-creation perspective

In the current fast-changing and digitalizing world, ever more firms active in traditional industries are transforming themselves into ‘Smart Factories’. Within their value chains, manufacturers are shifting from working at arm's length with other firms, to creating integrated platforms. These are composed of co-creating and collaborating actors. Even though the opportunities and competitive advantages of platforms for industrial applications have been proven, insights in the lead actors' efforts to ensure co-evolution of the platform and the platform actors' contributions to value co-creation are scarce. That way, the full potential of collaborative firm settings might not be realized. Addressing this gap, we explore through a multiple case study how manufacturers in the traditional Chinese textile industry gradually adopt a platform-based logic. This results in an integrative framework unfolding the lead actor's orchestration capabilities to ensure co-evolution, and the prerequisites for value co-creation in a platform. As such, we adapt and extend the co-evolution concept mostly examined in a dyadic setting to a multiple actors' logic and answer calls for additional research on the micro-foundations of value co-creation in platforms.

Measuring Perceived Benefits and Costs of New Technology Adoption in the Chinese Textile and Apparel Industry

The textile and apparel industry have been fundamentally changed due to technology development. However, developing countries, such as China, are falling behind for adopting new technologies. The literature suggests firm managers’ perceived benefits and costs of new technology are key variables for their motivation to adopt new technology. However, no reliable and valid scales existed to measure these constructs within the developing country context—specifically in China. Thus, the study aimed to develop scales for measuring Chinese textile and apparel firm managers’ perceived benefits and costs of new technology adoption, using the psychometric method of item response theory. After item generation, item bank development, and psychometric evaluation tested by 599 Chinese textile and apparel firm managers, the two scales were created. These scales provide an opportunity to measure Chinese textile and apparel firm managers’ perceived benefits and costs of new technology adoption, offering tools for additional technology adoption motivation research.