Global Supply Chain Management in Fashion Companies

The study of fashion supply chains has always interested both academics and practitioners mainly because the fashion industry has become increasingly global, complex and dynamic. In the last years, fashion supply chains have faced significant challenges such as supply network complexity, oversupplied condition of the market, manufacturing fragmentation among several geographical locations, and demand volatility and unpredictability. Therefore, fashion companies have been pushed to develop new business models to quickly adapt and be reactive to environmental changes. The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to provide an overview of the global fashion industry in order to point out the role of the European fashion market in the global scenario and, secondly, to examine the notion of global fashion supply chain in a fashion context by highlighting the typical key processes.