Who knows what? Reconfiguring the governance and the capabilities of the supply chain between physical and digital processes in the fashion industry

Abstract

On the basis of an exploratory multiple-case qualitative longitudinal study in the fashion industry, this article describes how digital technologies enabled choices among different types of supply chain governance. In doing so, this study responds to calls for governance-oriented longitudinal explorations and suggests an alternative path of governance choices in which the digital technologies become the platform that allows a dynamic discourse between outsourcer and outsourcee. Our results show that, when firms decide to leverage their performances through the adoption of information technology, they need to define their knowledge transfer capacities in order to adopt the appropriate type of governance model. With this article, we contribute to the global value chain literature adding to the knowledge transfer dimension.

Keywords:

• E-commerce
• supply chain
• governance value chain
• knowledge transfer
• fashion industry

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Fondazione Studi Universitari di Vicenza and the Polo Scientifico Didattico Studi sull’Impresa (Università di Verona) for their support and funding. This research was part of the ‘Filiere e Network: i nuovi ambiti di azione delle imprese’ research project.