This paper provides an approach, based on global and entrepreneurial perspectives, to enhance retailing education. The approach was operationalized through a hybrid graduate course, co-taught by U.S. and Indian faculty members, which focused on engaging Bloom's higher order cognitive skills in learning about the operation of small retail businesses in U.S. and Indian cultural contexts. The courseincluded interactive learning modules, learning activities, and a student service-learning project. The project required the application of module content in the development of business enhancement plans for small retail businesses and in assessing the plans applicability to small businesses in an Indian context

This study presents the need for moral development education of current and future professionals so they can help build sustainable companies and global supply chains. Grounded in Ha-Brookshire’s moral responsibility theory of corporate sustainability, the authors explored a set of real-life business situations where business professionals experienced morally challenging dilemmas. The study was conducted within the context of the textile and apparel (TA) industry because of the global and fragmented supply chain nature of the industry. The real-life business situations were interpreted using Kohlberg’s moral development stage theory. The results of in-depth individual interviews followed by three focus groups of industry professionals in spring 2017 showed that participants have experienced a variety of morally challenging business situations throughout their careers. This includes simple problems at the individual and firm levels, as well as wicked and complex problems at the industry and global levels. The study concludes that for TA businesses to be truly sustainable, professionals’ moral ability is critical and, therefore, appropriate moral development education is necessary.

The complexity of the social responsibility (SR) concept makes learning about SR crucial for future academic and industry professionals. The purpose of this study was to examine effectiveness of a single learning assignment (watching a video) on student understanding of SR in the textile and apparel industry. Three research questions guided the study: (1) What issues students perceive as SR problems in the industry, (2) How students' definitions of SR differ before and after watching the video, and (3) How students' SR related attitudes changed after watching the video. The results of this study indicated that completing the learning activity substantially enhanced students' knowledge of a wide range of issues related to SR. Furthermore, students' attitudes toward SR have shifted significantly after watching the video: In addition to responsibilities on the part of companies and industry overall, students realized the role of individual consumers and society as a whole.

This study investigated the comparative advantages of the Bangladeshi and Vietnamese apparel industries using Global Value Chain (GVC) framework. In this study, the GVC framework was expanded to include social and environmental sustainability issues. Secondary data, for the 2012 - 2013 period, were collected and analyzed for each component of the apparel GVC. The findings indicated that while both countries have unique comparative advantages, Vietnam clearly emerged as a leader on many GVC components. Bangladesh’s comparative advantage lies in lower wages, producing high volume orders, and lean manufacturing. In spite of Vietnam’s higher labor costs, it has comparative advantages in higher productivity, skilled and trained workers, manufacturing of intricate styles of high quality, agility and flexible manufacturing, more developed infrastructure and logistic services as well as greater social and environmental compliances. This study contributes towards insight into best sourcing fit for fashion brand business models. Based on the findings, fashion driven companies offering more complex styles at a faster rate will benefit from choosing Vietnam. In contrast, Bangladesh might be a better choice for high volume driven companies that offer basic apparel and better value for their consumers. From theoretical perspective, the research makes an important contribution by expanding the GVC framework.

The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify a comprehensive list of merchandising knowledge and skills through an analysis of extant research; (b) categorize these knowledge and skills to create a classification matrix; and (c) based on this matrix, develop an apparel merchandising competency framework. Content analysis was used to to analyse a total of 32 published articles in peer reviewed journals focused on K&S required for business, retail, and merchandising professionals. A total of 140 different K&S found to be important for merchandising, retail, and business positions were identified and then systematically classified. The classification procedure followed four successive stages: (1) four main constructs were identified (i.e., explicit knowledge; tacit knowledge; soft skills; hard skills); (2) seven different categories of K&S were identified (i.e., explicit knowledge: general apparel and merchandising category; tacit knowledge: experience category; soft skills: interpersonal and intrapersonal category; hard skills: technical and conceptual/thinking category); (3) 39 types of K&S (16 knowledge and 23 skills) were identified within the seven categories and classified into each category; and (4) dimensions of each type of K&S were identified and classified accordingly. To categorize the K&S constructs, categories, and types, Pellegrino and Hilton’s (2012) competency domain framework was employed. The three competency domains aligned with the K&S constructs identified. Additionly, the different clusters in each domain provided an effective way to classify the categories and types of K&S. Based on this classification, we proposed an apparel merchandising competency framework that is discipline-specific and outlines the knowledge and skills required for merchandisers to be competent and, ultimately build a successful career.

This research examined the effects of past creative experience and attitude toward risk-taking on creativity before and after training. College students enrolled in a creativity course participated in the study. Creativity was assessed by independent experts and self-assessed by the participants. Based on the results, an inverted U-shape relationship was proposed between (a) past creative experience and risk-taking, and (b) risk-taking and self-assessed creativity. Risk-taking was related to self-assessed creativity before and after the training, but not expert-assessed creativity. Past creative experience was not related to creativity, self and expert-assessed, before and after the training.

Consumers are aware of the problems related to the environmental and human impact of apparel products, and want to purchase apparel that is produced responsibly; however, their purchase behavior does not reflect this concern (Summer, 2015). To improve consumer trust, apparel brands should share more information about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. However, it can be difficult for consumers to understand this information and use it when they shop. Therefore, we created a conceptual model for consumers to evaluate the CSR of apparel companies. The model helps consumers assess and easily understand: (a) product features, (b) companies' business practices, and (c) philanthropical actions of companies. Moreover, the model allows consumers to evaluate the transparency of the companies by evaluating whether they do audits or have third party certifications. The model can be useful for educators in the classroom as well as consumers when making socially responsible apparel purchase decisions.

This study's purpose was to explore: (a) the resources currently utilized by management in the strategic decision-making process within fashion retail companies; and (b) opportunities and barriers for greater use of academic research in the U.S. fashion retail industry. A phenomenological interpretive approach guided the research design to explore retail professionals' strategic decision-making and the role of academic research in the process. Fifteen retail industry executives in the sectors of women's and men's apparel, sportswear, footwear, accessories, and intimates from various companies across the United States were interviewed. Emergent themes formed three topical areas: (a) resource usage for strategic decision-making by retail executives; (b) barriers for academic research use; and (c) processes of strategic decision-making within the fashion retail industry. Findings in this study illustrated the opportunity for academic research use in the fashion retail industry.

Mood boards are used frequently in design and product development as well as in academic courses related to fashion design. However objectively evaluating the creativity of fashion design mood boards is often difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to examine reliability of a digital consensual assessment instrument measuring creativity, using expert (from related domains) and non-expert raters (students). Creativity measures were compared with the mood board themes to further investigate any relationships between mood board types and the consensual assessment. Independent samples t test comparing group means indicated expert raters evaluated the mood boards significantly higher in creativity than the non-experts, t (99) = −6.71, p < .001, (95% CI −.57, −.29), while Pearson correlation results indicate a significant relationship between the two groups of raters, r (50) = .33, p < .01. ANOVA results for all raters indicated a significant difference between the five subject matter categories; F (4, 95) = 4.64, p < .005. Overall, expert and non-expert raters reported significant reliability, which further supports prior research using consensual assessment for creativity measures across domains.

Apparel graduates face ever-increasing expectations for using and adopting new technology (Romeo & Lee, 2013). In addition to being proficient with constantly developing ways of digital communication, analyzing, storing, and sharing data, successful apparel professionals must master various specialized soft- and hardware such as virtual retailing, product lifecycle management, computer-aided design, digital printing, and emerging 3D technologies. To address challenges of the fast-paced and highly competitive industry, preparing technologically-savvy apparel graduates becomes one of the priorities (Romeo & Lee, 2013). Ninety-five percent of students completing a bachelor's degree in apparel and textiles (CIP Code: 19.09) are female (National Center for Education Statistics, 2017). The purpose of this study was to understand why some young females are comfortable adopting and using technology, whereas others are not. Our findings indicate that participants' personal differences set them apart in terms technology self-efficacy. The results of the study can help apparel and textiles educators understand barriers to successful technology adoption among young females and might be useful for developing learning and teaching strategies, particularly, for women with low technology self-efficacy. These solutions would likely assist in counteracting technology-related anxiety, building greater confidence in female students, and enabling them to learn ever-changing fashion industry technology.