Business Model Makes a Difference? Impacts of the Financial Crisis on Luxury and Mass Apparel Companies from 2008-2011

Abstract

<p>The world financial crisis that started in 2008 had a profound impact on the global apparel industry (Newbury, 2010). However, at the firm level, impact of the financial crisis seemed to be unevenly distributed, with several luxury apparel companies (LA) such as Louis Vuitton achieving stable net sales and quite a few mass apparel companies (MA) such as GAP experiencing significant drop of sales and profits (Hoover’s, 2012). But it remains a question whether such apparent different financial performances is a random phenomenon among several companies or reflects a more general pattern between LA and MA because of their respective business models and specific effect of the financial crisis since 2008.</p>