Competitive Factors of Fashion Retail Sector with Special Focus on SMEs

Gyorgy Gonda, Eva Gorgenyi-Hegyes, Robert Jeyakumar Nathan and Maria Fekete-Farkas
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Gyorgy Gonda: Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration, Szent Istvan University, 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary
Eva Gorgenyi-Hegyes: Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration, Szent Istvan University, 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary
Robert Jeyakumar Nathan: Faculty of Business, Multimedia University, Melaka 75450, Malaysia
Maria Fekete-Farkas: Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Szent Istvan University, 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary

Economies, 2020, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Nowadays small and medium sized enterprises have become increasingly important in contribution to job creation and economic growth both in national and European level. Considering the rapidly and continuously changing business environment, due to the impacts of globalization and concentration, staying competitive is a great challenge for companies in the 21st century, especially in fashion retail sector. The current paper is intended to map the current situation of the sector—focusing primarily on SMEs—through the extensive literature review; and provide a better understanding of sector-specific competitive factors in fashion industry. The research methods are the analysis of different related articles, reports and other scientific literature sources, in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey. The survey was validated by confirmatory factor analysis, data were analyzed and evaluated through PLS-SEM model. The main findings of the study show that the most important competitive factor is the compliance with consumer needs. Furthermore, the research also points out that SME sector lag behind chains, thus, they need to focus more on better understanding and meeting consumer expectations. In this activity, it would be useful if they received EU and domestic support for educational assistance.

Keywords: fashion; retail; competitiveness; PLS-SEM; small and medium sized enterprises (SME) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E F I J O Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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