Systems Thinking and Scenario Planning: Application in the Clothing Sector

Rosiane Serrano (), Luis Henrique Rodrigues (), Daniel Pacheco Lacerda () and Priscila Bonalume Paraboni ()
Additional contact information
Rosiane Serrano: Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of the Rio Grande do Sul
Luis Henrique Rodrigues: Instituto de Estudos Sistêmicos do Brasil – IESB
Daniel Pacheco Lacerda: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS
Priscila Bonalume Paraboni: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2018, vol. 31, issue 5, No 4, 509-537

Abstract: Abstract Industrial sectors that operate in uncertain environments - with demand variability, product seasonality and different industrialisation structures - need studies that enable identification and forecast trends. Therefore, the development of competitiveness extends beyond a company’s individual performance. Collective action, whether toward consumer markets, supplier markets, competitors and substitutes, can reinforce or help reformulate the current practices of an organisation, besides providing better results in the development of strategies and competitive positioning. Thus, clothing, the sector addressed in this work, is characterised by a long, fragmented, heterogeneous production chain, the competitiveness of which is linked to product differentiation. Therefore, the use of systemic approaches to study this sector is effective. In this sense, this research aims at adapting Systems Thinking and Scenario Planning (STSP) so that it supports the development and planning process in a given sector. Thus, this research applies STSP adapted to an analysis of the clothing sector in the northern region of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. As a result, in academic terms, this research proposed and validated a method for analysing industrial sectors of the clothing industry. In the sectoral context, this research identified elements that leverage the sector’s competitiveness, besides generating knowledge and learning aimed at strengthening the sectoral structure identified, and fostering the formation of a new clothing cluster.

Keywords: Clothing sector; Systems thinking; Scenario planning; Sector competitiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11213-017-9438-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:syspar:v:31:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s11213-017-9438-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11213

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-017-9438-3

Access Statistics for this article

Systemic Practice and Action Research is currently edited by Robert Flood

More articles in Systemic Practice and Action Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().