A Comprehensive Exercise

Integration into the global market is a goal that all countries strive for. Some succeed in doing so; others are only partially and barely successful. Central America has recently succeeded in gaining access to international trading markets because of its export-oriented apparel industry. Throughout the 1990’s the apparel industry in Central America expanded to such an extent that it now represents more than 60 percent of total manufacturing exports for both Honduras and El Salvador (United States Industry Trade Commission, 2003). As the trends in the global apparel industry change, this places pressure on the Central American countries to also change the modus operandi of their industry. Managers of multinational clothing firms assert that competition between individual firms is now less important than competition between global apparel supply chains. As a result, the responsibility of the suppliers is increasing.1 Suppliers are not only expected to handle production but also to give input in design and pre- and post-production processes. Furthermore, the industry has become hypercompetitive. “Firms continually disrupt the status quo to create a series of temporary advantages... they create short-lived differentiation advantages that are easily and rapidly eroded through imitation and innovative new styles” (Richardson, 1996). In order to gain the competitive advantage, firms need to continually inven