the role of sourcing agents in global apparel supply chains

to August 2009 (U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Textiles and Apparel, 2008).
From 2006-2008, both bilateral and multi-lateral trade agreements with countries other
than China have been an impetus in maintaining production orders for other developing
nations, while niche concentrations in the apparel industry by other countries have been
used as a comparative advantage against China. For instance, Cambodia has attempted to
compete with China by having their government commit to ensuring socially responsible
production (Rivoli, 2005). Since the complete phase-out of quotas, developing countries
as well as developed countries have seen huge uncertainty in the future of the apparel
supply chain (Sajhau, 2005). Many developing nations rely on the apparel manufacturing
industry to provide economic development and jobs to their citizens. Bangladesh, often
noted as one of the losers against the competition from China without quota restrictions,
has required proactive measures on the part of their government and trade agreements to
maintain substantial volume and exports to the United States (Sajhau, 2005). “There is
often a failure to theorize how economic performance and governance processes cause
different governance mechanisms to develop, on the one hand, and how the relative
influence of different governance mechanisms is determined historically, on the other
hand” (Campbell, Hollingsworth, & Lindberg 1991, p. 8). Consistent studies note that in
times of economic difficulty, government has favored regulations on behalf of the
laborers, suppliers, customers and the public. Campbell, Hollingsworth and Lindberg
(1991) hypothesized that producers were likely to be the sector that initiated changes in
governance, but the important role played by sourcing agents as one of the mechanisms
of governance in global economic acceleration was not explicit in the hypothesis.
Producers in various nations have impacted mechanisms of governance through political
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