the role of sourcing agents in global apparel supply chains

what barriers are the most difficult to overcome in bridging the gaps between American
apparel firms and off shore factories, the current state of the apparel industry in terms of
competition, how sourcing agents market themselves to American firms, and what, if any,
regulating bodies exist to officially govern the sourcing agent sector of the global apparel
supply chain.
The interviews were conducted at the participants’ convenience, often through
email correspondence for international dialogue, but also through phone interviews for
domestic sourcing managers at apparel firms. Email communication often worked best
when communicating with individuals that use English as a second language and allowed
sourcing agents more time to understand and then respond to the questions without
pressure of an interviewer waiting for an immediate response. Phone and email
interviews provided the benefit of interviewing participants from diverse locations (Berg,
2009). All interviews were recorded with the permission of all interviewees and
participants were advised that their comments were to remain anonymous. At the
conclusion of phone interviews, the tape recordings were fully transcribed for data
analysis and coding.
Because the operations managers hire sourcing agents and see the global apparel
supply chain from the perspective of a buyer rather than a facilitator, the questions for the
operations managers were different from those asked of sourcing agents. Still, the overall
objectives were the same for each group. A description of both semi-structured interview
questions is specified below. Following each question is a notation of the corresponding
interview objective. These questions were used as a guide, but interviewees were
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