McCormick+Schmitz Handbook for value chain research on - PACA

More documents

Recommendations

Info

we need some idea of the degree of concentration. If, in market X, the bulk of the clothes are sold through hundreds of small shops, it does not matter whether their number is 500 or 800, the difference is unlikely to affect the <strong>chain</strong> dynamics. No single retailer will have direct influence on other parts of the <strong>chain</strong>. Contrast this with a situation in which three retail <strong>chain</strong>s sell 90% of the output of a <strong>chain</strong>. This is likely to be a buyer-driven <strong>chain</strong>. In this case the exact number matters. For example, a shift from three to six retailers could indicate a significant increase in the choices open to local manufacturers. Thus, as in all data collection, it is important to recall what we want to find out be<strong>for</strong>e we decide on how much energy to spend on quantification. Employment In order to collect data on the number of workers we use the same sources and methods as those presented above <strong>for</strong> working out the number of enterprises. There are, however, two categories of workers whose quantification presents special problems and there<strong>for</strong>e need further discussion: casual factory workers and homeworkers. The extent of casual factory employment (within the garment factories) is difficult to assess because they are often not included in the available statistics and employers do not like to provide in<strong>for</strong>mation since a good number of those workers are often not <strong>for</strong>mally registered. While the employers might be reluctant to be specific about their own employment practices, they might be willing to talk about the industry or the <strong>chain</strong> in general and give you an indication of the relative size of the casual work<strong>for</strong>ce. You should also try to obtain estimates from the labour union. If you cannot even obtain a rough picture from these sources, drive to a number of factories early in the morning at the beginning of the shift. If there are long queues at the factory gates, they probably indicate that casual labour is being recruited. It should not take much detective work to confirm whether this is the case. Estimating the number of homeworkers presents a greater problem because they are dispersed over many more locations and establishments. Sometimes it is possible to make rough estimates by using secondary sources. The demographic census in most countries and regions usually includes, under occupational data, the number of garment workers or sewing machinists. Compare this total with the total number of workers in the 51
garment industry according to the industrial Census. The difference gives you an initial idea of the size of the in<strong>for</strong>mal work<strong>for</strong>ce, in other words, the total of casual factory workers and homeworkers. Interviews with key in<strong>for</strong>mants could then give you the approximate proportions of the two. In order to obtain estimates which establish the importance of homeworkers by <strong>chain</strong>, you probably need to use a number of methods. The main one is interviews with several key in<strong>for</strong>mants who can claim to have an overview of employment practices in the industry. This would include representatives of the local labour union and of the business association. And, hopefully, you can persuade employers to open up and talk frankly about the use of homework. As mentioned be<strong>for</strong>e, often they prefer to talk about the industry or <strong>chain</strong> in general rather than their own practice. Even if they open up and talk about their own network of homeworkers, they may not know how many people they employ working in their homes. One solution is to ask about the labour cost <strong>for</strong> one or two typical products and then to ask how much of this labour cost represents wage costs of internal workers and how much represents the payment of homeworkers. 9 This should allow you to work out the order of magnitude of the external work<strong>for</strong>ce in full-time equivalents. The problem, of course, is that many homeworkers do not work full-time on a regular basis: there are core and fringe homeworkers, there are homeworkers who work exclusively <strong>for</strong> one manufacturer and others who have a number of ‘clients’. These and other distinctions amongst homeworkers (remember Agnes and Maria?) are best captured in a sub-map specifically designed to show that homeworkers belong to networks but have many differences amongst them. Later chapters show how to draw such homeworker maps. Share of female employment If your <strong>research</strong> is concerned specifically with gender questions, it is useful to show the percentage of female employment in the various parts of the <strong>chain</strong>. Estimating this percentage should not be difficult. The sources and methods are those used <strong>for</strong> estimating employment. Figure 9.3 shows – by way of a hypothetical example – what such a 9 In Chapter 12, we discuss in more details how to obtain cost breakdowns. 52
Page 1 and 2: MANUAL FOR VALUE CHAIN RESEARCH ON
Page 3 and 4: 10.1 Mapping homeworkers 57 10.2 Ma
Page 5 and 6: List of Boxes Box 1.1: Maria: A hom
Page 7 and 8: Introduction In developed and devel
Page 9 and 10: to understand the situation of home
Page 11 and 12: Part I. Homeworkers in Value Chains
Page 13 and 14: Box 1.2: Agnes: A homeworker moving
Page 15 and 16: no contact with the main contractor
Page 17 and 18: A value ch
Page 19 and 20: dominate certain value</str
Page 21 and 22: • Finding leverage points <strong
Page 23 and 24: Figure 4.1: Triangle manufacturing
Page 25 and 26: Table 4.1: Types of buyers, quality
Page 27 and 28: 5. The new retailing and its implic
Page 29 and 30: ut more frequent orders. Manufactur
Page 31 and 32: which demand limited skills and are
Page 33 and 34: In this manual, we are dealing main
Page 35 and 36: Part II. Methodology This third par
Page 37 and 38: 8.2 Initial and final map Mapping a
Page 39 and 40: kinds of connections between the va
Page 41 and 42: • directed network: firms <strong
Page 43 and 44: local hotel these suppliers and buy
Page 45 and 46: the designs in the various stages?
Page 47 and 48: Figure 9.1: Chain map - workers' ho
Page 49 and 50: you prefer, you can double count, t
Page 51: If a significant percentage of the
Page 55 and 56: Figure 9.3: Chain map - share of fe
Page 57 and 58: Indicators of directed network: Ma
Page 59 and 60: Figure 10.1 : Network of homeworker
Page 61 and 62: for the executive
Page 63 and 64: Figure 10.3 : Producer services <st
Page 65 and 66: Figure 10.4 : Wages and skill short
Page 67 and 68: producers all over the world. This
Page 69 and 70: Long-term, quality growth has alway
Page 71 and 72: Such differences emerge clearly if
Page 73 and 74: it may well be worth recording them
Page 75 and 76: it is useful to present the results
Page 77 and 78: Figure 12.3 : Sub-contractor networ
Page 79 and 80: 13.2 Observing Here are some of the
Page 81 and 82: A good research de
Page 83 and 84: A major concern in the protection o
Page 85 and 86: Buyers’ expectations Producers’
Page 87 and 88: 15. Working with public agencies Th
Page 89 and 90: useful source of infor</str
Page 91 and 92: In order to assess the impact of su
Page 93 and 94: The first step is to gather basic i
Page 95 and 96: In step one, the research</
Page 97 and 98: is to examine how such differences
Page 99 and 100: Let us start with the latter, askin
Page 101 and 102: You may want to investigate what ty
Page 103 and 104:
Given that home-workers are often c
Page 105 and 106:
usiness schools and technology inst
Page 107 and 108:
A second reason for</strong
Page 109 and 110:
individuals can also be ordinary pe
Page 111 and 112:
In answering the first question, th
Page 113 and 114:
Obtaining or creating the sampling
Page 115 and 116:
selection of a few illustrative cas
Page 117 and 118:
The coding of open-ended questions
Page 119 and 120:
You will also need to analyse the q
Page 121 and 122:
The third step is data collection.
Page 123 and 124:
the society. Neilson (1990: 20) cla
Page 125 and 126:
Casson, Mark, and Robert Price. 198
Page 127 and 128:
Kaplinsky, Raphael. 1998. “Global
Page 129 and 130:
Wilson, Fiona. 1991. Sweaters: Gend
Page 131:
Business forums de
show all

McCormick+Schmitz Handbook for value chain research on - PACA

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?