E-Commerce and Industrial Upgrading in the Chinese Apparel Value Chain
Abstract
The economic and social gains from electronic commerce (e-commerce) that promote innovation,
industry upgrading and economic growth have been widely discussed. China’s successful
experience with e-commerce has had a positive effect in transforming consumer-goods
sectors of the economy and motivating economic reform. This article looks at how e-commerce
reduces barriers to entry and enables firms to move up the value chain by using the
global value chain framework to analyse the impact of e-commerce on the upgrading
trajectories and governance structures of China’s apparel industry. For large Chinese
brands, e-commerce has enabled end-market diversification. For small- and medium-sized
enterprises, e-commerce has facilitated entry with functional upgrading as well as
end-market upgrading. In the “two-sided markets” created by platform companies, the
“engaged consumers” are the demand side of this market, and “e-commerce focused apparel
firms” are the supply side of the new market. Consumers and platforms are more directly
involved in value creation within this emerging internet-based structure.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19737Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1080/00472336.2018.148122Publication Info
Li, Fuyi; Frederick, Stacey; & Gereffi, Gary (n.d.). E-Commerce and Industrial Upgrading in the Chinese Apparel Value Chain. Journal of Contemporary Asia. 10.1080/00472336.2018.148122. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19737.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Stacey Frederick
Affiliate
Gary Gereffi
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Gary Gereffi is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Value Chains
Center at Duke University (https://gvcc.duke.edu/). He has published over a dozen
books and numerous articles on globalization, industrial upgrading, and social and
economic development, and he is one of the originators of the global value chains
framework. His most recent books are: <a href="https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/
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