De Gruyter Handbook of Fashion Supply Chains and Operations

The topic of fashion supply chains and operations is dynamic and contemporary. It is a rapidly growing field of research that inspires new debates, opinions and approaches. In consequence, a handbook that synthesizes, challenges and moves forward current discourses is essential in advancing knowledge and understanding of this crucial area of research and practice. Unlike other collections, the handbook goes beyond existing works that are situated solely in the operations and supply chain domain by drawing on an international inter-disciplinary authorship. In doing so, it curates a state-of-the-art collection of important contributions that provides direction to scholars and graduate students in both teaching and research. Fashion supply chains and operations is an area of research and practice that has long inspired debate, being a critical business function responsible for getting products to consumers but often related to the challenges of sustainability, globalization, configuration and ethics. This handbook offers leading research findings that contribute to these debates and furthers the research agenda. Chapters feature conceptual and empirical debates on contemporary topics and pressing global challenges across fast, slow, and luxury fashion supply chains, from regenerative agriculture to post-consumer textile waste management. Focal areas include the use of technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence for supply chain transparency, efficiency and resilience, as well as relational capital and the lived experiences of workers in the supply chain. Perspectives relating to consumer behaviour, branding, entrepreneurship, collaboration, trend forecasting and product development are also discussed to offer important insights into how fashion supply chains are, and could be, operationalized. Critical debates around social and environmental sustainability, and crucial topics including modern slavery, circularity, policy and ethics, form the cornerstone of the handbook's inter-disciplinary dialogue. The handbook offers an ambitious and stimulating range of chapters that include the works of leading international scholars, drawing on diverse expertise and perspectives across different global contexts.