Small Firms in the Clothing Industry: The Growth of Minority Enterprise

Abstract

Robin Ward is director of the Ethnic Business Research Unit, Aston University Management Centre, Richard Randall is an accountant and research fellow in Aston Management Centre and Karisa Krcmar is completing a doctoral thesis on the clothing trade in the West Midlands at Aston University Management Centre. Global economic restructuring has been creating new opportunities for clothing manufacturing by ethnic minorities in advanced Western economies. While social pressures and access to the resources needed for successful business formation vary by ethnic group, members of all minorities have been turning to entrepreneurship as a strategy for combatting unemployment. Clothing manufacturing offers low barriers to entry and concentration on garments subject to change in fashion gives a comparative advantage to local producers who can respond quickly to the changing requirements of the market. The resources needed to achieve this, particularly the cheap and flexible access to labour and financing, can be acquired through community networks in various minority groups. Finally, attention to changes in the clothing trade raises wider questions concerning opportunities, policies and strategies for small firms in a changing economic climate.