ETHICAL FASHION REPORT

Nimbalker, Mawson, Lee, and Cremen (2017) Ethical Fashion Study

Nimbalker, Mawson, Lee, and Cremen (2017) developed an ethical fashion study that demonstrates how the company gathered, processed, and conveyed facts to its audience. Baptist World Aid’s advocacy administrators and lead scholars are the three reporters. According to Roger and Collins, the executive summary contains the analysis purpose and practicality (2013). According to the two papers, market analysis should consistently and methodically inquire and analyze a phenomena whilst also increasing information. The executive summary summarizes the research’s objectives, scopes, data collection findings, and overall findings. This paper carefully criticizes this Chapter based on the practical guides of a business research.

Title of the Report

The title of this article is not long, which makes it appropriate for a business research. However, it is not descriptive because the authors missed out on critical elements of a research title. The title leaves out the “where” and “when” in the five W’s. “The Ethical Fashion Report of 2017: The Truth behind the Barcode,” shows that the companies involved are those from the fashion industry (Kozup 2017). It is evident from the title what happened; this is an ethical survey conducted on the fashion industry, and the researchers made a report to the public. The “why” is answered by the next statement, which is to obtain the truth behind the barcode. One can simply understand the topic of the research and why it is conducted. Despite the weakness in the title of the paper, introductory paragraph explained the missing points to help readers understand where the survey took place. This research provides information to consumers and companies in the fashion industry on the ethical practices involved in the production. Its primary goal is to influence companies to build a long-term and ethical relationship with suppliers, employees, and customers.

Table of Content

The table of content does not show the structural relationship between the executive summary and the sub sections under it. The report does not have accurate information under the executive summary section as accepted in a research report. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005), a table of content acts as a guideline and leads a reader to page numbers where sections and sub sections are. Topics such as; Industry overview, key findings, important progress, concluding comments and visual overview should be added as sub sections under the executive summary. Despite this fault, the table of content provides the segments of the report and its content.

Situation Analysis

The industry overview and industry progress section under the executive summary provides detailed background context of the research. This research is relevant to understanding the reasons why workers’ voices are not heard in the supply chain despite the presence of trade unions, grievance mechanisms and bargaining agreements. The authors mentioned the incident in 2013 when Rana Plaza Factory in the fashion industry collapsed leading to the death of 1134 garment workers (Nimbalker, Mawson, Lee, and Cremen 2017). Other incidents of accidents caused by poor working conditions in garment factories have created concern on the safety of workers. Companies are now under pressure to contribute to the better conditions of their employees creating their products (Woodside 2016). The fashion industry is committed to sourcing and working with partners. They publish ethical reports each year to show the public how their manufacturing happens. Despite this effort, companies still have room for improvement, which is the reason for this research.

Referencing and Sourcing

Nimbalker, Mawson, Lee, and Cremen (2017) provide data on the garment factories in Asia Pacific without giving the source. There is not in text citation to support the statement that there are 40 million workers in textile and apparel companies. There is no specific citation format for information provided in the research. They also cited research done by International Labor Organization to show that child labor happen in the region of study without showing the page or year of publication of this source.

The Position of the Research Problem: Purpose and Objective

The report has met its goal by tracking the efforts made by fashion companies to protect the rights of workers. The report by Baptist World Aid Australia is an examination of labor rights management systems in the fashion industry. According to Gürhan-Canli, Hayran, and Sarial-Abi (2016), consumers are becoming more concerned about the enterprises that manufacture the products that they use. The report sheds light on what universal consumer demand from companies.

Data Collection and Presentation

The data presented is based on the grading system of the fashion companies. The report graders a total of 106 companies from A to F based on their strength to militate against the risks of child labor, forced labor, and exploitation in the supply chain. The sample population used by the BWA is appropriate to analyze the report. The report uses 106 companies to represent 330 individual brands under the microscope. The companies were also evaluated against 40 criteria covering important factors such as living wage, traceability, and worker’s voice. The assessment done by the companies considers the three critical stages of a supply chain; raw materials, input reduction and final manufacturing (Bogers, Hadar, and Bilberg 2016). The data presentation is characterized by the color-coded graphics together with in-depth analysis of the problems facing workers in garment factories.

Implication of the Research

The executive summary provides significance of the research under the industry progress section. The visual presentation of data shows areas that need improvement and companies’ growth between 2013 and 1027. The progress in the fashion industry is also literature review, which is a preliminary duty that helps to discover the gap in research and why the authors chose to do the survey (Fuller 2016). This report communicates the authenticity of the ethical practices of fashion companies to their consumers. The 106 companies are not just part of the survey, the report focuses on their ethical fashion and whether they can walk the talk. The study provides a benchmark for consumers and a chance for fashion companies to see the areas of improvement.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, although this is not a government report, its executive summary can easily affect how consumers shop and companies strive to become ethical. It is a positive sign for businesses that scored C+ and above. The first section has an implication of businesses’ approach to the human resource through the progress sub-section. The data collection helps create an argument on the topic of discussion in this survey. The research is well presented and structured to allow readers understand the data and position of the researcher.

References

Bogers, M., Hadar, R. and Bilberg, A., (2016). Additive manufacturing for consumer-centric business models: Implications for supply chains in consumer goods manufacturing. Technological forecasting and social change, 102, pp.225-239.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R., (2013). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave Macmillan.

Fuller, C.M., Simmering, M.J., Atinc, G., Atinc, Y. and Babin, B.J., (2016). Common methodsvariance detection in business research. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp.3192-3198.

Gürhan-Canli, Z., Hayran, C. and Sarial-Abi, G., (2016). Customer-based brand equity in a technologically fast-paced, connected, and constrained environment. AMS review, 6(1-2), pp.23-32.

Hsieh, H.F. and Shannon, S.E., (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative health research, 15(9), pp.1277-1288.

Kozup, J., (2017). Risks of consumer products. In Consumer Perception of Product Risks and Benefits (pp. 23-38). Springer International Publishing.

Nimbalker, G., Mawson, J., Lee H. and Cremen, C., (2017). The 2017 ethical fashion report: The truth behind the barcode. Baptist World Aid Australia (Pp. 1-15).

Woodside, A.G. (2016). The good practices manifesto: Overcoming bad practices pervasive in current research in business.