ABSTRACT
Being one of the widely implemented supply chain management strategies, quick response (QR) aims to enhance the supply chain agents’ response to market changes. In this paper, we interview textiles and apparel companies from Hong Kong (H.K.), France, and the United States (U.S.) to reveal their QR practices. Specifically we conduct cross-regional analysis to examine and explore issues such as perceptions towards QR systems, stages of QR implementations, and channel coordination practices associated with QR in these three regions. Comparisons of the different approaches in these three regions reflect the different attitudes and concerns over QR programmes under their diverse market environments. In particular, we find that: (i) All three markets have similar level of QR implementation; (ii) whereas both H.K. and the U.S. tend to have positive attitudes towards QR, many French companies do not perceive the strategy as cost-effective; (iii) to achieve channel coordination with QR, fashion industrialists from the three regions show different concerns. Specifically, H.K. practitioners are mainly concerned about the willingness of information sharing amongst partners whilst the French practitioners focus more on the degree of collaboration over the channel. By contrast, the U.S. practitioners popularly make use of contractual agreements to solve channel problems under QR. Insights are generated.
