ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to examine Bangladesh’s performance as an outsourcing destination from the perspectives of buyers and suppliers involved in a representative US apparel company which has outsourced from Bangladesh. This study employed a sequential mixed method research design which consisted of quantitative evaluation and qualitative interviews. The sample was comprised of three buyers and three suppliers in the Phillip’s Van-Heusen (PVH). From the results of quantitative evaluation, it was found that Bangladesh has a greater advantage in the cost and quality clusters than Vietnam. The interviews revealed that the US buyers have some concerns in geographic location, trade restrictions, country’s political situation, warranty policies, and currency exchange situations. To strengthen Bangladeshi capability, Bangladeshi government’s investment to improve facilities, nomination of supplier’s backward linkage, improvement of manufacturing capacity, running improvement programs, negotiation to reduce tariff, and building mutual trust between buyers and suppliers were suggested. These diagnosis results provide the US buyers and the Bangladeshi suppliers with not only valuable information on the current status of Bangladesh’s performance but guidance to successful strategies for improvement of outsourcing performance.

摘要

本文的目的是从一家从孟加拉国外包的具有代表性的美国服装公司的采购商和供应商的角度来考察孟加拉国作为外包目的地的表现。本研究采用顺序混合方法研究设计，包括定量评估和定性访谈。样本由菲利普范豪森 (PVH) 的三名买家和三名供应商组成。从定量评价结果来看，孟加拉国在成本和质量集群上比越南具有更大的优势。采访显示，美国买家对地理位置、贸易限制、国家政治局势、保修政策、货币兑换情况等方面存在一些担忧。为了加强孟加拉国的能力，建议孟加拉政府投资改善设施、提名供应商的后向联系、提高制造能力、运行改进计划、谈判降低关税以及建立买卖双方之间的互信。这些诊断结果不仅为美国采购商和孟加拉供应商提供了有关孟加拉绩效现状的宝贵信息，而且为改进外包绩效的成功战略提供了指导。