Characteristics of Apparel-Producing Organization

Abstract

Tehran is home to the foremost apparel-producing center in Iran, where the author conducted fieldwork in the 1990s and 2000s. This primary research enabled the clarification of the following points: larger firms relied less on outsourcing , product planning was carried out by the firms themselves, and few firms had direct relations with retailer s. They also tended to avoid establishing strong ties with outside contractors in production, although outsourcing has become more common. The overwhelming majority of apparel-producing firms is very small in scale, but they are generally not involved in vertical integration with large-scale firms . In addition, although they often put out works to other small-scale firms , a joint-stock partnership is never observed. As for large-scale firms, the relationships between firms and contractors are temporary and flexible too. As a result of the absence of industrial consolidation, large-scale firms remain relatively small compared with highly integrated firms abroad. On the whole, the diminutiveness and independence of these firms can be pointed out as extremely prominent features of industrial organization in Iran’s apparel-producing industry.