Abstract
Unlike Japan , Iran has no large-scale firm that organizes smaller contractors for actual production in the apparel-producing system. The procurement of raw materials and machinery serves as a crucial but weighty task for each firm, which operates independently, especially given the presence of rather strict import restrictions imposed by the government. The namāyande system functioned as a cure for this difficult situation encountered by small-scale firms . The lack of knowledge in firms for collecting and analyzing the information that a namāyande provided made him necessary for firms. Business management based on personal relationships is another factor making the namāyande a necessary player for firms, who seek to strengthen their external information channels by developing reliable relationships through extremely personal ties with their namāyande to survive in Iran’s fluid business environment.
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Notes
- 1.
Interviewed on November 14, 1998.
- 2.
Interviewed on November 24, 1998.
- 3.
Interviewed on November 19, 1998.
- 4.
Interviewed on November 24, 1998.
- 5.
Interviewed on November 14, 1998.
- 6.
Interviewed on November 21, 1998.
- 7.
Interviewed on November 18, 1998.
- 8.
Interviewed on November 21, 1998.
- 9.
Interviewed on November 24, 1998.
- 10.
Interviewed on November 21, 1998.
- 11.
Interviewed on November 25, 1998.
- 12.
Interviewed on November 14, 1998.
- 13.
Interviewed on November 19, 1998.
- 14.
Interviewed on November 14, 1998.
- 15.
Interviewed on November 14, 1998.
- 16.
Interviewed on November 24, 1998.
- 17.
Namāyande is a Persian common noun meaning representative or agent. For example, members of Iran’s national assembly are also called namāyande.
- 18.
Most of the research on the namāyande’s basic business methods was carried out at J's office and at his home. The author tried as much as possible to provide a picture of namāyande in general and not to note certain characteristics that seemed particular to the informant, and yet the description presented here should not be considered as applicable to all namāyande working with textile and apparel firms who are said to number several hundred.
- 19.
Interview with Informant K. This type of namāyande corresponds to ordinary sales agents found in other places. But in this period, Iran offered little possibility for them to work due to above-mentioned trade controls by the government.
- 20.
Interviews with Informants J and M.
- 21.
Interview with Informant R2, on November 20, 1994.
- 22.
The percentage varies depending on the kind of commodity imported and the method of delivery:1% for bulk purchases of standard commodities; 3% for large-size machinery that is difficult to transport; several percent more for products imported for experimental purposes; etc.
- 23.
Interviews with Informants J and M.
- 24.
Interview with Informant J3, on October 13, 1994.
- 25.
Interview with Informant Y, on June 18, 1994.
- 26.
A case in point are the 125 revisions to the laws and regulations concerning importing announced during 1373 (Iranian calendar, March 1994–March 1995). These revisions seem to affect importing directly and concern such matters as customs rates on different kinds of imported commodities,import–export treaties, and agreements with other countries in the region, central bank notifications, and the like. Among these revisions were nine regulations concerning the application of the import–export law. Besides these, an immense number of new regulations and notices were announced, practically on a daily basis. They can all be found in the official gazette, but their profuse number means that it is difficult to check all changes completely. Such official information is now being organized and categorized by private information research companies and provided to their customers (Markaz-e Ettelā‘āt-e Fannī-ye Īrān 1994/95).
- 27.
The namāyande’s major clients are the textile and apparel firms, but sometimes also include export dealers who handle textile products. These are traders without experience in dealing with foreign companies (who can be textile manufacturers, trading companies, or their local distributors), and they entrust their intermediary needs to namāyande.
- 28.
It is virtually impossible to use published data to measure in any accurate way the extent of the Iranian textile (therefore apparel) industry’s dependence on imported materials. But even rough estimates indicate that for both 1993 and 1994, imported raw materials (e.g., natural and synthetic fibers, thread, chemical dyes) accounted for at least 35–36% of the annual value of inputs by the textile industry. However, it seems that this annual value of inputs includes the value of thread, fabrics, and other imported materials used in domestically produced intermediate inputs. It also seems that some materials included in these inputs do not in fact fall into the category of imports related to the textile industry. All of these uncertainties can affect the real figures. But in any case, it would seem that the above annual value is on the low side and that the real figure is larger. The situation is the same for machinery; there are no detailed data on the value of imports and inputs, and these figures cannot be calculated. However, most of the machinery in use, from the spinning stage through weaving, dyeing, and up to patterning, is made in Europe and Japan (Markaz-e Āmār-e Īrān 1996, p. 171, pp. 258–259; Markaz-e Āmār-e Īrān 1997, pp. 178–179, pp. 282–283). Participants at the Iranian government-sponsored seminar, “Investigation of problems in the textile industry” also pointed out the industry's overdependence on imported materials and machinery (Otāq-e Bāzargānī va Sanāye‘ va Ma‘āden 1983).
- 29.
Interview with Informant A2, on October 13, 1994.
- 30.
Interviews with Informants J and B2.
- 31.
Interviews with Informants J and A.
- 32.
In Iran, the time of ‘Āshūrā, which is a religious event of Shi’a Muslims, believers wear black clothes in mourning for the martyrdom of Hosein.
- 33.
Iran’s apparel industry in this period offered very limited channels for collecting information from overseas markets. Unlike in neighboring Turkey , Iran had little inflow of foreign information through foreign direct investment or the mass media. The relatively underdeveloped state of Iran’s mass media and the insufficient inflow of foreign capital were caused by nearly two decades of political confusion and economic difficulties, along with the 1979 Revolution , the Iran–Iraq war, and the ensuing international isolation Iran experienced. At the same time, however, the namāyande have existed since well before the revolution, indicating that even during the Pahlavi period, when relatively close interactions occurred with international society, firms tended to rely on these specialists to collect information.
References
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Iwasaki, Y. (2017). The Apparel Production Process in Iran. In: Industrial Organization in Iran. SpringerBriefs in Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4579-0_4
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