The Indonesian consumer market for clothing: Institutions, firms and organizational behaviours

The clothing industry is widely cited as an industrial sector that is embedded primarily in buyer-driven structures of global commodity chains in which retailers and brand-name companies, rather than manufacturers, are the key driving forces. Analysis of clothing production systems within the commodity chain literature, however, has been predominantly Western-centric, with little emphasis on similarities and/or differences between competitors in different institutional and societal contexts. Therefore, this paper explores the ways in which international and domestic clothing brand-owners compete for market shares within Indonesia. The analytical focus includes important issues such as the influence of the regulatory policy framework on firm-specific behaviour as well as applied marketing strategies within individual fashion segments.