Industrial development in buyer-driven networks: the garment industry in Vietnam and Sri Lanka

Abstract

The garment industry in Vietnam has been included in global buyer-driven networks since the 1990 s. Industrial upgrading takes place, but the changes are generally small and incremental. Profit margins tend to decline and backward linkages in the home country are few. The garment industry in Sri Lanka was included in buyer-driven networks already in the 1980 s and shares this experience. The objective is to explain what processes and mechanisms that lead to this outcome and discuss in what respects it is a result of contingencies and in what respects impediments to industrial development are inherent to buyer-driven networks.