Case Study: Exploratory Assessment of Sustainability Capability of Textile and Apparel Corporations in China

Sample selection process

The literature shows sustainability can constitute a resource that leads to competitive advantage and is positively correlated with added market value. Given this, the researchers began the sample selection process by compiling a list of T&A companies from Chinese T&A corporate rankings in terms of competitiveness (top 500), main business revenues (top 100), and brand value (top 50) most recently published as of January 2018 by the CNTAC (2016a, b, c), formerly called the Ministry of Textile Industry in China. Then, in view of the previously mentioned influence of international sourcers on the initiation of Chinese corporations' sustainability improvement, the corporate ranking of T&A export values (top 200) most recently released as of January 2018 by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile and Apparel (CCCT) - part of China's Ministry of Commerce - was also included to the list. The combination of the four rankings produced a list of 745 corporations. These 745 companies formed the initial sampling frame for the study.

Chinese companies typically publish self-reports of their sustainability practices and performance under the title of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report [企业社会责任报告] or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report [环境、社会和管治报告]. The researchers searched most recently published or available reports online, using these titles and the Chinese name of each T&A company in the sampling frame. Only 86 companies (11.5%) out of 745 had CSR or ESG reports available in the public domain. We then analyzed all of these 86 reports from 86 companies.

Table 1 is a summary of the characteristics of the study sample. In the sample, 32 (37.2%) corporations have been in the T&A business for more than 30 years; 40 (46.5%) corporations for 16 to 30 years; and 14 (16.3%) corporations for less than 16 years. Most companies in the sample are textile mills (43.0%) or produce both textile and apparel products (26.7%); 21 (24.4%) corporations specialize in the apparel or apparel accessories manufacturing; 5 (5.8%) corporations are T&A distributors or importers/exporters. Regarding the business performance, 71 corporations in the sample belonged to top 500 competitiveness Chinese T&A corporations; 31 were in the top 100 main business revenue Chinese T&A corporations ranking; 13 ranked top 50 brand values Chinese T&A corporations; and 20 are part of the top 200 Chinese T&A export values ranking. In terms of the corporate reports the researchers found, the majority (52) of the 86 reports were for year of 2016 and most reports (62) were compiled according to at least one guideline.

Table 1 Characteristics of the study samples

In applying content analysis to the sustainability reports, the researchers read all these 86 reports, identified and interpreted statements in the reports to first examine and classify the corporations by whether they perceived sustainability as a perfect duty, an imperfect duty, or neither. The researchers also examined the descriptions to identify the key types or areas of firms' sustainability activities expressed in the reports. Then, the researchers examined the statements to determine whether a corporation's report expressed sustainability goals and structures toward those key areas.