Belt and Road Initiative: Collaboration for Success

This book presents a series of studies analyzing critical factors that promote and constrain textile & clothing (T&C) production and trade in the Belt & Road (B&R) countries, and forces that drive the restructuring and transforming of global T&C supply chain and operations in the B&R context. The book also offers insights into the challenges and opportunities for T&C manufacturing in B&R countries through interviews with T&C experts, and also examines how Hong Kong can strengthen its “super-connector” role by facilitating sustainable trade and development in the T&C industries, as well as discussion on the impact of global trade wars on T&C trade. In the studies presented in this book, they offer topics ranging from the macro-economy, international business environment and strategies, logistics and supply chain, policy changes, to sustainability. The studies offer descriptive, theoretical and empirical analyses that explore T&C business and management related opportunities and challenges that are derived from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Econometric analysis with the gravity model is applied to T&C trade and extended to cover other areas that have not been considered in previous studies, such as production costs, export supply chain costs, technologies, demographical factors, and factors related to the business environment and policies, including qualitative variables. Studies using in-depth interviews and linear regression analysis are also present to explore new factors for T&C trade and production relocation to B&R countries.

Dr Eve Man Hin Chan is a scholar from the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi). She earned her PhD in Fashion and Textiles Marketing and Merchandising from the Institute of Textiles and Clothing, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPolyU) in 2009. Prior to joining THEi, Dr Chan was Research Fellow at the Hong Kong Community College of the HKPolyU and Visiting Lecturer of the Hong Kong Design Institute. In terms of her professional experience, she had served as Global Business Controller and Manager of the internationally renowned fashion company, H&M. Dr Chan possessed extensive industrial experience in buying, merchandising, marketing and retailing before commencing her academic career. 

Currently, Dr Chan is managing several competitive research projects in international trade of fashion and textile, location analysis of production in the belt and road initiative, as well as econometric modelling of trade and sustainable transport and logistics operations in smart cities of the Greater Bay Area. She has successfully collaborated with local and international fashion brands and apparel companies in carrying out research projects. Her research findings, which have generated an impact on the fashion and textile sector, are recognized by both academia and industry. Her publications include book chapters, papers in major peer-reviewed journals and international academic conferences. Dr Chan is the recipient of various research awards, including the best re-search paper award in an international conference - the 14th Asian Textile Conference (ATC-14) in 2017. She had been invited to be the keynote speaker, conference committee member, session chair and reviewer of several international conferences.  

Dr. Angappa Gunasekaran is the Dean and a Professor at the School of Business & Public Administration, California State University, Bakersfield. Prior to this, he served as Dean of the Charlton College of Business from 2013 to 2017, Chairperson of the Department of Decision and Information Sciences from 2006 to 2012 and the Founding Director of the Business Innovation Research Center (BIRC) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth from 2006 to 2017. He has published over 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has presented about 50 papers and published 50 articles at conferences. He has also given a number of invited talks in various countries around the globe. He is on the editorial board of several journals. He has organized several international workshops and conferences in the emerging areas of operations management and information systems.