Competitive Dynamics of the Textile-Apparel-Retail Channel

Janice H. Hammond established in 1991 (with Frederick H. Abernathy and John Dunlop of Harvard University and David Weil of Boston University) the Harvard Center for Textile and Apparel Research. Funding provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has supported the Center's engagement in a host of research-including a major industry survey, industry workshops, field studies, computer modeling, and statistical analyses-into the competitive dynamics of the retail-apparel-textile channel in the United States and abroad. Specifically targeted by the research are technological innovations in the collection and dissemination of sales data that are transforming the way retailers plan and order merchandise and how these changes, in turn, affect the manner in which apparel and textile suppliers forecast demand, plan production, and manufacture and distribute apparel products.