Competitors

4.6.1. Competitor identification

Freeman identified competitors as an external stakeholder, and discussed the change among competitors which took place around the 1980s. The main transformation came from foreign competitors, who could produce good quality products for a lower price with different regulations. (Freeman, 2010) As of today, competition from foreign countries is a given feature at the market place. Regarding sustainability, countries around the world do not have equal regulations in terms of environmental or societal matters. Discussed earlier in the supplier chapter, this is especially visible when it comes to minimum wages versus living wages in Asian countries such as India.

Clarkson (1995) on the other hand, did not identify competitors as a stakeholder at all, neither as a primary stakeholder nor as a secondary stakeholder. According to Clarkson (1995:107), secondary stakeholders are defined as “those who influence or affect, or are influenced or affected by, the corporation, but they are not engaged in transactions with the corporation and are not essential for its survival”. Found in this study, competitors both influence and are influenced by other corporations in sustainability matters. All participating companies in this study described their competitors as influencing and inspiring when discussing sustainability issues. Therefore, Clarkson’s (1995) non-identification of competitors as a stakeholder is not applicable in sustainability matters in the Swedish textile industry.

Found in this study, the relationship between competitors in general business-related matters has a different nature than the relationship in the field of sustainability. Since all companies in the Swedish textile industry share the same goal of reducing the negative impact produced from the industry, both environmental and societal, competitors must collaborate and share knowledge in

terms of sustainability. Moreover, due to the urgency of sustainability, companies in the textile industry must join forces in order to progress and make a positive impact.

4.6.2. Competitors’ influence on the sustainability agenda Sharing sustainability knowledge

Found in seven out of eight companies, sharing of sustainability knowledge amongst competitors was a common occurrence. By sharing knowledge and sustainability information, each individual company’s sustainability practices will improve as well as the overall sustainability operations for the entire industry.

There are two dimensions of sharing knowledge in the textile industry in Sweden, either by sharing knowledge with peer companies, or by taking advantage of the shared knowledge of other companies. By sharing information, companies can ensure that the general level of sustainability knowledge increases for the industry and thereby reduce the industry’s negative impact on environmental and societal matters. By obtaining information regarding sustainability matters, companies can make sure to always possess the latest sustainability techniques and practices.

Grankvist (2017) explained how Houdini started to investigate if it was possible to use recyclable fibres for its clothes in 2001, and in 2006, the company produced its first 100% circular product in collaboration with a supplier in Japan. Houdini was the first company in Europe to apply this new technique. However, the technique using recycled fibers was not patented, thus other garment companies could adopt this technique as well.

Andersson (2017) at Peak Performance stated that all sustainability managers working at outdoor brands in Stockholm meet every second to third month to discuss sustainability issues. These meetings enable companies to both share knowledge as well as attain new sustainability knowledge from each other. Hence, companies become better informed about new focus areas, new techniques and best-practice processes. The industry peers’ meetings contribute to an improved level of sustainability for the entire outdoor industry, and for each participating brand.

Garment companies in the textile industry are facing the same issues. The industry is considered as one of the dirtiest in the world, and the issue of sustainability is not local, instead it is a global issue affecting the whole world’s population (Gunther, 2016). Therefore, a stakeholder dialogue with competitors regarding common approaches is advantageous when addressing the environmental and social challenges the world is currently facing. However, in all other matters, but for sustainability issues, the companies race for each customer. O’Riordan and Fairbass (2008) have developed an analytic framework for effective stakeholder dialogue which is based on four circumstantial domaines. When discussing competitors as a stakeholder influencing sustainability practices in the Swedish garment industry, the elements context and events may be appropriate to apply.

The particular relationship among competitors when discussing sustainability may be viewed as a result of the contextual environment they are facing. The contextual environment in this research is a matter of sustainability and the negative impact of the textile industry, hence, the contextual environment requires an open stakeholder dialogue among peers. In addition, the event domain is also relevant when analyzing the stakeholder dialogue between the competitors in the Swedish textile industry. According to O’Riordan and Fairbass (2008), other factors that might bring out a discussion among stakeholders are if specific helpless groups are treated dishonestly. In this study, specific helpless groups could be workers in factories, employees or even the nature itself.

Therefore, the events in this context require sharing of knowledge among peers in the textile industry.

Collaborating in order to make a greater impact

The second influence, affected by the stakeholder group competitor, is related to the collaboration among the garment companies in the Swedish textile industry. Found in this study, the garment companies tend to work together in sustainability matters with their industry peers in order to achieve a larger impact. One single company may not be able to influence a supplier or a legislator, but when they form alliances they have better chances of succeeding and thereby make an impact. In addition to greater impact when working together, the companies can also standardize processes which in turn facilitate operations for other stakeholders such as suppliers.

An example of such collaborations amongst competitors is Nudie Jeans’s participation in the Chetna Coalition project. The Chetna Coalition is a recently started project where several brands have joined forces and together are working to improve the organic cotton supply chain by planning the process for the following year (Nudie Jeans, 2017b). It could be argued that Nudie Jeans would not have the power to influence the organic cotton supply themselves, but, together with other peer companies and supply chain partners, it could possible to enhance the living standards of rural households.

Furthermore, the supply chains in the textile industry are complex networks based on different tiers. Garment companies must collaborate in order to manage the complexity and map out the different operations. In that way, they could try to reduce the negative impacts of the industry.

This process is facilitated by establishing standardized operations in the supply chain. An example of such an initiative is to apply the available Code of Conducts. Since some of the brands in the Swedish textile industry use the same suppliers, the use of the same Code of Conduct facilitate the operations of suppliers due to a unified Code of Conduct. The supplier may focus on one single Code of Conduct, instead of several different ones. For instance, the collaboration through FWF and its common Code of Conducts influence suppliers to potentially improve their production sites and manufacturing procedures.

Furthermore, when considering this emerging relationship between industry peers, it is important for the garment company to understand the stakeholder characteristic of its competitors. As competitors have no direct power to influence the company and their claims are not considered as urgent, this stakeholder group could be classified as discretionary stakeholders that only possess the legitimacy attribute (Mitchell et al., 1997). Yet, the collaboration between garment companies in the textile industry might affect this relationship and, consequently, the stakeholder group competitors could acquire more attributes which in turn contributes to higher stakeholder salience.

Nidumolu et al. (2009), claim that sustainability is a key driver for innovation and have identified five distinct stages of change companies go through. In the last stage, Nidumolu et al. (2009) argue that new business practices will change existing paradigms. Collaborating and sharing

knowledge with competitors is in most business cases a rarity. However, when it comes to sustainability matters, companies are sharing knowledge and helping each other to an extent which has never been there before. Arguably, this has certainly changed existing paradigms among garment companies in the Swedish industry in terms of sustainability practices.

The sharing of knowledge and the collaboration among Swedish garment companies might be a start of a new sustainability era due to the shifting paradigm. While the 1980s and the 1990s were characterized by redefining CSR (Aupperle et al., 1985; Carroll, 2008) and the 21st century was illustrated by a phenomenon with a global spread (OECD, 2001), the 2020s might be characterized as the decade with unpredictable collaborations. Arguably, this would be the next stage of the natural progress when considering the historical development of the CSR concept.

4.6.3. Summary of competitors’ influence

This study discovered that competitors influence each other’s sustainability practices in the Swedish textile industry through two main ways; sharing sustainability knowledge and collaborating in complex matters in order to make an impact. By sharing knowledge between competitors, the general level of sustainability is improved for the entire industry, as well as for the individual organization. Through collaborate initiatives in complex sustainability matters, it is possible to make an impact on environmental and societal issues, as well as implement standardized procedures through the supply chain.