Kazi Md Jamshed

PhD Research Profile

I am a PhD student in the Department of Aalborg University Business School (AUBS), Denmark under the CREATE Project in Bangladesh funded by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

My PhD research titled “Corporate Strategies for Circular Economy Transition in the Global Apparel Value Chains: Exploring the Roles of Institutions and Multinational Enterprises” aims to explore how MNEs’ corporate structures and strategies together with national institutions and Bangladeshi suppliers’ strategies and capabilities can drive the transition toward circularity and green practices, providing a pathway to overcoming sustainability challenges and new insight on the role of MNEs, suppliers, circularity-intermediaries, and national institutions.

To study the crucial role of corporate strategies in the circular economy transition in the apparel GVCs, Bangladesh offers a good setting as the country is the world’s second-highest apparel exporter right after China. The climate crisis and the high density of GHG emissions are pressing the fashion industry’s actors, particularly MNEs and supplier firms, to radically change the existing business model to circular business model.

As an important partner of GVCs, Bangladeshi suppliers should understand this transition and develop strategies and capabilities to achieve circularity in their supply chains. In Bangladesh, most apparel firms are family-owned, and the board members are mainly family members of two or three generations. Family members on the board set major strategic decisions and tend to centralize power and authority, giving less autonomy to the salaried managers.

So, there is a critical issue in investigating board members’ cognition and vision regarding CE transitions. Transitioning to CE requires a supportive institutional environment (well-developed financial market, convenient tax and customs regulations, good labor policies and education system, trust, and development ecosystem). Due to its weak and dysfunctional nature, the Bangladeshi business system lacks proper institutional conditions; however, the scenario is changing.

Therefore, the Bangladeshi apparel industry can be an appropriate research context for understanding the corporate strategies, structures, and capabilities in the diffusion of sustainability or CE transitions in global value chains. The study’s findings will help supplier firms from emerging markets like Bangladesh to understand the role of their corporate strategies and required capability developments to gain legitimacy in the governance process during transitions.

Existing international business research has mostly covered the organizational boundaries of MNEs and their effect on sustainability. This study will cover both MNEs and supplier firms and explore their corporate strategies, structures, and capabilities in the preparedness and execution of CE transitions.

Therefore, I propose the following research questions that my study will explore:

1. How do the corporate structures and strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their suppliers enable the transition to circularity within global value chains?
2. How do suppliers’ corporate strategies change in relation to resources that influence its legitimacy to buyers and operational efficiency in the governance of global value chains?
3. How do institutional frameworks and national business systems facilitate sustainability/circular economy transition in global supply chains?