Textile Sector of the Visegrad Group Countries in Trade with the European Union

Abstract

The Visegrad Group countries’ accession to the European Union (EU) gave new perspectives for the future economic and social development of the region. The full integration of the Visegrad Group countries with the European Union is conducive to generating new challenges i.a. in the field develop of broadly understood entrepreneurship. Textiles is one of the sectors of the European economy which, in the current financial perspective, significantly contributes to the creation of new jobs and the development of entrepreneurship, which ultimately affects the growth of competitiveness of the integrating countries. The aim of this paper is to examine the competitive position of the textile sector (CN 50-60 and 63) of the Visegrad Group countries as a whole in trade with the European Union in the period 2004-2016. Preliminary analysis of the problem allowed to formulate the following research hypothesis: The Visegrad Group countries’ accession to the European Union has a positive impact on entrepreneurship development and improving competitiveness of the textile sector of The Visegrad Group countries in the context of implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

A System for Personalized Clothing Production as a Model for Supporting the Competitiveness of SMEs on the Example of Lodz Province

“…The basis for determining the purposefulness of modeling innovative solutions in the presented article is the determination of comparative advantages for the clothing production sector represented by CN 61 and 62 (in accordance with the Combined Nomenclature of Commodity for Foreign Trade -CN 61 Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted, CN 62 Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted) [7] and analysis of data contained in the Regional Innovation Scoreboard [9]. As an example of specialization in clothing production, the Lodz Region and its level of innovation will be discussed.…”

“…Comparative advantages determine specializations in the foreign trade sector in a given country. They are based on the Balassa theory, where a comparative advantage is defined as the ability of a given economy to produce a specific product more efficiently and is demonstrated by the level of exports of a given good in comparison with the entire exports in relation to the rest of the world [7] [10].…”

“…In order to determine the comparative advantages, statistical data available in the Eurostat database will be analyzed [12]. This will be a basis for determination of the following indices: Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Import Penetration (IMP) and Relative Trade Advantage (RTA) [7]. The time range of the analysis of comparative advantages includes data from 2007-2017, the start date being related to the beginning of the financial crisis, and the final one with the last full set of available data.…”

“…The aim of the article is to determine the current situation of the Polish clothing industry in trade with the European Union by analyzing comparative advantages for CN 61 and 62 (related to the clothing industry) and presenting the level of innovation of the Lodz Region against the background of Poland as an example of a region specializing in the production of clothing under the adopted Regional Smart Specializations for Lodz Province. On this basis, a system for personalized clothing production will be presented as an innovative solution that could potentially increase the competitiveness of enterprises, with a special focus on SMEs that constitute the quantitative basis of the Polish and EU economy [7][8].…”

Environmental effects of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management system implementation in SSCM

“…The Polish, Slovak and Czech clothing and textile market is one of the leading markets in Central and Eastern Europe and plays a vital role across Europe (Dziuba et al , 2018). However, companies in this region focus on increasing productivity, improving staff's professional qualifications, boosting up logistics and manufacturing processes and committing to consumer requirements and sustainable development (Yilmaz and Karaalp-Orhan, 2015; Zimon and Domingues, 2018).…”