Research on competitiveness evaluation of seamless garment enterprises based on PROMETHEE method

Seamless knitting technology is an innovative textile and garment manufacturing technology. In the last decade, China has become one of the key production bases of seamless apparel along with Israel and Turkey. Zhejiang Yiwu seamless apparel industry cluster is developing into a powerful competitor to absorb the international industrial transfer from Israel, which is under pressure of higher labor and material cost. To evaluate the competitiveness of the key seamless apparel enterprises in Yiwu industrial cluster, this study seeks to establish a criteria system, which covers R&D capability, production capacity, management level, human resources, capital operation, and brand value. The relative importance of criteria is determined by Entropy. Outranking method PROMETHEE is applied to evaluate the competitiveness of five major seamless apparel producers (BJ, BN, RY, SM, QR) in Yiwu industrial cluster. Sensitivity of the weight is analyzed with GAIA planes. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the strength and features of the seamless apparel enterprises, and shows the potential measures to improve competitiveness.