Extreme business-models in the clothing industry - a case study of H&M and ZARA

Abstract: In the clothing industry firms compete successfully by applying different business-models. H&M and ZARA are two extremes in the clothing industry. H&M’s business-model mainly focuses on outsourcing and ZARA’s business-model mainly focuses on in-house production. The problem is that the existing theories alone cannot explain why two firms competing in the same environment under the same conditions choose different business-models. The purpose of this dissertation is to further expand the idea of why the two clothing firms H&M and ZARA chose different business-models. Our set of Complementarities for H&M and ZARA are based on the information derived from studying theories, the EU clothing industry and the two firms. Finally, Complementarities were analysed by conducting interviews. Our Complementarities partly explain why H&M and ZARA chose different business-models. However, our analysis is applicable for H&M and ZARA since the Complementarities are based on characteristics found in these two firms. The value of Complementarities can be used by other firms if they find their specific characteristics.