Domestic small and medium apparel enterprises competition in developing markets

الملخص EN

Undoubtedly, apparel is one of the most important industries for developing countries in their strive for development and industrialization, since plenty of unskilled workers and shortage of financial resources characterize most of these countries, the apparel industry makes use of exactly such situations

The purpose of this research is to investigate the competition practices used by apparel SMEs brands in developing markets considering the great importance of SMEs' success for developing economies, however, the apparel SMEs competition practices are not fully understood, nor it is clear for new entrepreneurs, especially in Egypt.

While skills needed to run apparel SMEs are usually gained by practicing over time, this practices need to be investigated and understood in order to help new apparel SMEs' owners learn how to set their competition practices effectively.

In conclusion, newly starting apparel SMEs need to focus their attention mainly on two factors in order to success and develop their business.

First factor is surviving the first five years, the results of this research suggest that first few years are hardest for most of apparel SMEs, this first stage is the period where entrepreneurs gain most of their experience and Knowledge.

Second factor is to focus their competition mainly on differentiating their products from competitors rather than compete on price bases, in addition to start branding their SME the very first years they are in business.

Design/methodology/approach:
Quantitative analysis has been conducted for 108 small and medium entrepreneurs running their apparel production business in Egypt.

Findings:
The outcomes proved that most of newly Egyptian apparel SMEs starting up centre their competition on price, in a time span of five years they usually shift their competition towards product differentiation and branding.

Originality/value:
This study exclusively investigate the apparel SMEs practices used by domestic brands in the Egyptian market.