A Study on Methodologies to Develop an e-Fashion Cluster Hub System Using Social Networks

This study analyzed the structure of cooperation and competition among firms in various relationships of interest that participated in the establishment of an e-fashion cluster hub system using social networks, and reflected the resulting implications in building an e-industry cluster hub system. Participating firms employed a variety of business models and highly complicated networks, and their networks of cooperation and competition were quite inefficient and self-centric, thus failing to evolve a competitive structure, from competitive pricing to competitive added value, through sharing of information, functions, and processes using inter-firm networks. As such, this study attempted to apply information, functions, and processes designed to improve upon various problems discovered from an analysis of social networks to the analysis and design of an e-fashion cluster hub system to accelerate the industries’ evolution and to enhance national competitiveness. Examples of such application are also provided. The study further aims to discuss various functions of an e-fashion cluster and directions of its future development through discussion of more generic topics, such as how an e-fashion cluster system can encourage firms in complex relationships of interests within an industry to participate in fostering an inter-firm, cooperative network, and to convert it into a network of added value and then into competition among different corporate networks. The problems of the on-going competitive structure are also discussed through an analysis of the competitive network, and we consider whether efforts should be made in the areas of system analysis and design in order to secure fair rules of competition within an industry.