Late Globalization and Evolution, Episodes and Epochs of Industries: Evidence from Danish Textile and Fashion Industry, 1945-2015

This paper explores the conceptual terrain of what we term late globalization. The late globalization phenomena are multilevel and multidimensional; this paper offers an initial portal into these phenomena. Understanding late globalization would provide academic insights and help in shaping practices at international, national, sectoral and corporate levels. The paper follows a macro-conceptual to a micro-empirical path to provide illustrative empirical evidence. Studying the emergence and evolution of Danish Textile and Fashion Industry (DTFI) between 1945 and 2015 – a quintessential sector for globalization – allows the examination of several interrelated issues: critical events, impediments, pressures and turning points that shaped DTFI; main institutional players that motivated key policy changes in and evolution of DTFI; and effects of late globalization on size, mission, location, knowledge, growth and structure of DTFI. This longitudinal case study of the development of the DTFI brings to the fore key features that shape late globalization at the sectoral-national level: government industrial policies toward domestic and foreign players in an industry, global competition that shapes and continually reshapes (cost as well as quality-driven) location of key value chain activities (and the concomitant global distribution of core competencies and skills), and the growing role of information technologies that enable globally-dispersed value chains to function in cohesive and unified ways. Late globalization has additional levels and dimensions; and we point to implications for future research.