What is it about?
Fashion cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) has emerged as a significant component of the platform economy. Our study finds that CBEC firms depend heavily on externally controlled resources, such as demand traffic and supplier resources, and adopt three dependence governance business model configurations, platform dependent, independent, and collaborative platform, to manage resource constraints. Chinese fashion firms navigate asymmetric power relationships through these configurations, shaping their survival, growth, and competitiveness. These findings offer valuable insights for business leaders, policymakers, and researchers.
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Why is it important?
Our study identifies demand traffic and supply sources as two key externally controlled resources and develops three resource dependence governance models that explain how Chinese cross-border e-commerce firms navigate resource dependencies within the platform economy.
Perspectives
This publication is particularly meaningful to me because it connects academic research with the rapidly evolving reality of cross-border e-commerce in China. Having observed how firms operate within increasingly platform-dependent business environments, I was especially interested in understanding how they manage critical resources that are often controlled by digital platforms. I hope this study, particularly its identification of three resource dependence governance models, offers a useful way to understand how firms can navigate platform dependence while developing viable and resilient business models.
Yuhui Liu
University of the Incarnate Word
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: External resource dependence and business model configurations in fashion cross-border e-commerce: evidence from China, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management An International Journal, July 2026, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jfmm-09-2025-0526.
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