Path of smart servitization and transformation in the textile industry: A case study of various regions in China

Abstract

This study uses 31 provinces and municipalities from China’s textile industry as a research sample and divides the region into four geographical areas: eastern, central, western, and northeast-ern. It quantified smart servitization in the textile industry using input–output data and applied the fuzzy set qualitative comparison analysis to identify potential pathways for promoting smart servitization in the textile industry. The study’s findings indicate that there are significant geographical differences in the level of smart servitization in the textile industry across China. Moreover, the transformation and development of the textile industry require the co-operation of numerous factors, and the Chinese textile industry’s transformation paths can be summarized as “high-input” path, “technology—aggregation” path, “open” path, and “economic-agglomeration” path.