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Competitio

Vol. 25 No. 1-2 (2026)
Papers

Sustainability performance evaluation systems in the fashion industry – A critical review from the perspective of micro and small enterprises

Published:
2026-01-29
DOI Linkhttps://doi.org/10.21845/comp/2026/1-2/2
Authors
Klára Edőcsény,
Gábor Harangozó
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PDF (Hungarian)
Keywords
sustainability performance performance evaluation fashion sector micro and small enterprises
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Copyright (c) 2026 Klára Edőcsény, Gábor Harangozó

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How To Cite
Selected Style: APA
Edőcsény, K., & Harangozó, G. (2026). Sustainability performance evaluation systems in the fashion industry – A critical review from the perspective of micro and small enterprises. Competitio, 25(1-2), 28-44. https://doi.org/10.21845/comp/2026/1-2/2
Received 2025-07-30
Accepted 2025-12-19
Published 2026-01-29
Abstract

The fashion industry faces significant environmental and social challenges related to sustainability globally, while sustainability performance assessment frameworks are predominantly tailored to large companies. The aim of this study is to critically analyse these frameworks from the perspective of micro and small enterprises, which represent a significant part of the fashion industry, but still are excluded from the available performance assessment frameworks. The research is based on a qualitative analysis and examines five main international evaluation systems along the dimensions of relevance, impact potential, simplicity and data accessibility. The results show that these tools are overly complex, costly and often irrelevant to the functioning of micro and small enterprises. The conclusion of the study is that there is a need to develop a simpler, context-sensitive sustainability performance assessment framework, tailored to the needs of the target group and the fashion industry, which could help these enterprises to self-assess their sustainability performance and identify opportunities for improvement.

JEL codes: D12, Q56, Q58.

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