Exploring the Optimistic Approaches and Directives of Cameroon’s Textile Sector for Reliable Development

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Congratulations for your hard work in preparing this paper.

Your research is interesting and deals with a topic with potential. However, to bring it up to the necessary publishing standards, I could suggest the following small improvements:

- A first suggestion would be to revise the title to reflect the content. The title refers to "Sustainability of Cameroonian Development" but the content of the article does not fully support the title. It must clearly create a connection between content of your paper and the title (and keywords).

- A second concern relates to the conceptual framework of the research. You state that union workers were interviewed to understand the managerial system of the companies. But the main weakness (W1) is that "The majority of the workforce ... is illiterate and unskilled". And then, I would ask,  do they have the ability to understand, critically analyze and make value judgments that can be considered relevant to the research? I think this approach must be better justified. Perhaps surveying the management positions would have produced different results?

- Strength no.2 (S2) states that "The workers have competent technical skills compared to other textile companies" which is in contradiction with Weakness no.1 (W1) "The majority of the workforce within the area of production is illiterate and unskilled".

- regarding the population included in the survey, once it appears as consisting of 400 (of which 360) workers of unions/alliances (line 328-332), then it appears as consisting of 360 experts in the textile sector. To whom were the questionnaires actually distributed, workers or experts?

- lines 329-336 are duplicating the info provided

- the discussions and conjectures have nothing to do with the sustainable development of Cameroon or its textile industry

I look forward to receiving the improved version of the paper.

Best regards,

Author Response

Thank you 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The importance of the problem raised by the authors of the article is not in doubt. The paper builds on a clear research question and has set up a clear aim, but I consider that the manuscript is still in its incipient stage and requires further improvements:  

1. The article doesn’t have a literary review section, in which I would like to see an analysis of publications on the subject of research - sustainable development, presented by the international academic community.

2.   The authors mentioned the advantages of AHP decision-making methodology but did not provide the limitations, assumptions, and field of application.

3. It is unclear how the authors used the hierarchy analysis method. What indicators are included in the Saaty matrix? What is the contribution of the author to the development of the methodology?

4. I would expect a more detailed discussions of the results and further research.

5. The paper’s structure needs to be improved.

Regards,

Reviewer

Author Response

Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

In my opinion this is a quite good paper, but there are some changes to do before publication.

First of all, I would like to understand the reasons that prompted you to work on Cameroonian data.

You have provided an excellent description of the geographical context, I am very satisfied.

 

REQUESTS FIRST ROUND:

·        In this context, however, it is necessary to standardize the images. If possible, try to have figure 2 similar to figure 1. The quality of Figure 2 is low.

·        In my opinion line from 125 to 160 should be reduced. It is interesting but this is not an historical paper. Maybe you can reduce the paragraph by 5-10 lines.

·        In my opinion, in the first part you have to introduce a general paragraph about sustainability/fashion/cotton/fast fashion.

·        E.g. some references:

o   Gazzola, P., Pavione, E., Pezzetti, R., & Grechi, D. (2020). Trends in the fashion industry. The perception of sustainability and circular economy: A gender/generation quantitative approach. Sustainability, 12(7), 2809.

o   Partzsch, L., Zander, M., & Robinson, H. (2019). Cotton certification in Sub-Saharan Africa: Promotion of environmental sustainability or greenwashing?. Global Environmental Change, 57, 101924.

·        Methodology: improve the paragraph! It is not effective for me… it is too long.

·        The AHP technique must be better explained.

·        Explain better the role of EXTERNAL and INTERNAL Factors.

·        Line 440 The SWOT Matrix Construction 440… is it a title?

·        Line 542 Reliable growth approaches for Cameroon Textile Sector 542… is it a title?

·        Textile industry contribution in Cameroon’s economy development 618 is it a title?

·        Line 594: check spaces

·        Put the sources of the tables (in some cases are missing).

·        6. Conclusions and recommendations 633 => Conclusions.
After you can provide a new paragraph about limitations and future developments.

·        References have incorrect spacing.
References must follow the order of appearance.

·        References, within the text, must be referred to with a number e.g. [3]. Check the guidelines carefully.

·        You need to put more stress on future studies and paper limitations. How about a comparison between African countries?

 

In my opinion this work has potential for publication in SUSTAINABILITY, however some changes are needed.

Have a nice day.

Best regards

Author Response

Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The article is relevant, logically structured, the goals and objectives set in the article have been achieved.

The article is of scientific and practical interest. The article presents the results of the author's modeling in the context of the studied research issues. An extensive literary review allows us to conclude about the high theoretical elaboration of the research topic. The article has a scientific novelty. The authors have tested the methodology of SWOT analysis in relation to the field of textile and clothing production in the context of world economies.

The article has a scientific novelty and has a high scientific potential.

Recommendations for the revision of the article:

1. In the abstract and introduction, clearly highlight the purpose of the study, the tasks arising from it.

2. Highlight the hypothesis of the study and indicate in the final part whether it was confirmed or refuted during the study.

3. Add research methods to the annotation.

4. To show more clearly the advantages of the proposed author's SWOT analysis methodology for the textile industry. What is its novelty, distinctive features and advantages.

Author Response

Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

You did not address any of my suggestions.

To further proceed with the review of this paper, I look forward to receiving your comments.

Best regards,

Author Response

Thank you for your comments

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

 The article can be accepted in present form.

Author Response

Thank you for your comments

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

 

in the file available to me THERE ARE NOT the requested changes.

 

There are some changes but, a huge part of the requests don't appear in this file.

I have seen your edits on the response to reviewers but these sentences and paragraphs do NOT appear in version 2 of the manuscript.

I remain available to make a NEW review round but I am forced to reject the paper in this moment.

In case it is a technical problem I am, again, available to review the paper.

 

Best

Author Response

Thank you for your suggestions

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 3

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Your answers have given me a much clearer and more coherently argued point of view. I agree with what has been stated and the changes made to your article.

Good luck in your future research!

 

Author Response

Thank you your comments

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

the work, finally, had a great improvement.

However, I would like to point out a series of problems, more formal than substantial, to be fixed before publication.

 

I have found some problems with references e.g.:"59 national resources have made its economy situation unpredictable 17. Due to its facts, the 60 country’s economy suffers from several environmental factors both internal and external 61 that often affect the country as well as other underdeveloped countries 18Error! Reference 62 source not found.. The country’s exportation also depends on cotton production 15 and 63 it has become the top cotton producer in the Central Africa, allowing a 2.5% of Cameroon’s 64 GDP and 5% of the agriculture GDP and a total of 40% GDP growth in the countryError! 65 Reference source not found.. I"

You must check the entire paper to solve these problems.

Moreover, in the final part you should put a paragraph about limitations and future developments.

 

Best

 

Author Response

Thank you very much for your comments

Author Response File: Author Response.docx