Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the evolution of digital transformation research trends in the context of the fashion industry. The paper analyzes and addresses the impact of digital innovations on three areas of the industry: products, processes and business models.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examined 277 peer-reviewed articles using various bibliometric tools and indicators, aiming to identify and organize the contributions of the most influential works. Additionally, a critical review of the ten most cited papers in the field was carried out.
Findings
The study shows that digitalization is not merely a technological trend; rather, it is a transformative force reshaping the fashion industry. It fosters collaboration, innovation and sustainability, creating an ecosystem where businesses can thrive by aligning with circular principles and leveraging digital tools.
Research limitations/implications
The paper reveals a gap in the scientific systematization and exploration of the variety of applications of digital tools in the fashion industry. The study’s limitations include the keywords chosen for the research and the period of the research from 1998 to 2023.
Originality/value
The paper pursues to contribute to the current discussion on sustainable practices within the fashion industry, while also setting the foundation for future progress in digital innovation that supports the increasing need for sustainable and personalized products.
Keywords
Citation
Gazzola, P., Grechi, D., Iliashenko, I. and Pezzetti, R. (2024), "The evolution of digitainability in the fashion industry: a bibliometric analysis", Kybernetes, Vol. 53 No. 13, pp. 101-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-05-2024-1385
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024, Patrizia Gazzola, Daniele Grechi, Iuliia Iliashenko and Roberta Pezzetti
License
Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
1. Introduction
The influence of ongoing societal and economic transformations on industrial paradigms is the subject of continuous scrutiny by scientists, researchers, scholars and practitioners. Their collective focus is on uncovering opportunities for achieving sustainable future objectives. The European Commission’s 2021 Report (EU, 2021) recognizes a shift in the industrial paradigm’s guiding principles and operational strategies from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0. Since 2011, Industry 4.0 has emphasized the role of digital technologies in enabling agile manufacturing and enhancing industrial and business process efficiency. In contrast, building upon 4.0, Industry 5.0 places a stronger emphasis on research and innovation to foster sustainable, resilient and human-centric industries. It is grounded in socially and environmentally value-oriented technologies, as well as advanced digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) applications (Breque et al., 2021). This transformation has given rise to the concept of “Digitainability,” a visionary approach to industrial development that promotes transparency (Schwaninger, 2019; Gupta et al., 2023) with the goal of increasing efficiency and achieving sustainability while supporting industry resilience (Shashi, 2022). Theoretical frameworks suggest that sustainability acts as a driving force (Gazzola et al., 2023), while digitalization offers a suite of digital tools to gain a competitive edge through innovation in products, processes and business models. The disclosure of a “digitalization–sustainability” interrelation as a core of the complex phenomenon of “digitainability,” being rooted in the emergence of the circular economy concept at the beginning of 90s (related to the resource use efficiency) and digital economy concept in the mid-90s (reflected the development of cyder interactions in economy) respectively, has received a significant impetus for development after 2015 due to the stated Sustainable Development Goals within the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030; Irajifar et al. (2023). The first stage of substantial conceptual consideration of the digitainability was grounded on the disclosure of Industry 4.0 digital capabilities from the standpoint of addressing sustainability challenges (Beier et al., 2020; Gupta et al., 2020; Gupta and Rhyner, 2022). At the same time indirectly, the specific elements inherent in the digitainability framework were considered in the context of cyber-physical systems studies which included the disclosure of the sustainability-related aspects in the frame of a “smart product–smart production–smart network” system (Waibel et al., 2017; Ren et al., 2019; Sinha and Roy, 2020). Another stage of concept development was related to the data-driven environmentally oriented solutions, when the digital technology innovations started to be treated as a crucial instrument to solve resource management critical issues such as energy efficiency, waste management, supply chain management etc. (Bibri and Krogstie, 2020; Gupta and Rhyner, 2022; Shashi, 2022). Moreover, since 2022, the study on the digitainability concept seeks to shift to the industrial dimension of consideration (Piot-Lepetit, 2023).
One industry undergoing a significant transition from resource-intensive to energy-efficient and sustainability-oriented practices is the fashion industry. Digital transformation is recognized as a pivotal asset capable of reshaping the fashion industry into a more sustainable entity (Colombi and D’Itria, 2023). The modern fashion landscape is marked by profound shifts in operational principles, leveraging digitalization to address ecological and societal concerns, such as reducing carbon emissions, curbing overconsumption, managing stock efficiently and recycling. This transformation extends deep into industrial processes, influencing product development and prompting a reconsideration of business models. Digital manufacturing facilitates the formation of smart supply chain networks, harnessing digital technologies to create an integrated system connecting various stakeholders in real-time. This entails fast interaction, collaboration and knowledge sharing and necessitates the development of new business models, including digital-driven circular business models. In the fashion industry, digital-based smart networks extend to communication aspects, evolving interactions between companies and consumers to promote responsible production and conscious consumption (Mokhtari et al., 2020). They also incorporate the potential to interact in physical and virtual spaces and to participate in augmented reality. Furthermore, social media in the fashion industry serves not only as a platform for e-commerce and digital marketing but also as cyber business incubators, driving process innovations (Lueg et al., 2015). Given these dynamics, the fashion industry represents an exciting context for discussing opportunities to establish a digital ecosystem aligned with Industry 5.0 principles. This ecosystem would enhance the industry’s competitiveness by leveraging advanced digitalization, big data, and AI. In the foreseeable future, the demand for advanced digitalization, coupled with the need to integrate circularity principles into textile and apparel manufacturing processes, poses sustainability challenges that the fashion industry must address through innovation at every stage of the value chain.
Within this emerging framework, this paper aims to offer comprehensive and structured insights into the evolution of studies concerning the conceptual aspects of digitally driven transformations in the fashion industry from an Industry 5.0 perspective. In particular, it seeks to illuminate the sustainability potential of digital transformation within the industry, thus shedding light on the product, process and business model innovations provoked by sustainability-oriented digital transformation benefits. With particular reference to digitainability, the researchers performed the bibliometric analysis of 277 academic papers retrieved from a peer-reviewed scientific journal database. The methodological approach applied to the treatment processes of the bibliometric analysis results enabled us to identify the most influential papers on the topic in order to perform the following tasks: reveal the gap in scientific systematization and exploration of the variety of applications of digital tools in the industry and prepare the systematic background for further development of digitainability and its potential to transform industrial sustainability paradigms beyond Industry 4.0 in ways that are relevant to future academic research and practical implication.
2. Methodology and data
The present study employs a bibliometric review to comprehensively analyze the scholarly literature in a specific research domain over the 24-year period from 1998 to 2023 (31 July). The dataset consists of 277 academic papers collected from Scopus [1]. The objective is to gain valuable insights into the evolution of the research domain and identify influential works, prolific authors and emerging research trends. The first step of the analysis involves data preprocessing to ensure data integrity and consistency. This includes removing duplicates, verifying the accuracy of metadata and addressing any missing information. By meticulously curating the dataset, the reliability and validity of the subsequent bibliometric analysis were ensured. For this process, it was selected the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) method, which defines the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses [2]. This method helps researchers to define the objectives of the review, to conduct a comprehensive literature search and to establish rigorous criteria for the selection of studies, making the entire process reproduceable by other scholars. One of the key requirements of the PRISMA method is complete transparency in the reporting of systematic reviews, including all details related to the methodology used, the results obtained and any limitations. This ensures that anyone reading a PRISMA systematic review can assess the reliability of the research and fully understand the context in which it was conducted.
The following image (Figure 1) provides a diagram of the adopted process.
Using the R programming language and the Bibliometrix package (see Aria and Cuccurullo, 2017 for further information), various bibliometric indicators were computed. Citation analysis identified highly cited works and influential authors, and co-authorship analysis revealed collaborative networks among researchers and institutions, showing patterns of knowledge sharing and the network analysis highlighted the patterns of collaboration and knowledge sharing, offering insights into the structure and dynamics of the research community. In a subsequent step, keyword co-occurrence analysis highlighted key research themes and emerging trends. Moreover, the temporal analysis examined publication trends, revealing periods of rapid growth and shifts in research focus. Finally, the findings are presented through descriptive statistics and visualizations, offering a clear overview of the research landscape and a deep analysis of the 10 most cited papers systematized sustainability perspectives, informing the digitainability framework.
3. General conceptual background
Digitainability describes the interrelation between two megatrends originating in the Industry 4.0 revolution: digitalization and sustainability (Lichtenthaler, 2021; Gupta et al., 2023). Development and innovation (product, technological, retail, business model, etc.) in the fashion industry are influenced by digitainability trends (Lichtenthaler, 2021). Digital innovations or digital-driven innovations reveal the potential of digital technology applications (AI, IoT, AR, IM, BDA and more [3]) to provide greater industry sustainability. However, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increased consumers’ online engagement, which affected the direction of digital innovation development, narrowing it to focus on the instrument used to provide sustainable access to products and a higher quality of online brand representation (Yakub and Alsabban, 2023), i.e. the social media network. It provoked some underestimation of the product concepts’ digital perspective in research devoted to the fashion Industry 4.0. While the vast majority of research about digital innovation in the fashion industry analyzed communication innovations and the use of AI algorithms in the social media network context (e.g. e-Commers, Google Analytics, mobile eye tracking analytic technology, etc.), product innovations were more dedicated to sustainability, i.e. the development of a circular economy development (including the textile industry, which has a high level of supply chain dependence).
Since 2021–22 (the post-Covid-19 period), interest in digital innovation has widened to include, for example, product innovation in fashion. For instance, intelligent apparel (“smart clothes”) represents a smart product concept in the fashion industry (Yeo et al., 2022; Leonelli and Masciarelli, 2023). The concept refers not only to expanding clothes’ functions but also to new potential cooperation (for instance Smart Watch, fitness bracelets, etc.) long-term customer support, i.e. corporate culture reconsideration and the fashion value chain adjustment to the digitainable-oriented environment which is assigned to the business model innovation. In addition, digital innovation has occurred in the retail environment as well (e.g. studies devoted to non-fungible token (NFTs) [4] “role” in value creation). Another milestone on which sustainability in the fashion industry is based is the incorporation of circular resource systems within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework (determining waste limits, reducing carbon usage, implementing and certifying Green ZeroWaste policies [e.g. by Istituto per la certificazione etica e ambientale (ICEA), etc.]) to overcome overconsumption, address environmental and social challenges, and achieve greater transparency, accountability and trust with stakeholders (Cordazzo et al., 2020; Rosato and Calleo, 2023).
The UN Fashion Charter set the sustainability goal of cutting their emissions in half by 2030. ESG factors shape value chain formation in the fashion industry. Simultaneously, research identifies digital solutions for each stage of the value chain formation – for instance, 3D design and printing; digital archiving with high-quality images of the fabrics, product, etc.; AI planning; virtual sampling and AR showrooms for sustainable design development; sales planning; product presentation and merchandising; digital transparency and blockchain for sourcing; NFTs for retail; and more (Alexander and Rutter, 2022; Jiang et al., 2022; Wagner and Kabalska, 2023).
The digitainability framework for innovation and business development represents the nexus of sustainability and digitalization for innovation and business development in the fashion industry. Innovation in products, retail experiences, technologies, and business models can all be classified as sustainable. In turn, the notion of “digital innovation” implies the application of any digital technology to innovation and depends on the presence of that digital feature; thus, it is much faster than just social media networks. Given these premises, this paper reviews the theoretical bases of digitalization, innovation, and sustainability according to the following conditional groups: (1) digitalization and product innovation; (2) digital transformation and process innovation; (3) digitally driven business model innovation to provide a higher level of knowledge structuring.
3.1 Digital technologies and product innovation in the fashion industry
Starting in the 1980s, the introduction of rapid prototyping through computer-aided design represented a form of additive manufacturing that was applied to a variety of production processes, leading to significant gains in product development (Sharma and Singh, 2016; Bandyopadhyay and Bose, 2019; Magri and Ciarletta, 2023). Continuous development of additive manufacturing technologies with advanced information technologies and software support provided opportunities to form the smart production system based on the principles of balancing the management of cyber-physical systems, which ultimately resulted in smart products and smart designs being brought to the market. Overcoming design restrictions due to the flexibility of 3D printing technologies led to a significantly wider variety of forms with different levels of complexity. Moreover, advanced management of a wide range of materials’ applications, as well as multi-material method application, which minimizes waste minimization because 3D printing does not produce material residues, are core sources of competitive advantages that are translated into time-to-market and cost reduction (Dilberoglu et al., 2017; Bandyopadhya and Boae, 2019; Gibson et al., 2021; Goworek and Bailey, 2024).
Additive manufacturing provides agile design, rapid prototyping, and on-demand production, is characterized as time-saving and cost-effective for small and medium production volumes and is environmentally friendly. Therefore, the introduction of such technologies in the fashion industry is considered to be one of the core drivers of sustainability-oriented product innovation (Xiao and Can, 2022). Digital product innovation underpins a meaning-changing re-establishment, as they partially dematerialize physical products and processes (Sponchiado et al., 2021; Chirumalla et al., 2023). 3D printing provides additional flexibility and complexity in the production and design of fashion product components such as clothing accessories, which, in turn, supports industrial sustainability trends such as responsible waste management, mass customization and personalization. Therefore, the development of 3D-based clothing production systems is one of the core conditions for growing a sustainable on-demand fashion system that can address the challenges of overconsumption (McCormick et al., 2020; Sun and Zhao, 2017). In addition, a variety of additive manufacturing technologies were adjusted to the specific mission of the fashion industry to provide sustainable innovative products. For instance, designers and garment producers in the textile and apparel sphere apply additive technologies to effectively work out a wide range of patterns on fabric or clothes items, thereby reducing costs (assembly processes simplification, manual labor substitution, etc.) (Chakraborty and Biswas, 2019, 2020) [5].
The other significant direction of digitalization’s impact on product innovation involves the combination of technologies and garments in a way that creates new product value for consumers as part of a service-oriented product orientation strategy; this direction is reflected in the development of smart clothes, e-textiles and wearable technology concept (Dias, 2015; Ismar, 2020; McCann and Bryson, 2022). For instance, Ralph Lauren’s Polo Tech smart shirt, Adidas’s and Nike’s smart shirts that measure and report on body activity indicators, and the Superflex artificial suit that provides muscle support are the most common examples of intelligent clothes production (Van Dijk et al., 2011; Behr, 2018; Clarke, 2023). While such clothes have not become everyday fashion yet, they have a wide range of implications for digitally driven product innovation “sports and health; environmental monitoring, organ of perception and exoskeleton; communication and interaction” (Behr, 2018, p. 2). Moreover, they create new business opportunities based on new cooperation channels and added product value based on the addition of uniquely digital functions to traditional ones (Xu et al., 2021).
3.2 Digital technologies and process innovation in fashion industries
The evolution of the conceptual attitude to engage digital technologies passed the way from the inherent to the e-commerce “big explosion” (which provided an enormous shift in consumer behavior and provided room for the opportunities for several startups and businesses) to the tools of the deep accurate conceptual building of business processes. Digitally driven process innovation is the set of particular actions aimed at developing “smart” workflows based on digitally transforming processes in a way that is significantly different from the company’s past experience (Rachinger et al., 2018; Eradli et al., 2023). Considering these transformational processes in the context of the fashion industry, going beyond the general lens of the e-commerce business processes, digital innovations suggest technologies and instruments for the realization of the concept real-time fashion system (RTFS) which implies new ways of the interrelation in the system “Designers – Companies – Consumers” based on the advanced application of the digital technologies (AI, VR, etc.) (Hui et al., 2023; Mesjar et al., 2023). Such systems development aims to provide an efficient conceptual tool to substitute the fast fashion paradigm, offering additional opportunities for mass customization and hyper-personalization. Likewise, while product innovations based on additive manufacturing and the incorporation of 3D clothing production systems provide the product improvements that meet the needs of sustainable fashion companies, process innovations involve vital digital tools that transform supply chains and retail settings into circular flows. According to Sandvik and Stubbs (2019, p. 378), digital technologies ensure “transparency, traceability and automatization,” reflecting the transformation of smart workflows, which, in turn, enables the implementation of sustainable-oriented technology that provides the basis for the systematic changes required to construct innovative, agile, circular supply chains. Furthermore, digital process innovation balances the development of online and offline business processes, enabling businesses to deliver higher quality goods and services, which results in a higher level of customer satisfaction. “Technological innovations such as virtual-try-on and smart mirror fashion technology (SMFT) are rapidly making the retail setting smarter, reshaping its landscape by enhancing customers’ experience in offline stores” (Ogunjimi, 2021, p. 1).
Digitalization is simultaneously a driver and an instrument of agile business process development, which enables companies to react to market changes in “real-time” and respond more quickly and uniquely to the individual needs of customers. Furthermore, digitally driven process innovations are significant for the development of the sustainable fashion industry (Colombi and D’Itria, 2023; von der Assen, 2023). For instance, considering business processes within the following framework: “design – production – (α: design’ ßà customer engagement) – post-production – retail – consumption – (β: post-consumption ßà customer engagement)”, the occurrence of the α-type of engagement depicts processes of hyper-personification implying customers engagement at the final stage of production (choose form, color, etc. of a part of the product) provided by “ready-to-use” strategy. In turn, β-type of engagement reflects the processes inherent in the “my product waste” responsibility and circularity, when companies are suggested to take responsibility for the product to prolong its life cycle (repairment, product part substitution or re-design) or to take care for the product utilization or recycling after its life cycle comes to an end, i.e. to incorporate processes of the post-consumption waste management within the fashion company strategy.
3.3 Digital technologies and business model innovation
The last decade has been characterized by the permanent growth of the number of companies that innovate to gain competitive advantage by introducing a digital infrastructure into their business model (Ancillai et al., 2023; Warner and Wager, 2019). From the conceptual standpoint of business model evolution, digitalization is an instrument to generate unique added value for customers through functional and emotional product determinants; from the practical standpoint, it is a specific strategic investment and driver of new business opportunities that increase a company’s competitiveness (Autio et al., 2024; Leonelli and Masciarelli, 2023). One of the core benefits of using digital technologies to innovate business models is the increased capacity to adapt to the “fast” change of economic and market trends during turbulent periods and respond in real-time to both changes in customer needs and values and current industrial challenges. For instance, the platform economy based on the two-sided network or “sellers-buyers’ hubs” implies the development of a platform and subscription business model derived from the inherent behavior of digital relationships in a specific market (Caputo et al., 2021; Suseno et al., 2018) with a greater capacity to capture the revenue-cost structure process (such as smart billing, pay-per-use and freemium business models) (Behr, 2018). Therefore, the source of changes lies in digital customers’ behavior, which significantly dictates companies’ vector of strategic development and, consequently, the potential to gain benefits by capitalizing on digitalization. The peculiarities and core attributes of digitalization lie in its complexity: digital “interventions” within product manufacturing and business processes demand supportive business model innovations. Moreover, digitally driven changes provide qualitative shifts along each link of the value chain: creation (value proposition), delivery (value chain) and capture (revenue model) (Ehret and Wirtz, 2017; Raichinger et al., 2018; Behr, 2018; Parida et al., 2019). These qualitative changes are connected to the following typical features of digitalization:
- (1)
Intensive exchange of significant flows of data (big data management) (Harrison and Hair, 2017; Trabucchi and Buganza, 2019; Suswanto, 2024),
- (2)
Greater forecasting ability for analytics (AI tools, machine learning) (Sjödin, 2023; Aagaard and Tucci, 2024),
- (3)
Mitigation of the dependence of the company’s size impact on the difference in resource availability due to the dematerialization and digitalization processes of the access to the resources which consequently provides cost structure changes (Scuotto et al., 2017; Caputo et al., 2021; Broccardo et al.,2023),
- (4)
Incorporation of competences and technologies, i.e. “human-bots” cooperation (Li, 2023).
Demand-driven digital business model innovation in the fashion industry addresses sustainability challenges such as overproduction and fast fashion by transitioning from a mass market approach to demand prediction, customized design and real-time demand-driven manufacturing with conceptual and technical digital toolkits (Huynh, 2021; Colucci and Vecchi, 2021; Böttcher et al., 2024). In response to dematerialization, another type of service-oriented innovative business model emerges that provides the ability to capitalize on “a promise of delivering a certain outcome for consumers” (Parida, 2019, p. 2; Visnjic et al., 2018). In particular, for the fashion industry, it opens up opportunities regarding industrial sustainability gains, such as the ability to provide arbitrage profits (environmental, social, etc.), such as added value creation based on eco-friendly production trends and the introduction of circularity principles. Within fashion companies, this issue is addressed by adopting Blockchain-based and service-based innovations through integrated communication processes and introducing a sustainability-id for products (including product components, emission impact, eco-friendly technologies usage within production processes, cooperation with recyclers, repairment options to increase the product life cycle and more) (Huynh, 2021).
Therefore, the main focus among researchers exploring the application of digital technologies in the fashion industry and its business model innovation potential within the fashion context is on the development of the circular business model. However, there is a lack of empirical knowledge for comprehensively understanding digitalization as a mandatory set of toolkits that enable sustainable development in the fashion industry ecosystem.
4. Analysis and results
In this paper, it is presented a comprehensive analysis of a bibliometric dataset spanning the years 1998–2023, encompassing 277 documents authored by 673 individuals. This examination of this extensive dataset reveals intriguing patterns in research collaboration and the evolution of research interests. Notably, the findings showcase the diversity within the field, as evidenced by 835 distinct author keywords and the contribution of 176 sources to the corpus. While collaborative efforts were prevalent, 75 documents were single-authored, underscoring the individual contributions of certain researchers. Nevertheless, collaborative research was the common practice, with an average of 2.76 co-authors per document. Moreover, with an average document age of 4.64 years, the research within this dataset appears to be both current and rapidly evolving, as reflected by a substantial annual growth rate of 13.36%. Furthermore, the impact of this research is noteworthy, as the documents have an average citation count of 6.332, emphasizing the significance and influence of the work within the field. This information is summed up in Figure 2.
Subsequently, the annual scientific production is analyzed in Figure 3.
The data in Figure 3 show scholarly interest in the “digitainabilty Concept” within the fashion industry. Commencing modestly in 1998 with just one article, the subsequent years witnessed intermittent engagement until around 2016, during which there was a consistent yet moderate growth in publications. However, the turning point emerged in 2017 when there was a sharp increase in research output, and this trend amplified exponentially, reaching its zenith in 2022 with 54 articles. The year 2021 stands as a pinnacle, underlining the escalating attention paid to the “digitainabilty Concept” in the realm of fashion. Obviously, 2023 exhibits a slight decline due to the data collection period. These data convey an unmistakable surge in scholarly activity concerning the fusion of digital innovation and sustainability within the fashion sector, signifying a critical area of exploration and advancement in contemporary research.
Subsequently, the analysis tries to develop a clear picture of the citations. Figure 4 visualizes the trend.
The data reveal an evolving research landscape focused on digitainabilty in the fashion industry. In its early years, from 1998 to 2007, research interest was limited, with few articles and minimal citations. However, from 2008 to 2012, there was a shift as the average citation per year began to rise, indicating increasing recognition of this concept. The most remarkable growth occurred from 2013 to 2021, with a substantial number of articles and a peak in average citations in 2021, suggesting a significant impact.
Another relevant element to analyze is the sources (journals, books and proceedings). Figure 5 lists the top 13 journals based on the number of articles about this topic.
Out of the 176 different sources related to “Digitainabilty Concept Evolution” in the fashion industry, these 13 journals stand out as the most frequently used by researchers. Sustainability (Switzerland) emerges as the leading source with 14 articles, highlighting its central role in disseminating research on sustainable fashion practices. Other prominent journals include Textile Outlook International, Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, and International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, each contributing significantly to the scholarly discourse. The diversity in these top sources, from sustainability-focused journals to technology and fashion design publications, underscores the multidisciplinary nature of research in this field and the broad spectrum of perspectives being explored to address the evolving concept of “digitainabilty” in the fashion industry.
Furthermore, Figure 6 identifies the most active institutional affiliations.
Among these diverse affiliations, Politecnico di Milano emerges as a prominent player, with 14 articles, showcasing its commitment to advancing sustainable fashion practices. Likewise, North Carolina State University and the University of Manchester are notable contributors, each with 8 articles, reflecting their dedication to this evolving field. The University of Florence and the University of the Arts London also hold substantial presence, each with 7 articles, emphasizing the global reach of research on this topic. The list further encompasses institutions like Donghua University, Seoul National University, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, each making significant scholarly contributions. This diversity of affiliations underscores the global engagement and collaboration among academic institutions to shape the future of sustainability in the fashion industry.
Relatedly, Figure 7 shows production over time. As a confirmation of the previous concept, Politecnico di Milano is the most growing university that publishes articles linked to the topic of digitainabilty in the fashion industry.
Reviewing the Corresponding Author’s Countries graph (Figure 8), it is possible to verify that China is a prominent leader, with 25 articles, showcasing its significant research output and influence. The United Kingdom and Italy closely follow, with 21 and 19 articles, respectively, signifying their active engagement in advancing sustainable fashion practices. The United States, with 17 articles, and Korea, with 13, demonstrate their substantial involvement in this field and reflect a global interest in digitainability. India’s 9 articles (with single corresponding authors) indicate a growing research focus on the intersection of digital technology and fashion sustainability.
The subsequent step investigates cooperation among countries. Figure 9 visualizes the network of cooperation among the entire set of papers.
It is important to point out that this point of the analysis is based on 127 papers because, for the other part of the database, the authors are from one single country. The data in the fashion industry reveal a global network of collaborative efforts. Researchers from various nations are actively working together to advance knowledge in this field. Notable collaborations include China with France, Germany with France, and India with Korea, each showing multiple instances of joint research initiatives. These collaborations underscore the international nature of the digitainability discourse and the importance of diverse perspectives in shaping the future of sustainable fashion. Moreover, countries such as Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom are engaged in cross-border research with multiple partner countries, highlighting their commitment to fostering a global community of scholars addressing digitainability challenges.
Finally, the last analysis, presented in Table 1, is based on the relationships between the most relevant keywords of the dataset (for the sake of readability, 20 of the most relevant keywords were selected).
As Figure 10 shows, the keywords “innovation,” “sustainable development” and “sustainability” form a cohesive cluster (Cluster 1), highlighting the industry's commitment to eco-friendly practices and forward-thinking approaches. Notably, “textiles” emerges as a pivotal node with high betweenness centrality, signifying its role as a bridge between sustainability and fashion (Cluster 2). Moreover, “design” in Cluster 3 exhibits remarkable closeness centrality and page rank, indicating its central role in shaping the industry’s creative direction. This study also identifies the integration of cutting-edge technologies like “big data,” “artificial intelligence” and “computer-aided design” (Cluster 4) into the realms of product and fashion design, underscoring the industry’s adoption of advanced tools to optimize production processes and foster innovation.
4.1 Analysis of the most cited papers
Lastly, this work examines some influential works in this field to analyze their goals, findings, methods and limitations to identify key research questions, current contributions and also areas for further study. According to the content analysis of the research achievements represented in the selected papers, three primary concepts were identified: design-driven, consumer value co-creation and industrial paradigm transition (see Table 2). The following table shows trends in digitainability by mapping how the most cited papers align with these three primary conceptual avenues and how each exists in a complementary relationship to the others.
4.1.1 “Design-driven” paradigm
The “design-driven” paradigm is related to the necessity of engaging eco-design principles (designing products to enable material circularity and services to drive circular solutions that work toward the achievement of sustainability goals). The research referring to this concept used methods such as interviews (for instance, with stakeholders in the Scandinavian fashion industry) (Sandvik and Stubbs, 2019) and qualitative descriptive studies (Gill, 2015; Bertola and Teunissen, 2018). The introduction of the concept of “conditional design” suggested by Sandvik and Stubbs (2019) reflects attempts to develop paths for fashion companies that involve circular product strategies (reuse or recycle) during design, impacting consumer communication and marketing. It calls for shifting stakeholder perceptions of circularity from environmental to economically sustainable. Simultaneously, in framing this concept, the research emphasizes digital transformation’s role in the adoption of sorting and recycling technology, citing its potential to bring transparency, traceability, standardization and automation to the fashion industry. In such a way, digitainability as a conceptual framework is presented as a necessary and sufficient condition for the adoption of product and process innovations, as it has the potential to provide designers with new material possibilities and tools to ensure an innovative approach to production processes.
The same theoretical lens is applied to 3D technologies’ ability to enhance product development in the garment production sphere. For instance, consideration of clothing sizing and fitting due to 3D body scanning applications shows the need to reevaluate pattern theory and fit standardization in the face of digitally driven process innovation, which is reshaping product development on an industrial scale (Gill, 2015). The digitalization and sustainability nexus in this case lies in the ability to bridge individual requests and standardization to facilitate the fashion industry’s sustainability-driven goal of mass customization. The concepts from both studies (Gill, 2015; Sandvik and Stubbs, 2019) highlight the potential of digital environments to engage stakeholders in the fashion industry through co-creation, transparency and adaptability, shifting perceptions of circularity to an economically sustainable vision. Bertola and Teunissen (2018) further elaborate on how Industry 4.0 and digital transformation impact the fashion industry by emphasizing design-driven and customer-driven business model development, prioritizing co-creation and customization. They suggest that Industry 4.0 components in the clothing industry (smart products, smart factories and smart networks) and principles (real-time capabilities, virtualization, decentralization, service orientation, modularity and interoperability) illustrate the digitalization–sustainability nexus. Digital production fosters sustainability-driven product innovation and agile supply chains, which connect processes in real-time, driving process innovation and necessitating innovative business models like circular business models. Thus, Industry 4.0 provides digital tools that facilitate a transition to a horizontal, decentralized, sustainable and agile business model, enabling real-time decision-making based on advanced omni-channel strategies, thereby connecting consumers, designers and producers (Bertola and Teunissen, 2018).
4.1.2 “Consumer value co-creation”
In turn, the research related to “consumer value co-creation” relies on evolving consumer communication strategies, enhancing consumers’ influence on value creation processes by increasing the speed of feedback received and, thus, opening new opportunities for customer engagement at each stage of value formation. The research referring to this concept used multiple methods, including semi-structured interviews with a sample of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) related to the fashion industry (Matarazzo et al., 2021), online surveys of a mix sample of fashion-related SMEs in Italy and the United Kingdom (Scuotto et al., 2017, 2020), and surveys based on consumer interviews conducted in India (Shrivastava et al., 2021) and Finland (Vehmas et al., 2018). The role of digital tools in the intensification of co-creation processes is dual in nature. First, digital tools enable more precise perception of consumer needs because they are capable of collecting and analyzing larger data sets, which are more effective at predicting trends. Second, they guide sustainability thinking for the development of circular solutions (rental, resale, reassembling, repair, etc.), which requires a higher level of customer involvement and a shift in perception. In turn, according to Matarazzo et al. (2021), dynamic capabilities, particularly sensing (using digital tools for marketing analysis) and learning (engaging new digital knowledge), play pivotal roles in digitalization, while the latter also plays a vital role in achieving sustainability goals such as personalization. Therefore, the evolving communication landscape caused by digitalization drives innovation, transforms business models, enable omni-channel distribution strategies, and elevates customer value creation through consumer co-creation (Matarazzo et al., 2021).
According to the research analyzed some aspects of consumer value co-creation with respect to digitainability were identified:
- (1)
The assessment of the role of customers as co-creators
Among the selected research, Matarazzo et al. (2021) highlighted the role of digital instruments as drivers of “innovative customer value creation processes” (Matarazzo et al., 2021, p. 654) that facilitate product innovation by providing faster and more accurate analysis of consumer data through the application of “real-time response” digital tools. Furthermore, the application of digital technology enables conditions for continuous interaction between companies and customers along different stages of value creation, thereby facilitating value co-creation processes. While consumer value co-creation, driven by digitalization processes, facilitates product innovation, it simultaneously and indirectly fosters business model innovation, as it requires the elaboration and maintenance of long-term company-customer relationships. Moreover, the strategic potential in sustainability challenges addressed via digital technologies engagement in the frame of the “consumer value co-creation” development concept is connected with personalized customer value formation.
- (2)
Consumers’ increasing influence on innovation
This aspect of consumer value co-creation is based on the consideration of consumers as stakeholders due to the increasing influence of customers throughout the whole value chain. Moreover, according to Scuotto et al. (2017), customers’ involvement in value co-creation processes positively impacts a fashion company’s return on investment (ROI) by facilitating a customer-led innovation. Digitalization enables digital co-creative spaces through social media, promoting continuous knowledge transfer and innovation (Scuotto et al., 2020). Within the process of enhancing SMEs’ innovation in the fashion sector through virtual collaboration, social media platforms play a pivotal role as digital tools that provide enterprises with the ability to create virtual spaces for knowledge sharing and continuous collaboration with customers. These platforms foster multilevel interactions, rapidly providing insights into consumer needs and values, which supports timely responses and brand strengthening (Scuotto et al., 2017). Furthermore, the interdependence of digital transformation processes and ambidextrous innovation is limited by the digital awareness and development of digital competencies in the consumer-fashion SME ecosystem. Providing wider co-creative abilities for consumers on digital platforms enables them to guide communication about sustainability concerns.
- (3)
New opportunities to communicate sustainability to consumers as a specific asset
Two studies explore the digitally driven potential of sustainability communication. Vehmas et al. (2018) and Shrivastava et al. (2021) underscore the importance of using digital channels to effectively communicate sustainable fashion principles to consumers. Digital technologies are instrumental in promoting sustainable consumption through multi-channel communication involving producers, retailers and consumers. Vehmas et al. (2018) emphasize educating consumers on circular clothing and textile waste recycling, increasing awareness of sustainability via digital channels and enhancing the shopping experience to reduce environmental impact. They highlight the role of digital services in creating additional customer value by promoting eco-friendly circular clothing through strategies like “luxury brand” positioning and “limited edition” labeling. Shrivastava et al. (2021) demonstrate the effectiveness of online second-hand platforms and rental services in fostering sustainable fashion. These platforms facilitate interactions between conscious consumers and circular fashion, driven by utility, ease of use, attitude and social pressure, reflecting growing environmental awareness. This drives business model innovation in the fashion industry to remain competitive and sustainable. Both studies highlight the significant role of digital technologies and social media in shaping sustainable consumption behaviors and driving business model innovation in the fashion industry.
- (4)
The industrial paradigm transition emphasizes the digital technologies inherent to both Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0
Moreover, two studies address the effects of the industrial paradigm transition rather than focusing on a particular concept. Silva and Bonetti (2021) and McCormick et al. (2020) identify the transformative impact of digital technologies on the fashion industry, particularly in enhancing sustainability and retail innovation. The studies involved conducting a survey (Silva and Bonetti, 2021) and taking a qualitative descriptive approach (McCormick et al., 2020). Silva and Bonetti (2021) highlight the integration of advanced consumer-facing digital technologies, such as AI, VR and AR, into the Industry 5.0 paradigm, introducing digital humans and emphasizing the intricacies of human–computer interactions (for instance, creating avatars, augmented stores, holograms, windows mixed reality (WMR) applications, chatbots, etc.). The research underscores the importance of addressing these intricacies when integrating advanced consumer-facing digital technology to find innovative, sustainable strategies. Pointing out the necessity of consumer readiness and willingness to interact with these technologies, the authors argue that a generally positive consumer attitude toward informative and entertaining digital human interactions conditioned the rapid evolution of digital technologies, much as 5G enabled AR development. This study suggests that demographic factors and interaction modes, like speech, play a significant role in technology adoption, though there are also limitations due to reliance on consumer assumptions. McCormick et al. (2020) focus on the broader impact of information and communication technology (ICT) engagement, emphasizing the significant role of digitalization in fashion retail development. Categorizing digital technologies into M-commerce (including GPS, mobile apps, RFID, NFC, QR codes, and in-store Wi-Fi), digital visualization (digital scrunch technology, virtual fitting rooms and magic mirrors) and omni-channel initiatives (self-service, click and collect, and deliveries), McCormick et al. (2020) demonstrate the positive influence of digital technologies on process innovation, which they claim has increased competitiveness and resilience and contributed to sustainable supply chains formation. This research indicates that the fashion industry’s digital transformation, driven by advanced technologies and ICT applications, holds significant potential for sustainable growth and innovation. They emphasize that consumer acceptance and interaction with digital technologies, along with investment in digital process innovation and consumer behavior analysis, are crucial for sustainable development. The studies highlight digitalization’s potential to promote design-driven and customer-driven sustainable growth, leading to a transition to a sustainable, resilient, and human-centric fashion industry. This transition is facilitated by social and environmental value-oriented digital technologies, making it a key area of scientific interest.
5. Discussion and conclusion
The results of this work, concerning the bibliometric analysis of the evolution of digitainability in the fashion industry, highlight the multidisciplinary and international nature of digitalization and sustainability discourses. Moreover, the keywords cluster analysis revealed the industry’s dedication to eco-friendly practices and inclination to employ advanced technological instruments to enable innovative design and production processes. The research demonstrates that digitainability in the fashion industry is supported by a robust and interdisciplinary body of knowledge. International collaborations and the integration of advanced technologies are pivotal in fostering sustainable-oriented practices and innovative solutions in the fashion industry context.
Subsequent analysis of the selected papers showed that digitalization is a significant background condition for fostering product, process, and business model innovation within the fashion industry. Greater “real-time” capabilities, the ability to access a larger volume of data and the use of digital technology to engage in agile manufacturing processes provide the following benefits:
- (1)
The capability to include circular economy principles in the design stage, offering designers new material possibilities (Sandvik and Stubbs, 2019), to reconsider sizing and fitting practices (Gill, 2015) and to increase business operations’ sustainability (Silva and Bonetti, 2021), which fosters product innovation;
- (2)
To support the development of omni-channel distribution strategies (Matarazzo et al., 2021) and to develop fashion retailing and form circular supply chains to enhance industrial innovativeness and competitiveness (McCormick et al., 2020), which guide process innovation;
- (3)
To provide multi-channel communication and virtual platforms for “consumers, designers, producers [and] retailers” to ensure “transparency, traceability and automatization” (Sandvik and Stubbs, 2019; Scuotto et al., 2017; Scuotto et al., 2020; Shrivastava et al., 2021) and to transition from vertically integrated to a horizontal, decentralized, more sustainable, and agile business model (Bertola and Teunissen, 2018), which frames business model innovation.
Conducting content analysis from a sustainability-oriented perspective, it becomes apparent that digitalization equips businesses with a versatile toolkit to create an enabling environment for sustainability-oriented innovation that aligns with the principles of smart business process interaction and is rooted in a circular approach. Product innovation, which stands at the intersection of physical and virtual realms, is a result of this digital transformation, and it leads to process innovations. Digitalization plays a pivotal role in mediating between individual customer requests and the level of standardization required for efficient production processes. The digital transformation creates a dynamic and collaborative ecosystem between consumers and fashion SMEs that is instrumental in innovative solutions for sustainable development strategies. This is also illustrated in the significant shift in perceptions of social media platforms (from mere marketing tools to powerful instruments for promoting sustainability). Effective communication channels between designers and consumers are crucial for driving innovative business models forward, as reflected in consumer value co-creation and design-driven concepts.
In the studies explored here, the sustainability-related perspective is mostly represented through the support for mass customization and hyper-personalization trends, which, in turn, are conceptually related to waste management and overconsumption reduction. Thereby, it is assumed that digitalization forms enabling conditions to reach sustainability-oriented goals. The nexus of sustainability and digitalization in the fashion industry creates a peculiar digitainability framework for innovation and business development. Furthermore, digitally driven process innovation has the potential to serve as a key driver in the transition to Industry 5.0, as it enables various forms of collaboration between people and bots within the framework of a smart production ecosystem. However, the challenge lies in equipping the fashion industry with the necessary knowledge and skills to fully exploit digitalization opportunities like virtual fitting. Comprehensive programs and regulations for broader advanced digital technology adoption in fashion and textiles, aligned with circular economy principles, remain lacking (Sandvik and Stubbs, 2019). Summarizing the theoretical background drawn from a critical analysis of the papers included in this study, a possible suggestion, concerning the digitainability framework could be represented by applying particular digital instruments based on specific circular economy principles, digitalization enables digitally driven sustainability-oriented innovations that solve a wide range of sustainability challenges by incorporating a circular fashion approach. This nexus between sustainability and digitalization in the fashion industry gives rise to a unique framework of “digitainability” that guides industrial transformation.
6. Future research and limitations of the work
It is important to analyze limitations and future developments as related to a general overview of the work. First, the research uses a specific time interval, from 1998 to 2023, which may exclude the most recent and emerging papers involved in the field. Second, the reliance on a single database (Scopus) likely resulted in a narrower scope, which can limit the breadth of the findings. Different databases (e.g. WoS or Pubmed) may index some different journals and articles, potentially affecting the diversity of the research analyzed. Additionally, it is well known that a bibliometric review is a non-dynamic tool because it captures the state of a topic at a specific moment for a certain period, but it does not account for the continuous evolution and dynamic nature of research trends. Regarding future developments, there is the potential to conduct similar analyses at different intervals to compare trends, journals and key authors over time, potentially incorporating WoS to broaden the scope. Topics currently considered niche might gain prominence and works not considered significant now could become influential and widely cited in the future. This longitudinal approach could provide deeper insights into the evolving landscape of digital transformation in the fashion industry, highlighting shifts in research focus and emerging areas of interest. Finally, advancements in digital tools and methodologies may also refine and enhance future research capabilities, offering more robust and dynamic analysis techniques. Future research trends should consider strategies for effectively employing digital toolkits to reposition circularity as a principle and practice that is about more than just a philanthropic, environmentally oriented attitude. Stakeholders should understand how circularity provides economically grounded conditions that support business sustainability. Finally, the synergy of consumers’ and designers’ digital and circular clothing awareness, as well as human–computer interaction, will represent a core research avenue in the fashion industry context in the future. Despite the study has theoretical nature, it provides both theoretical implications that are aimed at overcoming the knowledge fragmentation enhancing scientific discourse on digitainability concept disclosure and practical ones that seek to provide the conceptual background for further managerial and policy-related implications. This research suggests a basic guideline for practical implications for the development of a comprehensive strategic approach to examine the potential digitainability effects within the fashion companies’ managerial practices from the innovative perspective with regard to the current sustainability challenges in order to elaborate an appropriate and effective company’s innovation policies. Simultaneously, the chosen approach allows more broader digitainability concept consideration from the public policy implications lens, as it is also aimed to provide a conceptual basis for regulatory framework development supporting the fashion industry circular transition in particular from the standpoint of eco-design requirements compliance enhancing both sustainability conscious production and consumption engaging digital instruments to promote sustainability within fashion industry consumers. Hereby, the introduced digitainability theoretical framework provides a conceptual roadmap for the digitally driven sustainability-oriented organizational strategies development grounded on the digital instruments engagement for innovative business practices integration align to circular economy elements: remanufacturing, recycling, reuse, etc. targeted in the rising companies’ management quality providing insights for fostering digital innovation to realize strategical benefits of its adoption in the most efficient way.
Figures
Network data
Node | Cluster | Betweenness | Closeness | PageRank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Innovation | 1 | 4.326801 | 0.029412 | 0.056315 |
Sustainable development | 1 | 1.693667 | 0.029412 | 0.041444 |
Sustainability | 1 | 1.197054 | 0.025 | 0.041751 |
Textiles | 2 | 24.30875 | 0.038462 | 0.109514 |
Textile industry | 2 | 12.32808 | 0.035714 | 0.062813 |
Fashion | 2 | 8.587897 | 0.032258 | 0.045628 |
Sales | 2 | 0.25 | 0.02381 | 0.019833 |
Hosiery manufacture | 2 | 2.144745 | 0.032258 | 0.050993 |
Color | 2 | 0.157895 | 0.029412 | 0.037194 |
Marketing | 2 | 0 | 0.026316 | 0.01867 |
Design | 3 | 27.81816 | 0.041667 | 0.094303 |
Fashion industry | 3 | 11.24549 | 0.035714 | 0.062629 |
Big data | 3 | 10.07985 | 0.033333 | 0.049181 |
Fashion design | 3 | 14.11745 | 0.037037 | 0.073044 |
Computer-aided design | 4 | 2.375264 | 0.030303 | 0.054651 |
Product design | 4 | 5.957938 | 0.030303 | 0.059261 |
3d printers | 4 | 3.860059 | 0.034483 | 0.062807 |
Artificial intelligence | 4 | 0.310101 | 0.027027 | 0.018835 |
Competition | 4 | 4.240803 | 0.030303 | 0.041134 |
Source(s): Table by the authors
Conceptual structuring of top 10 papers
Conceptual directions | Authors | Paper title |
---|---|---|
Design-driven | Sandvik and Stubbs (2019) | Circular fashion supply chain through textile-to-textile recycling |
Gill (2015) | A review of research and innovation in garment sizing, prototyping and fitting | |
Bertola and Teunissen (2018) | Fashion 4.0. Innovating fashion industry through digital transformation | |
Consumer value co-creation: the assessment of the role of customers as co-creators | Matarazzo et al. (2021) | Digital transformation and customer value creation in Made in Italy SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective |
Consumer value co-creation: increasing influence of customers on innovation | Scuotto et al. (2017) | The performance implications of leveraging internal innovation through social media networks: An empirical verification of the smart fashion industry |
Scuotto et al. (2020) | Ambidextrous innovation orientation affected by the digital transformation A quantitative research on fashion SMEs | |
Consumer value co-creation: new opportunities to communicate sustainability to consumers as a specific asset | Vehmas et al. (2018) | Consumer attitudes and communication in a circular fashion |
Shrivastava et al. (2021) | Sustainability through online renting clothing: Circular fashion fueled by Instagram micro-celebrities | |
Industrial paradigm transition | Silva and Bonetti (2021) | Digital humans in fashion: Will consumers interact? |
McCormick et al. (2020) | Fashion Retailing – Past, Present and Future |
Source(s): Table by the authors
Notes
As sustained by Harzing and Alakangas (2016) and Zhu and Liu (2020) Scopus has proven to be a competitive source of bibliographic data, demonstrating equal or even superior quality to Web of Science in certain areas. Moreover, Scopus was chosen due to its better compatibility with R-Studio and Biblioshiny based on our experience.
For further information, please see http://www.prisma-statement.org./
AR – artificial reality; AI – artificial intelligence; IoT – Internet of things; IM – instant messaging: typically defined as any “form of text-based communication in which two people participate in a conversation over their computers or smartphones via an Internet-based chat room or application”; BDA – big data analytics.
non-fungible token.
This challenge is addressed with following 3D printing technologies: stereolithography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS), and fused deposition modeling (FDM). For more information about SLA, SLS, and FDM, see references Vanderploeg et al., 2017; Ghodsi, 2015).
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests.
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Acknowledgements
This paper is part of the project NODES which has received funding from the MUR – M4C2 1.5 of PNRR funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU (Grant agreement no. ECS00000036).
Corresponding author
About the authors
Patrizia Gazzola is a Full professor of Management, Business Combination and Business Planning at the Department of Economics, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy. She is a member of the scientific board of the research center “Ethics in Business and Corporate Social Responsibility” (CREARES); the International Study Center for Smart Organizations Management and Smart Territory Valorization (SMARTER) and the Business Systems Laboratory. She is a member of the scientific board of several journals and a member of the Scientific Committee of international conferences. She conducts research and writes books and articles on strategy, corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and in systems theory.
Daniele Grechi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Law, Economics and Cultures at the University of Insubria (Italy), he is also a contract lecturer of Financial Mathematics and Quantitative Methods for Management at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan. Previously he was a research fellow at the University of Genoa (2011–2015), and at the University of Insubria (2019–2022). He received (2019) a PhD in Methods and Models for Economic Decisions from the University of Insubria. His current research includes quantitative methods for economic and managerial analysis with a special focus on transportation, tourism and sustainability.
Iuliia Iliashenko received (2020) a PhD in Methods and Model for Economic Decisions from the University of Insubria. Her current interests in research include Sustainability, Public enterprises and Corporate Social Responsibility. Previously she has taken a bachelor’s and master’s degree at the public University of Kharkiv (Ukraine). Nowadays she is a Research fellow at the Department of Economics of the University of Insubria, Italy.
Roberta Pezzetti is Associate Professor of International Business and Marketing Management at the Department of Economics, University of Insubria. Moreover, she has been the Director of SMARTER International Research Center and Rector's Delegate for the Sustainable Strategic Marketing Plan since 2022. Furthermore, she is a Member of the Steering Committee national project “SmartItaly Goal” promoted by the National Agency for Innovation and Sustainable Development ENEA. She was also an International Expert at the Regional Development Center O.M. Beketov University. Finally, she is a Member of the Scientific Committee UNESCO Chair “Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in the Multicultural Society” at the University of Insubria. Her interests in research are based on marketing, technology and digitalization.