Search results

The process of fashion design varies between market segments, yet these variations have not yet been properly explored. This study aims to examine the fashion design process as practised at the mass-market level, as this is the most vibrant and the largest market segment in terms of production volumes and sales.

It is observed that 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with mass-market fashion designers. Key activities of the mass-market design process were identified and a comparative analysis was conducted with the general design process.

The mass-market design process is found to prioritise profits rather than aesthetic aspects, with the buyer exercising more power than the designer. This hinders creativity, which, in turn, may impede a move towards more environmentally benign designs.

The clothing industry is responsible for high environmental impacts and many of these impacts arise through decisions made in the design stage. In particular, the mass-market for clothing because of its high volume of sales and fast throughput, accounts for a great deal of the impact. However, little is understood about the design process that is practised in the mass-fashion market. This paper fills the gap by developing a framework that describes the mass-market design process. Understanding the design process will enable progress to be made towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

The sustainable fashion (SF) literature is fragmented across the management discipline, leaving the path to a SF future unclear. As of yet, there has not been an attempt to bring these insights together or to more generally explore the question of “what is known about SF in the management literature and where could the SF field go from there?”. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the field to identify opportunities for societal impact and further research.

A systematic literature review was conducted from the first appearances of SF in the management literature in 2000 up to papers published in June 2019, which resulted in 465 included papers.

The results illustrate that SF research is largely defined by two approaches, namely, pragmatic change and radical change. The findings reveal seven research streams that span across the discipline to explore how organisational and consumer habits can be shaped for the future.

What is known about SF is constantly evolving, therefore, the paper aims to provide a representative sample of the state of SF in management literature to date.

This review provides decision makers with insights that have been synthesised from across the management field.

This review identifies knowledge gaps and informs managerial decision making in the field, particularly through serving as a foundation for further research.

The transition to a circular economy (CE) is a known concern in the context of the textile industry, in which business actors attempt to facilitate circular activities such as textile recycling. However, a lack of established business relationships and networks creates uncertainty for textile circulation. In such business environments, managerial decisions regarding CE may depend not only on normative behaviour but also on heuristics that guide their choices. Since business relationships for textile circularity require interactions between business actors, this study explores how managerial heuristics are shaped in the CE transition within the textile industry and their impact on actors’ interactions within business relationships and networks.

Empirically, this qualitative study is based on interviews with managers representing companies and organisations engaged in business relationships and networks aimed at a CE transition in the textile industry, as well as on publicly available secondary data.

The findings indicate that managerial decisions promoting circularity can be influenced by, besides normative information assessment, factors predominant in (1) the business and regulatory environment, (2) managers’ experience and knowledge obtained during interactions within business networks and (3) the internal strategic approaches of business organisations. This study identifies adaptation, experience, interaction and strategy heuristics that may be utilised by managers in making decisions in the context of uncertainty, such as the industrial transition to a CE.

This study expands the knowledge of heuristics applied to managerial decision making in interacting business firms and institutional organisations aiming to facilitate textile recycling and proposes a heuristics toolbox. The study provides an insight into business actors’ interactions, as well as various factors inside and outside the organisations shaping the managerial decisions. By doing this, the study adds to the literature, highlighting the importance of contextualisation and the interrelation between the individual and business environment levels in business-to-business management.

This study examines the impact of servitization in the form of repair and maintenance services on consumers' quality perceptions, purchase intentions and recommendation intentions while considering consumer frugality as a moderator in the retail ready-to-wear sector.

A quantitative approach based on consumer research was pursued. Study 1 tested the research model using a fictitious ready-to-wear brand within an experimental design. To increase the generalizability of results, Study 2 retested the model with a well-known ready-to-wear brand. For both studies, regression, mediation and moderation analyses were conducted in SPSS.

Both studies showed that servitization positively influences perceived quality. Servitization positively affects purchase intentions and recommendation intentions indirectly via the mediating role of perceived quality. Frugality moderates the relationship between servitization and perceived quality for the fictitious brand (Study 1), whereas it is not significant for a well-known ready-to-wear brand (Study 2). Servitization positively influences perceived quality regardless of consumers' frugality levels for a stronger brand.

This study suggests and tests an original conceptual model that relies on signaling theory. It is among the first studies to examine the impact of servitization on retail fashion consumers' quality perceptions and consequent purchase and recommendation intentions. This study also contributes to the literature by presenting empirical findings based on consumer research on servitization while considering frugality as a moderator.

Bundling products with additional services can contribute to quality perceptions and consequently to purchase and recommendation intentions for ready-to-wear brands.

The theory of complex adaptive systems (CASs) represents an interesting perspective to study the characteristics of circular supply chains (CSCs). In this regard, the current literature lacks evidence regarding coordination and integration mechanisms, characteristics of the environment and emerging system properties of CSCs. This paper aims to fill this gap and focuses on how and why companies design (i.e. configure and coordinate) their CSCs and what value these design choices help to create across different industries.

The authors use a multiple case study approach and analyze data collected from a sample of five sustainable start-ups operating in the fashion and construction industries in Italy to better understand how these companies design (i.e. configure and coordinate) their CSCs.

Results reveal that in the two industries under investigation, the design of CSCs built around open and closed–loop logic is triggered by the intention to solve a negative sustainability impact. The sustainability impact determines whether the value is restored within the same supply chain, in another, or inside or outside the same industry. Interestingly, start-ups appear to coordinate other CSC actors with three leading roles: (1) orchestrator, (2) integrated orchestrator and (3) circular manufacturer. The coordination role of the start-ups differs in each supply chain configuration based on the level of vertical integration of manufacturing activities.

From a theoretical perspective, the authors' results expand previous supply chain management (SCM) literature by presenting an empirical analysis of the configuration and coordination of CSCs, and discussing the drivers for creating such circularity from a CAS perspective. From a managerial perspective, the authors offer a practical experience to entrepreneurs on how to transform circular and sustainable business model aspirations into CSC practices.

Although there is a growing body of literature on circular economy disclosure (CED), certain sectors, including the airline industry, remain underexplored despite the particular relevance of circular models in this field. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the dissemination of circular economy (CE) information by airlines through their website and investigating the factors influencing the level of CED. Specifically, this study focuses on the characteristics of the board of directors, given its central role in shaping disclosure practices.

This study employs manual content analysis to measure the extent of CE information disclosed by 105 international airlines through their website. It then conducts a regression analysis to examine the influence of board characteristics on the level of online CED.

The results suggest that airlines with larger, more active and more independent boards of directors tend to be more inclined to disseminate CE information through their website. Furthermore, they demonstrate that board gender diversity does not significantly affect the extent of CE information disseminated.

The study offers valuable contributions by extending CED research to the airline industry and exploring new channels for CE information dissemination. Additionally, it highlights the role of the board of directors in shaping CED practices and confirms the effectiveness of the stakeholder-agency theory in explaining this relationship.

The goal of this research is to find the components that can inspire people to reduce food waste at household consumer level. The components were created by combining the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), theory of interpersonal behaviour (TIB) and motivation opportunity ability (MOA) model.

The study is based on the content analysis, which identifies the motivating factors for food waste reduction at the consumer household level. A total of 12 motivating factors are identified across extensive literature reviews along with opinions of experts. Then, the recognized motivating factors are analysed for causal interrelationship using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach. Data were collected from 95 experts, selected using purposive sampling, through a questionnaire survey.

A total of 95 household experts expressed their views on food waste reduction motivation factors, and a decision matrix has been developed based on that. Then, opinions are analysed using the DEMATEL approach, and it was found that “perceived behavioural control (PBC)” is the most influential motivating factor for food reduction at the household consumer level. Results also showed that “knowledge and skills about proper food management at home” are the least affected factor among the others.

Minimizing food wastes at the consumer and household level can provide the benefits to both people and environment in multiple ways. The problem of food waste necessitates a multifaceted response, and this study aims to address consumers' motivation and capabilities to lessen food waste behaviour. Since the benefits of minimizing food wastes have often remained untapped and neglected, educational efforts should be used by policymakers to enhance household awareness of food waste.

The present study contributes to the inadequate research on household food waste in India and is expected to facilitate sustainable consumption.

Food waste management is particularly difficult for developing countries, like India, which have little resources and are environmentally vulnerable. Not only is there a dearth of study on household food waste, but most of the research has been conducted in developed economies. Also, a novel applied method has been utilized in this study.

The purpose of this study is to assess sustainability across the handloom industry in Sri Lanka and identify opportunities for sustainable innovations supporting new markets, development of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and growth in the Sri Lankan craft sector.

Using a multiple case studies methodology, 10 case studies and 37 semi-structured interviews were analysed along with the triple-layered business model canvas.

The study reveals the handloom industry to be fundamentally sustainable but with structural barriers that hinder both innovation and growth. The environmentally conscious production process and social inclusion within weaving communities are the key driving forces of sustainability in the sector; however, the structure of the industry and lack of access to markets and information act as barriers to both innovation and growth. The incorporation of design interventions, closed-loop manufacturing strategies and the encouragement of community-based entrepreneurship would support sustainability-orientated business innovation in the handloom industry.

The rapidly increasing market share for high-quality, hand-made goods indicates the potential of the creative industries to accelerate socio-economic growth. Handloom textiles is attracting growing interest in fashion markets because of increasing concern about exploitation in production, thus encouraging interest in the economic benefits of fairly traded, high quality materials and the potential contribution of handloom to sustainability in the fashion industry. The results of this study will support the handloom industry and policy-makers in developing support for sustainable innovation in the handloom industry.

The purpose of this empirical study is to apply the industrial marketing and purchasing approach to explore ethical value co-creation and business ethics in the circular economy (CE) ecosystem (CEE) of the Finnish textile industry. A CEE involves a variety of business and institutional actors with shared business or societal targets. Ethical principles may become embedded in their first social interaction and can play an important supportive role in economic, environmental and social value co-creation, especially when the actors have sustainability goals.

This study uses a qualitative single-case study of a CEE in the Finnish textile industry where diverse actors seek to create value from circularity. The analysed data represent a set of interviews with business and institutional actors directly involved in managerial activities in the CEE of textile industry in Finland.

This study provides a conceptual framework of actors’ interactions and ethical value co-creation aimed at meeting CE and sustainability goals at the levels of actors, the network and the ecosystem. The findings emphasise the value of proactive collaboration among business and institutional actors seeking innovations, knowledge-sharing and business development in fostering more circular operations in the textile industry and thereby effecting the CE transition. Efficient interactions for value co-creation among actors can be grounded on ethical values such as trust, transparency, shared sustainability goals and the power to positively influence and motivate actors and even consumers to transition to CE principles.

An original research framework of ethical value co-creation is proposed in this study based on the combined concept of ethical embeddedness and ecosystem orchestration mechanisms to achieve sustainability and CE goals. This study contributes to the limited business ethics studies in circular business and CEE research and empirically examines business interactions among actors within a CE ecosystem. The managerial and policymaking implications of this study highlight the strategic importance of various actors’ interactions in implementing circularity in business processes.

This study aims to examine issues affecting the growth and survival of traditional handicraft enterprising community in Pakistan, and analyzes their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as develops strategic solutions to overcome the problems identified for their revival.

This exploratory study is based on a descriptive approach because it attempts to investigate the critical issues faced by traditional handicraft enterprising community. To operationalize the theoretical approach, this paper used a SWOT analysis of craft enterprising community. After thoroughly reviewing relevant literature, this study put forward strategic solutions for the revival of the traditional enterprising community. Moreover, secondary data on employment and gender wage gap were used to provide empirical evidence of the issues identified and emphasize the importance of strategic solutions.

This study found that traditional handicraft producers are facing many problems that hinder their survival and growth. This paper, therefore, makes some essential strategic recommendations on how to overcome these issues. The current research argues that Pakistan’s handicraft industry must be revived; else, centuries-old traditional culture and patrimonial knowledge will vanish. Moreover, there is a need to attract foreign investment to overcome resource limitations and improve the competitive capability of the enterprising community. Notably, government intervention is necessary for the revival of the traditional handicraft industry.

This study provides in-depth knowledge of issues faced by the Pakistani traditional handicraft enterprising community and suggests possible strategic solutions for the problems identified. Unlike previous studies, this research also discusses the essential characteristics of traditional handicrafts that differentiate them from identical mechanized products.