Co-creation and the development of SME designer fashion enterprises
- Submitting institution
-
Nottingham Trent University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 7R - 697471
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1108/JFMM-10-2015-0085
- Title of journal
- Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 322
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1361-2026
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- December
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
1
- Research group(s)
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C - Fashion and Textiles Research Centre
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- Fashion designers and the creation of fashion businesses are important but relatively poorly understood in management, design and fashion studies. This research addressed a significant interdisciplinary gap in knowledge by focusing on emerging womenswear fashion designers and how they developed their brands in domestic and international markets. Uniquely, the project researched designers in London and New York, both world-leading centres of fashion for a comparative study, and achieved rare access to twenty designers and thirty-eight interviews.
The research developed an extensive literature review in fashion designer business growth and market development, drawing on knowledge and expertise from the Fashion Enterprise Centre at London College of Fashion. Due to the paucity of theory in this cross-disciplinary field a rigorous grounded theory methodology (Corbin and Strauss) was adopted. Iterative sequences of fieldwork and literature reviewing led to core categorization and knowledge of the SME designer’s processes in building a fashion collection.
The findings demonstrate the complex participatory and co-creative processes in negotiating a successful brand with important implications for theory by extending Service-Dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2004). Co-creation was identified as an important element for the successful integration of the entrepreneurial designer fashion enterprise into the global fashion industry network. While fashion designers tend to focus on their distinctive designed products, for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the ability to create and establish relationships is a vital aspect of market development.
The article develops an earlier conference paper presented at the International Foundation of Fashion and Textiles conference in Tokyo (2014) on growth strategies for SME designers. It was subsequently developed through peer-reviewed papers presented at the 2nd International Colloquium on Branding, Marketing and Design (2014) held in Nottingham, and the GAMMA Global Fashion conference, Florence (2015).
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -