The key drivers of born-sustainable businesses: Evidence from the italian fashion industry

Environmental pollution has become one of the most pressing preoccupations for governments, policymakers, and consumers. For this reason, many companies make constant efforts to comply with international laws and standards on ethics, social responsibility, and environmental protection. Fashion companies are among the main producers of pollution because their manufacturing processes result in highly negative outcomes for the environment. In recent years, numerous fashion industries have been transforming their production policies to be sustainable, while others are already born as sustainable businesses. Based on Resource-Based View (RBV) theory and Natural Resource-Based View theory (NRBV), this paper aims at understanding how internal and external factors stimulate born-sustainable businesses operating in the fashion sector, adopting a multiple case study methodology. Our analysis shows that culture, entrepreneurial orientation of the founders, and the proximity of the suppliers among the internal factors, combined with the increase of green consumers as an external factor, foster the creation of green businesses. At the same time, neither current legislation nor the dynamism and competitiveness of markets have influenced the choice of the companies’ founders to start a business based on green production logic. These results reveal the centrality of the founders’ sensitivity toward green strategies to create a sustainable business. The findings have practical implications because they could support regulatory institutions to introduce some incentives that more clearly encourages companies that choose to adopt sustainable business models from the founding, by acting to the internal and external key factors that drive born-sustainable businesses. This study also provides an extension of the existing literature on sustainable born companies, offering researchers useful information on internal and internal factors that promote the adoption of green policies in the fashion industry

Exploratory study about "Planned obsolescence": a tool for business plans and strategic decisions

With the consumption reaching maximum numbers and the technological sector being responsible for the introduction of new products every week consumers are starting to be much more concerns with several aspects of durable good and not only the price and its purpose. Producers are forced to push new models and versions of their products to the market to continue to operate on an evolution and progress basis for fighting and maintaining their market share. Although that so called technological progress is forced and does not correspond to an actual evolution in the performance of the good. Companies, mainly durable goods producers, have been using one business practice that always has been observable to the eyes of the consumer but never noticed. That concept is the key aspect of this work and it is called Planned Obsolescence. That basically corresponds to the deliberate manufacturing of a certain good with the objective of stop working or becoming obsolete after a certain period of time, normally a small period. Following the literature review, this work has as an objective to explore this concept, its ramifications and implications for the economy and the society. Also has the objective to study the behaviour of consumers when purchasing durable goods and which attributes they value the most. The key objective of this work in a preliminary phase and in a critical way, is to obtain a first understanding about the thematic and their implications not only for the consumers but also for the companies. This work represents a different approach about Planned Obsolescence, embracing not only how companies take decisions based on it but also how consumers react, relate themselves with the goods that have it and see the companies that apply it. Concluding, this work tries to explain not only the ramifications of the concept but also how it is seen by the society.Com o consumo a bater recordes históricos e o sector tecnológico a ser responsável pela introdução de novos produtos todas as semanas, os consumidores estão a começar a ficar muito mais preocupados com várias aspectos relacionados com os bens duradouros. Os produtores estão a ser forçados, pelas características competitivas do mercado, a lançar cada vez mais novos upgrades e modelos dos seus produtos para o mercado. Isto faz com que operem numa base de evolução e progresso tecnológico para manter a sua cota de mercado. No entanto “o tão chamado” progresso tecnológico é considerado forçado e não está a corresponder ás necessidades de mercado e à actual evolução de performance dos bens. Isto significa que as evoluções tecnológicas não estão a ser eficientes e não alteram drasticamente a tecnologia inerente aos bens. Empresas que normalmente sejam produtoras de bens duradouros, têm vindo a utilizar uma táctica de negócio que sempre foi observável aos olhos dos consumidores mas poucos a identificaram. Esse conceito é o aspecto chave deste trabalho e é chamado Obsolescência Planeada. Este conceito significa muito basicamente que um certo bem é deliberadamente desenhado para que depois de um pre-determinado periodo de tempo deixe de funcionar ou fique obsoleto. Seguindo a revisão literária, este trabalho tem com objectivo explorar este conceito, as suas ramificações e implicações para a economia e a sociedade. Tem também o objectivo de estudar o comportamento dos consumidores quando compram bens duradouros e que atributos mais valorizam nestes mesmos. O objectivo fulcral deste trabalho é numa fase preliminar e de forma crítica, obter um primeiro entendimento sobre a temática e as suas implicações não só para os consumidores como também para as empresas. Este trabalho representa um "approach" diferente sobre a Obsolescência Planeada, englobando não só como as empresas tomam decisões baseadas no conceito mas também como os consumidores reagem, se relacionam com os bens que a detenham e vêm as empresas que a aplicam. Isto significa que este trabalho tenta explicar não só as ramificações do conceito mas também como ele é visto pela sociedade

Law & Technology - E.Tec Yearbook

This inaugural volume is dedicated to an area of current relevance with undisputable economic, social and legal importance: Law and Technology. The texts now published have in common the exploitation of legal problems arising from technological innovations - in particular digital transformation, artificial intelligence and robotics - by discussing and presenting solutions for the challenges posed in different areas of law, explored in E.Tec research strands: industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and robotics, Health Law and Governance.Esta publicação inaugural está dedicada a uma área de relevância atual com importância económica, social e jurídica incontestável: o Direito e a Tecnologia. Os textos agora publicados exploram os problemas jurídicos decorrentes das inovações tecnológicas, especialmente a transformação digital, a inteligência artificial e a robótica, discutindo e apresentando soluções para os desafios impostos nos diferentes domínios do Direito, explorados nos eixos temáticos do E.Tec: indústria 4.0, inteligência artificial e robótica, Direito da saúde e governação