Sustainability practices and web-based communication: An analysis of the Italian fashion industry

Purpose \u2013 The purpose of this paper is to examine which environmental and social sustainability practices companies in the Italian fashion industry adopt and how these companies communicate their sustainability commitment through their corporate websites. Design/methodology/approach \u2013 The multiple case studies approach was selected and the practices of 12 companies in the Italian fashion industry were investigated. Findings \u2013 The findings showed that four different approaches in the field of sustainability practices and web-based communication are available within the Italian fashion industry (i.e. low commitment, high commitment, low disclosure, high marketing) by highlighting the alignment (i.e. fit or misfit) among these dimensions and by discussing the practices as well as the drivers/barriers of each approach. Originality/value \u2013 The paper contributes to the literature by deepening the understanding of both the environmental and social dimensions of the sustainability issue. Moreover, the work investigates the relationship between sustainability practices and web-based sustainability communication, a topic that has not yet been addressed in the current literature

Sustainability in the Fashion industry: The role of Dynamic Capabilities and The alignment with the external communication

This doctoral dissertation focuses on two main streams of research: the topic of Dynamic Capabilities for the environmental sustainability challenge in the fashion industry and the fit between what fashion companies are internally doing, in terms of environmental and social sustainability, and what they are communicating to their stakeholders. In particular, the first chapter, based on a Systematic Literature Review, brings to develop a systematization of those Dynamic Capabilities for environmental sustainability that have been addressed by the current literature and develops, as well, some useful indications to direct future researches on the topic. The second chapter, instead, through a multiple case study approach involving three important players in the Italian fashion system, brings to deepen the Dynamic Capabilities that these companies developed to become, among the large sized companies, “best –in-class” on the environmental sustainability challenge. The results advanced in this chapter provide normative indications to fashion practitioners about those Dynamic Capabilities that they should develop during the green reconfiguration and how they should structure their organizational design accordingly. The third chapter, finally, addresses the second stream of research of this dissertation and, through a multiple case study involving twelve Italian fashion companies, identifies four profiles of fit/misfit between what companies do internally (i.e. the adopted best practices) and what they communicate to their stakeholders, through their corporate websites. This part of the research brings to develop a matrix that could be used to assess the maturity level of fashion companies concerning their commitment towards the sustainability challenge. On the whole, the focus of this dissertation is based on the Dynamic Capabilities that fashion companies should develop before the implementation of specific sustainability best practices and how the internal efforts of these companies should be aligned to the external web-based communication. In this way this research provides initial indications useful to develop a sustainability roadmap: a tool that is still not existing, but that could represent a competitive approach for all the fashion firms interested in making the sustainability leap.La presente tesi di dottorato si focalizza su due principali filoni di ricerca: da un lato il tema delle Dynamic Capabilities per la sostenibilità ambientale all’interno del settore moda; dall’altro l’allineamento tra quanto fatto internamente da parte delle aziende fashion - in termini di sostenibilità ambientale e sociale - e quanto da loro comunicato esternamente ai propri stakeholder tramite il proprio sito web. In particolare, il primo capitolo, basandosi su una Systematic Literature Review, porta a sviluppare una classificazione delle Dynamic Capabilities per la sostenibilità ambientale ad oggi analizzate nella letteratura accademica e a individuare diverse future opportunità di ricerca legate a questo tema. Il secondo capitolo, invece, grazie al metodo del caso di studio multiplo, porta ad identificare quali siano state le Dynamic Capabilities che tre importanti player del sistema moda italiano hanno sviluppato per diventare “best-in-class”, dal punto di vista della sostenibilità ambientale, tra le aziende di grandi dimensioni. I risultati qui individuati forniscono indicazioni concrete a manager del settore su quali Dynamic Capabilities dovrebbero sviluppare e come dovrebbero strutturare il proprio organizational design durante il loro sustainability journey. Il terzo capitolo, infine, si focalizza sul secondo filone affrontato dalla presente ricerca e, sempre grazie al metodo del caso di studio multiplo – questa volta su dodici aziende del settore moda italiano – porta a individuare quattro diversi profili di allineamento/disallineamento tra quanto fatto internamente dalle aziende (i.e. le best practice adottate) e quanto comunicato agli stakeholder tramite il proprio sito web. I risultati di questo capitolo portano allo sviluppo di una matrice rappresentativa dei diversi livelli di maturità attraverso cui possono evolvere le aziende del settore moda per quanto riguarda il tema della sostenibilità ambientale e sociale. Nel suo complesso, questa tesi di dottorato si focalizza quindi sulle Dynamic Capabilities che le aziende del settore moda dovrebbero sviluppare per intraprendere il sustainability journey e su come queste organizzazioni dovrebbero allineare i propri sforzi interni alla comunicazione esterna web-based, fornendo in questo modo delle prime indicazioni utili per lo sviluppo di una roadmap per la sostenibilità: uno strumento che, ad oggi, ancora non esiste e che potrebbe rappresentare un vantaggioso approccio per tutte le aziende del settore moda intenzionate ad intraprendere il sustainability journey

Green Dynamic Capabilities:\u2028A systematic Literature Review and research agenda

Environmental sustainability has become today a responsiveness more than a responsibility. Although scholars in management and strategy are deeply studying both environmental sustainability and dynamic capabilities perspective, we still lack a solid link between these two topics. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview about the state of the art, within the academic literature, on the stream of research of green dynamic capabilities, which are fundamental for all those companies that are greening themselves. The literature review is based upon three bibliographic databases (Business Source Premier, Scopus and Web of Science), using different keyword combinations to identify all the relevant literature on the topic. The key finding of this work is an agenda to improve future research on the topic of green dynamic capabilities

Environmental Sustainability in Fashion industry: A Dynamic Capabilities perspective

Fashion companies are facing the challenge of redesigning their business strategy to integrate environmental sustainability considerations. However, the reconfiguration of an entire organization in a green lens is complex and companies often are not aware about how to accomplish this goal, since they lack experience on such kind of reconfiguration. Adopting the Dynamic Capabilities perspective, this paper explores how three leading international Italian fashion companies are reconfiguring themselves to achieve green goals. Our preliminary findings highlight how Dynamic Capabilities are deployed by these companies and provide indications to those firms that are willing to adopt a green strategy

Dynamic Capabilities towards Environmental Sustainability: an exploratory case study

In luxury fashion industry, companies are under pressure to incorporate environmental goals in their traditional economic business models. Though, their business environment is changing and these firms, to maintain their acquired competitive advantage, have to rapidly address these new opportunities. Dynamic Capabilities are suitable to modify existing capabilities or create new ones, and so they support companies to align themselves with new market requirements. Our research aims at exploring the role and the application of the Dynamic Capabilities perspective in Corporate Environmental Management in the fashion industry

Lean Thinking to provide smart infrastructure

Shortage of economic resources requests to review the way in which infrastructures are designed and realized. This empirical research explores applicability of the lean thinking’s principles within civil engineering. Results suggest that lean principles and techniques are suitable and lead to eliminate waste to realize cheaper infrastructures of higher quality

Identifying muda in lean transportation infrastructure

none5noneDa Giau A.; Macchion L.; Furlan A.; Vinelli A.; Cascetta E.DA GIAU, Alessandro; Macchion, Laura; Furlan, Andrea; Vinelli, Andrea; Cascetta, E

Lean Thinking to Provide Smart Infrastructure

Shortage of economic resources requests to review the way in which infrastructures are designed and realized. This empirical research explores applicability of the lean thinking’s principles within civil engineering. Results suggest that lean principles and techniques are suitable and lead to eliminate waste to realize cheaper infrastructures of higher quality