Adoption of "eco-advantage" by SMEs: emerging opportunities and constraints

Purpose: A recent study has asserted that businesses need to adopt “eco-advantage”. This paper aims to explore the viability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) achieving “eco-advantage” by exploring their understanding of sustainability issues, how they adopt and innovate in terms of sustainability and the benefits and obstacles they face. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach is exploratory, comprised of 15 SME embedded cases based in the UK. The cases are participants in short interventions in sustainable product and process design as a part of a university knowledge transfer project, representing the overall case. Cases are based on interviews with company participants and collaborating academics, supplemented by documentary and observational evidence. Findings: The results build on the work on “eco-advantage” found in a recent study, highlighting marketing, rather than compliance issues as a catalyst for change. The newly aware SME enters a development process which involves cumulative capabilities, gaining a nascent inner confidence, which includes espousing wider sustainable values. Research limitations/implications: The results reveal the scope and challenges for SMEs to adopt more sustainable practices, encompassing innovations and a broad set of capabilities. Further research points to the need to monitor benefits as well as inputs in evaluating sustainability improvements and to consider longitudinal business sustainability issues. Originality/value: The paper informs the emerging debate on sustainability in SMEs, providing a rich source of data to enhance the provision of business support and knowledge transfer activities, where a more holistic and customised approach is required to realise the real environmental and economic benefits accrued from implementing sustainable improvements

Regional resilience in recessionary times: a case study of the East Midlands

Purpose: Since the 1990's the fashion industry has reflected the issues generally arising in the manufacturing sector, namely rapid and deep structural changes, the development of new supply chain relationships, ICT impacts and increasing globalisation with the attendant issues of ethical sourcing, off-shoring, new emerging markets and recessionary ripples. This paper focuses on one particular aspect of the fashion industry, namely the apparel sector and in particular 'fast fashion' to explore the issues arising for the SMEs in the supply chain. Approach: The research adopts a qualitative methodology and is longitudinal in nature, spanning 5 years from August 2006. The first stage of the research is reported here, where a series of focussed interview scenarios were conducted over an eighteenth month period. The sample of 12 SMEs was a convenience one, drawn from the 30 participants who took part in a business to business event in Leicester, a geographical location which acts as a microcosm of the apparel industry. Interviews were used to elicit narrative data about was what was actually happening in these apparel supply chains. Findings: The apparel supply chain has changed significantly due to recessionary ripples and structural changes. The SMEs have had more success in managing the upstream rather than the downstream relationships and relationships between buyer and suppliers continue to be fractious. Innovation has occurred but is hampered by the relationships that persist. Culture has proved to be a key dimension

Creative clusters: a new era for SMEs?

Objectives: The paper illustrates how the characteristics of industry clusters are revived in a new era for SME networks. It explores how a succession of industry shocks - increased global competition, recession and reduced policy support - have stimulated an innovative response in creative SMEs. The paper goes on to investigate the clustering experience of a small group of creative entrepreneurs in pursuing networked activities, with a view to identifying lessons that can be learnt to support other business-led, emergent clusters. Prior Work: Geographical industry clustering provides district advantages of pooled resources, proximity to suppliers and markets, knowledge sharing and cultural exchange (Saxenian, 1994; Piore and Sabel, 1984; Reid et al, 2008). Within a cluster, the SME’s capacity to innovate is linked to co-opetition, supportive infrastructure, vertical and horizontal interdependencies (Porter, 1998; Doeringer and Terkla, 1995) and Rosenfeld’s ‘associative economy’ (2005:5). Saxenian and Hsu (2001) illustrate how district externalities spillover across borders, while Aage and Belussi (2008) find that innovative clusters obtain competitive advantage from external-to-thedistrict influences. Approach: The research is based on a single case study of 3 micro-enterprises from Nottingham, UK, and their international collaborators. Compiled from observations, interviews and documentary analysis, the case tracks the progress of the group over eighteen months. The SMEs are embedded in a cluster of designer-maker entrepreneurs, emergent from Nottingham’s traditional textiles manufacturing sector. Results: The results build on Saxenian and Hsu (2001) and Aage and Belussi (2008) findings in which SMEs benefit from internal district externalities while also looking outside of the cluster in a process of mutual knowledge sharing. Successive industry shocks appear to have fostered collaboration and innovation (after Deoringer et al, 2009) stimulating a cycle of knowledge spill-overs that further cluster advantages. Competitive advantage is observed in the initiating firms, other SMEs within their cluster networks, associated institutions and an extended, international network of SMEs. Implications: The results reveal the opportunity for SMEs to embrace more innovative approaches to collaboration, although not without risk. Further research advocates a broader field of enquiry, and longitudinal analysis of the success and potential advantages of such cases. Value: The paper revives the debate on clustering by SMEs, providing a rich source of data to enhance the provision of business support and knowledge transfer activities in what Enright (2001) terms ‘wannabe clusters’. After Saxenian and Hsu (2001) collaborative networks have the potential to create competitive advantage for SMEs and rejuvenate traditional industry clusters

What’s behind a definition? Netting the ‘slippery fish’!

Objectives: The paper explains the process and problems of mapping a localised creative industry sector, contrasting the findings of secondary data with primary data from within the field; identifying implications for policy and innovation. Prior Work: Cunningham et al (2009) term creative industries and innovation as conceptually ‘slippery fish’ concurring with authors who espouse the difficulty of defining creative industries (Boggs, 2009; Galloway and Dunlop, 2007). Even though Flew et al (2010) suggest that there is increasing consensus about the size and scope of CIs, there remain obstacles to mapping creative clusters, an obstacles to policy making decisions (Vecco 2009, Boggs, 2009). Yet authors persist in suggesting that creative industries are dynamic laboratories of change and innovation, exploiting new technologies in production, distribution and markets (Flew et al, 2010). Approach: The research is based on the analysis of Official Statistics within a defined group of CIs, individual company data searches and a survey of 240 CI businesses in Nottingham, UK. The survey was administered electronically, with telephone follow-up. Questions related to business activity; age, size, turnover; markets and networks and respondents were mostly SMEs. Results: Official statistics declare some 2,400 creative businesses in Nottinghamshire, and some 18,900 people employed in the creative industries and related networks. The survey suggests that almost all creative industries businesses are small, but challenges some official statistics in terms of sectoral activity. There are good levels of international activity, and, contrary to expectations, a sizeable nucleus of mature, established businesses. Implications: The results reveal the scope for contrast between officially generated statistics and the observable activity within an industry, which in turn has policy implications. CIs demonstrate varying patterns of growth, business creation, innovation and market activity. While new businesses are being created, the longevity of others is an interesting finding. These are each areas worthy of further, more detailed exploration with scope for case studies to better understand business life-cycles and networks (after Cunningham 2011). Value: The paper questions current thinking on policy for creative industries, contrasting work by Potts et al (2008) that links CIs to new media and new markets. While this tendency exists, the maturity of other CI businesses and their role in rejuvenating traditional industries provides opportunity to enhance competitiveness through appropriate and targeted support. Meanwhile, understanding of business markets and networks needs to consider evolving business to business relationships as well as the emerging social media based business - consumers interface

Extending clothing lifetimes: an exploration of design and supply chain challenges

The environmental impact of clothing could be reduced if average garment lifetimes were increased. The paper explores the design and supply chain implications of clothing longevity, adapting models from sustainable clothing design research, and evidence from interviews and expert roundtables. The research concludes that the process of design for longevity could be adopted by clothing retailers and brands, but that the principles behind adopting this strategy lack credence in industry, because the mandate to do so, and robust business models, are lacking. The paper identifies a range of conflicting priorities between commercial and sustainable practice that must be addressed to reduce the environmental impact of clothing by extending its useful life, and makes recommendations for industry and future research. However, the limitations to adopting more sustainable practice relate to fashion and market segment, are systemic within the clothing supply chain and attempts to resolve these require a commercial imperative

Clothing longevity perspectives: exploring consumer expectations, consumption and use

The production, distribution, use and end-of-life phases of the clothing lifecycle all have significant environmental impacts, but complete lifecycle assessment has identified that extending the active life of garments through design, use and re-use is the single most effective intervention in reducing the overall impact of the clothing industry (WRAP, 2011). In response, Government funded clothing longevity research seeks to develop and test industry-led design strategies to influence and enable consumers to keep garments in active use for longer (Cooper et al., 2014). While recent UK research has indicated significant potential to influence more sustainable consumer behaviour (Langley et al., 2013; YouGov, 2012), up-to-date qualitative research is required to discover how consumer attitudes, expectations and behaviours in relation to clothing lifetimes affects garment care and clothing use. This will help to inform industry-led strategies by understanding where effective changes can be made that will potentially have most impact. This paper presents preliminary findings from a Defra funded action based research project, ‘Strategies to improve design and testing for clothing longevity’. Qualitative research methods are used to explore consumer attitudes, expectations and behaviours at purchase, use and disposal stages of garment lifetimes, and gather data on practices of garment wash, wear, care and maintenance in everyday life. The research findings are discussed in relation to industry-led strategies aimed at extending the life of clothes

The use of power in self and collective interests of retailers and small apparel suppliers' relationships

This research investigates the power use in self and collective interests of retailers and small apparel suppliers’ relationships. Our findings highlighted that power use of fast fashion retailers in self-interest and collective interest related goals are evident mainly in the areas of capability development, production processes and innovation in asymmetric relationships with Turkish apparel suppliers

Temperature-dependent "phason" elasticity in a random tiling quasicrystal

Both ``phason'' elastic constants have been measured from Monte Carlo simulations of a random-tiling icosahedral quasicrystal model with a Hamiltonian. The low-temperature limit approximates the ``canonical-cell'' tiling used to describe several real quasicrystals. The elastic constant K2 changes sign from positive to negative with decreasing temperature; in the ``canonical-cell'' limit, K2/K1 appears to approach -0.7, about the critical value for a phason-mode modulation instability. We compare to the experiments on i-AlPdMn and i-AlCuFe.Comment: 5 pages, 2 Postscript figures, LaTeX, uses revtex4, submitted to PR