Sustainability is a particularly relevant topic in the fashion industry due to its considerable negative impact on environment and society. In the last years, due also to the growing awareness and request of customers, companies’ efforts towards a more sustainable fashion have increased and new start-ups based on sustainable ideas were born. In particular, interfirm collaboration is significant for these sustainable start-ups, since they have limited initial resources and they need partners across the supply chain to implement sustainable practices. Consequently, the aim of this research is to investigate collaborations between start-ups and established firms in the fashion industry for the implementation of sustainable practices. In particular, it wants to analyse the role of social capital in the establishment of these collaborations and to assess the drivers that encourage each party to collaborate, all topics missing in literature. As a result, the main findings resulting from this research are: (I) the identification of patterns in social capital dimensions (structural, cognitive and relational) for the establishment of collaborations between start-ups and established companies for sustainability, (II) the understanding of potential connections between social capital patterns and specific types of sustainable practices jointly implemented, (III) the detection of drivers that encourage each party to collaborate and their link to sustainable practices. These findings provide both start-ups and established companies a tangible and salient picture of how real-world companies are applying sustainability in their supply chain through collaborations and support them in the development of new sustainable partnerships. The methodology adopted is case-based and the sample of collaborations chosen has been selected only within the Italian market, considering the role of leadership of Italy in fashion industry. Moreover, the collection and analysis of data have been conducted through also the adoption of a framework developed with an extensive literature review. Data collection has involved 5 start-ups and 25 established companies and it has been primarily based on interviews and secondarily on data gathered from companies’ websites, online articles or videos available online. The unit of analysis is the single collaboration in place: thereby, the final sample includes 31 collaborations, assessed through a within and cross case analysis.
La sostenibilità è un tema di particolare rilevanza nell’industria della moda, in quanto questo settore presenta considerevoli impatti negativi sia sull’ambiente che sulla società. Negli ultimi anni, grazie anche ad una maggiore consapevolezza e alle richieste dei consumatori, gli sforzi da parte delle case di moda verso una filiera più sostenibile sono aumentati, così come è aumentato il numero di start-up incentrate su un modello di business sostenibile. In particolare le collaborazioni tra aziende sono significative per queste start-up sostenibili dal momento che hanno limitate risorse iniziali e hanno bisogno di partner per poter implementare pratiche sostenibili lungo la filiera. Di conseguenza, lo scopo di questa ricerca è di investigare le collaborazioni tra start-up e aziende affermate del settore moda per l’implementazione di pratiche sostenibili. In particolare, mira ad analizzare il ruolo del capitale sociale nella creazione di queste partnership, e a identificare i fattori che incoraggiano ciascuna parte a collaborare. I principali risultati del presente lavoro possono essere ricondotti a 3 ambiti di analisi: (I) l’identificazione di schemi relativi alle dimensioni del capitale sociale (strutturale, cognitivo e relazionale) per l’instaurazione di collaborazioni tra start-up e aziende affermate; (II) il legame di questi schemi con le pratiche sostenibili messe in atto; (III) l’individuazione dei motivi che portano all’instaurazione di queste collaborazioni e il loro legame alle pratiche sostenibili. I risultati raggiunti offrono a start-up e aziende affermate una visione tangibile di come siano applicate le attività di collaborazione connesse al tema della sostenibilità e possono essere di aiuto per lo sviluppo di nuove collaborazioni. La metodologia adottata per lo sviluppo del lavoro è di “casi studio”. Il campione analizzato è stato selezionato tra le imprese del mercato italiano proprio per il ruolo di leader dell’Italia nell’industria della moda. La raccolta dei dati e la loro analisi è stata condotta sulla base di un modello definito partendo dalla letteratura presente. La raccolta dei dati ha coinvolto 5 start-up e 25 aziende consolidate e si è basata principalmente su delle interviste condotte dal gruppo di ricerca e da fonti secondarie come i siti internet delle imprese intervistate, video e articoli disponibili online. La ricerca considera come elemento di analisi ogni singolo rapporto di collaborazione per un totale di 31 casi, attraverso i quali è stato possibile comprendere le relazioni tra le dimensioni esaminate.
Cross-sectoral collaboration between start-ups and established companies for sustainability : the role of social capital
FIORENTINI, MARTINA;FERRO, ALICE
2016/2017
Abstract
Sustainability is a particularly relevant topic in the fashion industry due to its considerable negative impact on environment and society. In the last years, due also to the growing awareness and request of customers, companies’ efforts towards a more sustainable fashion have increased and new start-ups based on sustainable ideas were born. In particular, interfirm collaboration is significant for these sustainable start-ups, since they have limited initial resources and they need partners across the supply chain to implement sustainable practices. Consequently, the aim of this research is to investigate collaborations between start-ups and established firms in the fashion industry for the implementation of sustainable practices. In particular, it wants to analyse the role of social capital in the establishment of these collaborations and to assess the drivers that encourage each party to collaborate, all topics missing in literature. As a result, the main findings resulting from this research are: (I) the identification of patterns in social capital dimensions (structural, cognitive and relational) for the establishment of collaborations between start-ups and established companies for sustainability, (II) the understanding of potential connections between social capital patterns and specific types of sustainable practices jointly implemented, (III) the detection of drivers that encourage each party to collaborate and their link to sustainable practices. These findings provide both start-ups and established companies a tangible and salient picture of how real-world companies are applying sustainability in their supply chain through collaborations and support them in the development of new sustainable partnerships. The methodology adopted is case-based and the sample of collaborations chosen has been selected only within the Italian market, considering the role of leadership of Italy in fashion industry. Moreover, the collection and analysis of data have been conducted through also the adoption of a framework developed with an extensive literature review. Data collection has involved 5 start-ups and 25 established companies and it has been primarily based on interviews and secondarily on data gathered from companies’ websites, online articles or videos available online. The unit of analysis is the single collaboration in place: thereby, the final sample includes 31 collaborations, assessed through a within and cross case analysis.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2017_12_Ferro_Fiorentini.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/137144