Creation of Fashion Trends and Role of the Bureau de Style for Textile Innovation

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅과학회
· 수록지 정보 : Journal of Global Fashion Marketing / 3권 / 1호 / 12 ~ 21페이지
· 저자명 : Simone Guercini, Silvia Ranfagni

초록

The aim of this paper is to examine the bureaux de style asproducers of fashion trends and their interactions with textilefirms in order to analyze their contribution in terms of knowledgeand of competence to textile innovation processes. Thebusiness relationships for innovation has considerable currentimportance in the textile sector. Although this industry is consideredmature, product innovation, based on the generationand exploitation of fashion trends, represents a fundamentalstrategic option to face the increasingly competitive pressure.
From a theoretical point of view, the achievement of our researchgoals has led us to analyze the scientific paradigms ofknowledge generation and of cognitive networks as conceptualframeworks. As to knowledge generation we focus on constructivism,which considers the creation of knowledge as agenerative act (Weick, 1995; Starbuck and Milliken 1988;Westley 1990; Louis, 1980; Griffith 1999; Drazin et al. 1999).
In other words knowledge is not just a revelation of an objectivelygiven situation; its generation means creating a realityand actively influencing the surrounding circumstances, whichit contributes to shaping (Von Glasersfeld, 1981). According tothis approach the process of knowledge generation can be subdividedinto the three specific stages: a) activation of the environment;b) selection of environment on the basis of thesearch for causal linkages; and c) retention of the constructedenvironment. Portions of potential knowledge are identified inthe environment that can take form and be built as a subjectiveact. The constructivist approach is opposed to the cognitiveapproach , which considers knowledge as a representationof a world, outside the subject; this is because the objectof thought processes is consists of symbols and situationswhich are structured by encoding and elaborating information.
In connection with the cognitive network (Schwenk, 1988;Lektorskii, 2010), we introduce the concept of relations as wayof sharing and exploiting knowledge to generate productinnovation. In particular relations among firms can favor theexchange and sharing of cognitive resources, producing aco-evolution of their own learning processes and product innovations. Studies in management literature analyze the cognitivecontribution to innovation deriving from subjects(customers, distributors, suppliers) belonging to the same inter-organizational network (Cooper and Kleinschmidt 1987; VonHippel, 1988, 2011; Jones and Ritz 1991; Rangan, Melvyn andMayer 1992; Clark and Fujimoto 1991; Leonard-Barton, 1995).
Other studies highlight how the development of innovation alsoimplies an analysis of the sources of knowledge internal to thefirm. A firm in order to produce innovation, has to assimilatethe external stock of knowledge and combine it with its competence,thereby producing new knowledge (Mahajan andWind, 1992; Workman, 1993; Griffin and Hauser, 1994;Pisano, 1994; Bruce and Morris, 1995; Davies-Cooper andJones, 1995; Williams and Smith, 1990; Axelsson andHåkansson, 1990). In this perspective, the process of newproduct development is encouraged by the integration ofknowledge between an inter-enterprise network and an intra-enterprise network, which can considered in the variousfunctions of the firm (marketing, research and development,production, purchasing).
Resting on these theoretical frameworks, our empirical analysisfocuses on the processes of knowledge generation producedby the bureaux de style. In particular we examine a) how thebureaux de style produce knowledge to generate fashion trends;b) the interactions between bureaux de style and textile firmsin the sharing and production of fashion trends; and c) thecontribution of these interactions to textile product innovation.
In a relational perspective the bureaux de style constitute partof the cognitive network for innovation in textile firms; theyproduce creative knowledge that can influence the realizationof seasonal collections. Our study is both exploratory and original:in the management literature in fact, specific studies onthe bureaux de style and their role in the fashion sector havenot yet been carried out. Our work is based not only on thestudy of the literature and an analysis of the results of researchon this topic, but also on primary sources consisting ofinformation gathered through interviews with four importantbureaux de style in France and Italy, which, in the opinion ofItalian textile manufacturers’ associations, are considered toplay a major role in trend generation.

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