Search Styles in Style Searching: Exploring Innovation Strategies in Fashion Firms

Long Range Planning

Volumn 41, Issue 6, 2008, Pages 650-671

  Cillo, Paola ^a   Verona, Gianmario ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FASHION INDUSTRIES; FUTURE RESEARCHES; GRANULAR DESCRIPTIONS; INNOVATION STRATEGIES; INTERNATIONAL FIRMS; SEARCH STRATEGIES;

FUTURE PROSPECT; INNOVATION; MANAGEMENT; TEXTILE INDUSTRY;

EID: 56649105148     PISSN: 00246301     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2008.08.001     Document Type: Article

References (101)

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83. We found other examples of this experimentation activity in all the companies of the extended sample that are characterised by a market-driven search approach. For example, Prada has started a process of experimentation by launching its sport and casual line named Prada Sport. This line was created by taking the technical materials and fabrics used to make sailboats and creatively and experimentally adapting them to create a sporty and casual product. Another example is the new D&G brand of Dolce&Gabbana launched in 1994 and defined as "A fashion label inspired by the street, contemporary music and everything that is now, for a personal style free from the constraints of pre-conceived notions and formats. D&G Dolce&Gabbana fashion signifies freedom, as the ultimate mirror of a wholly metropolitan culture in an unconventional, informal re-working. D&G Dolce&Gabbana is particularly popular among innovators and trendsetters, and everyone who enjoys freedom, irony and irreverence in fashion" see www.dolcegabbana.it.
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89. In cultural industries, the search process is central to innovation for two main reasons. First, one of the most relevant debates in cultural industries is whether product performance depends on the ability of companies to thoroughly understand and exploit consumer needs and desires or to shape their tastes through their imagination and creativity, thus defining the standard by which their products are evaluated. Second, another issue these companies have to face is how to be innovative without losing their fit with the market - that is the trade-off between product differentiation and market innovation. "Competition in cultural industries is driven by a search for novelty. However, while consumers expect novelty in their cultural goods, they also want novelty to be accessible and familiar...On the one hand, producers are pushed to seek novelty that differentiates products without making them fundamentally different from others in the same category. This novelty represents a recombination of existing elements and styles that differentiates, but does not break existing artistic and aesthetic conventions. On the other hand, there is the push to pursue innovation beyond existing limits. This type of novelty breaks new ground, often results in new types of cultural products, and may expand or fundamentally change the market."
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