Virginia Fani

eBusiness Standards and IoT Technologies Adoption in the Fashion Industry: Preliminary Results of an Empirical Research

The present paper aims to analyse the main barriers and drivers that obstacle and push the adoption of an eBusiness standard, such as eBIZ, and IoT technology, such as RFId, within the fashion industry. This purpose represents the first step of the European project “eBIZ 4.0—Enhancing textile/clothing sector by eBIZ and RFIds technologies adoption”, aiming to promote the integration between RFId technology and eBIZ standard for improving data interoperability among companies operating along the fashion supply chain. The tool used for this kind of analysis has been an online survey dispatched to the mailing list of all the project partners belong to different European Community countries and involving both software houses and fashion companies. The survey results have been crossed with the external variables that characterize the analysed companies, in order to classify the evidences related to one or another cluster of companies similar in terms of external variables such as dimension, headquarter location, industry segment.

Leveraging environmental sustainability for competitive advantage in the Italian Clothing and Leather sector

ABSTRACT The present study analyses how the elements of a corporate environmental management system (environmental strategy, environmental management practices (EMPs) and business competitiveness) are connected for the creation of competitive advantage in clothing and leather companies, strongly affected by sustainability issues. The research was conducted through an online survey submitted to Italian companies. A structural equation modelling approach was employed to test the hypothesised model. Results indicate that the implementation of sustainable product and process practices have positive impacts on company’s business competitiveness. Moreover, companies having a greater integration of sustainable practices in their competitive strategy show advantages in terms of brand value, employees’ retention and access to capital. The most important stakeholders involved in the definition of an environmental strategy are suppliers and companies’ employees. Focusing the attention on the business competitiveness impacts of EMPs, companies that have a production plant abroad show greater competitiveness impacts.

A Simulation Optimization Tool For The Metal Accessory Suppliers In The Fashion Industry: A Case Study.

This paper presents a Simulation Optimization (SO), decision-support tool developed for metal accessories’ suppliers in the fashion industry. The tool is composed of a discrete-event simulator and a multi-objective, integer linear-optimization scheduler, based on a commercial spreadsheet and an open-source solver, linked together through an import-export routine. The tool can be used to enable suppliers to compare scheduling algorithms in order to optimize their performances in terms of customers’ due dates compliance and cost and processing time reduction. The analyzed scenario takes into account variable and uncertain production plans, represented by the aggregation of orders received from different brands. The model has been applied to a real company, where costs, delay, and advances are considered in order to define the Objective Function (OF), whilst rush orders are introduced to simulate stochastics events.

Integrating Sustainability in the Fashion System Using Association Rules

This work aims at analysing the environmental strategies developed by fashion companies in order to identify the most important stakeholders involved in the strategy, the environmental practices carried out and the competitiveness impacts. A conceptual model, based on Association Rules (AR), has been proposed for investigating the network of influences among the environmental strategy, the environmental management practices and the environmental competitiveness and profitability of the companies. The research has been conducted through a survey submitted to fashion companies operating in Textile, Clothing and Leather (TCL) sectors. Results indicate that “customers” and “suppliers” are the most important stakeholders to be involved in the environmental strategy. A greater compliance and a risk reduction can be reached when the Financial institutions, Environmental NGOs, Rivals and Shareholders are involved in the environmental strategy. In this regards, results highlighted the importance of Environmental auditing programme for suppliers and Sustainable disclosures. Moreover, in fashion sector, the companies that pursued “Lower cost” as competitive advantage aim at obtaining from environmental strategy a great access to capital and lower cost of capital.

Practices For Environmental Sustainability In The Italian Fashion Clothing and Leather Sectors: Outcomes Of An Empirical Research

The fashion supply chain, even if represents one of the most important economies of the European industry, is one of the most polluting industries in the world, being a huge consumer of water, electricity and chemicals, and discharging massive quantities of wastes to land. Despite this fact, only few contributions have offered an analysis of the practices adopted by fashion companies to reduce its environmental impact. This paper present an empirical study on the sustainability practices adoption of Italian companies in the fashion Clothing, Leather industries. The research has been conducted through an online survey submitted to a sample of 192 Italian companies, having respectively the 14 and 15 ATECO 2007 code in the AIDA database, with a response rate of 13%. The results have been analyzed through the statistical software SPSS, in order to conduct a cluster analysis and 6 different clusters have been identified. Companies belong to cluster 1 do not apply any sustainability practices, even if they are coherent with what they declare on their website. Companies of cluster 2 adopt some practices, but sustainability is not integrated into their culture. Cluster 3 is composed by companies that declare a high interest to the environment, mainly for marketing reason. This way, companies of this group represent the ones more misaligned and not consistent from the practices declared on their website and the one really implemented. Cluster 5 is composed by companies endorsing environmental sustainability as a part of the company values and a high level of practices implemented is reported. Last, companies belonging to Cluster 6 have the environmental sustainability as a strategic objective and implements sustainability practices in a consistent and coordinated way.