Fast Fashion is tempting for businesses in 2022 but more and more entrepreneurs in the textile & clothing industry attempt a try with circular economy. What are the barriers they meet while implementing this particular way of producing and managing their products? What drives them to enter this economical paradigm and what are the opportunities for the future? This thesis aims to collect data about the drivers, barriers and opportunities to be(come) a sustainable fashion business, with a focus on resale. As of today, few literature articles have been found on these elements for the resale business model in particular. For this exploratory study, a total of 9 Belgian second-hand or vintage shop managers were interviewed, in an semi-structured, in-depth manner. The first research question concerns the barriers and the second, the drivers. Some propositions were constructed based on the literature and put to the test during the interviews with the managers. The results of the interviews were generally not unanimous, except for some that allowed us to invalidate the propositions about the lack of suppliers and the negative impact of resale platforms and to validate the propositions on the potential of social media platforms to allow a business to flourish and the increased customer acceptance. The other propositions were nuanced, depending on several factors like the business ability to evolve, the operating system of the shop or the type of items sold. If possible, the opportunities discovered in the literature were linked to the propositions and validated. The interviews allowed us to generate new suppositions related to barriers (reputation, economic environment, location) and drivers (value proposition). The collected information allowed the creation of recommendations for individuals considering entering the circular economy paradigm by opening a second-hand or vintage shop in Belgium in the current political, economic, cultural and market context.
La Fast Fashion fa gola alle imprese nel 2022 ma sempre più imprenditori dell'industria tessile e dell'abbigliamento tentano di sperimentare l'Economia Circolare. Quali sono gli ostacoli che incontrano nell'implementazione di questo particolare modo di produrre e gestire i loro prodotti? Cosa li spinge a entrare in questo paradigma economico e quali sono le opportunità per il futuro? Questa tesi si propone di raccogliere dati sui fattori trainanti, le barriere e le opportunità per diventare un'azienda di moda sostenibile, con un focus sulla rivendita. Ad oggi, sono stati trovati pochi articoli di letteratura su questi elementi in particolare sul modello di business della rivendita. Per questo studio esplorativo, sono stati intervistati, in modo semi-strutturato e approfondito, 9 gestori belgi di negozi di seconda mano o vintage. La prima domanda di ricerca riguarda le barriere e la seconda i fattori trainanti. Sono state costruite alcune proposizioni basate sulla letteratura e messe alla prova durante le interviste con i manager. Generalmente i risultati delle interviste hanno riportato caratteristiche discordanti ma in alcuni casi é stato possibile confutare le proposizioni sulla mancanza di fornitori e sull'impatto negativo delle piattaforme di rivendita. In altri casi é stato possibile convalidare le proposizioni sul potenziale delle piattaforme di social media per consentire ad un'azienda di prosperare e sulla maggiore accettazione da parte dei clienti. Le altre proposizioni avevano caratteristiche più sfumante e dipendevano da diversi fattori, come la capacità dell'azienda di evolversi, il sistema operativo del negozio o il tipo di articoli venduti. Se possibile, le opportunità riscontrate in letteratura sono state collegate alle proposizioni e convalidate. Le interviste hanno permesso di generare nuove supposizioni relative alle barriere (reputazione, ambiente economico, ubicazione) e ai fattori trainanti (proposta di valore). Le informazioni raccolte hanno permesso di creare raccomandazioni per le persone che intendono entrare nel paradigma dell'economia circolare aprendo un negozio di seconda mano o vintage in Belgio nell'attuale contesto politico, economico, culturale e di mercato.
In 2022, how can a business calibrate on circular economy? A qualitative research on second-hand businesses
DENIS, ANNABELLE ANNICK C
2021/2022
Abstract
Fast Fashion is tempting for businesses in 2022 but more and more entrepreneurs in the textile & clothing industry attempt a try with circular economy. What are the barriers they meet while implementing this particular way of producing and managing their products? What drives them to enter this economical paradigm and what are the opportunities for the future? This thesis aims to collect data about the drivers, barriers and opportunities to be(come) a sustainable fashion business, with a focus on resale. As of today, few literature articles have been found on these elements for the resale business model in particular. For this exploratory study, a total of 9 Belgian second-hand or vintage shop managers were interviewed, in an semi-structured, in-depth manner. The first research question concerns the barriers and the second, the drivers. Some propositions were constructed based on the literature and put to the test during the interviews with the managers. The results of the interviews were generally not unanimous, except for some that allowed us to invalidate the propositions about the lack of suppliers and the negative impact of resale platforms and to validate the propositions on the potential of social media platforms to allow a business to flourish and the increased customer acceptance. The other propositions were nuanced, depending on several factors like the business ability to evolve, the operating system of the shop or the type of items sold. If possible, the opportunities discovered in the literature were linked to the propositions and validated. The interviews allowed us to generate new suppositions related to barriers (reputation, economic environment, location) and drivers (value proposition). The collected information allowed the creation of recommendations for individuals considering entering the circular economy paradigm by opening a second-hand or vintage shop in Belgium in the current political, economic, cultural and market context.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/2244