Driving fashion with data : A qualitative study of how buying firms in the buyer-driven fashion supply chain can benefit from a digitized supply chain reconfiguration

Sammanfattning: Future customers will demand personalized goods and services. Value creation must therefore have a larger focus on product development and design, supply chain management and after-sales services. The key to success in the future fashion industry, is reduction of the reliance on traditional demand forecasting. Firms should instead put a larger focus on adapting shorter lead times and agile supply chain designs. Industry 4.0 will require an evolution of how clothing is designed and produced. It requires an implementation of new technologies able to identify data for expanding a consumer driven design and product development, combined with new technologies for flexible, local on-demand production. The purpose of the study is to explore how buying firms in the buyer-driven fashion supply chain utilize digitization and digital linking technology to create benefits for the firm. The study is of qualitative character and the reasoning is abductive, as theory on supply chain configuration is applied to the fashion supply chain. The empirical data was generated through in-depth, semi-structured expert interviews through a purposive sample of seven fashion industry professionals. In order to answer the research question, the empirical data was thematically analyzed and a main overarching theme and five subthemes emerged. The themes were compared to the theoretical framework of supply chain configuration. The elementary business opportunity in a digitized supply chain, is the combination of digital and physical resources to raise performance and support business innovation. The configuration between physical units, virtual units and information processing service supply chain units is crucial to create an added value to a service or a product. The empirical data revealed clear examples of how the configuration between the units is applied to create benefits for the firm. The findings elaborate the theory of supply chain configuration and contribute to the research field of strategic management and organizational theory.