The fast fashion industry is considered to be the second most polluting industry in the world, facing many challenges regarding environmental sustainability. Due to the rising interest and awareness in environmental sustainability, this study was conducted to discover how fast fashion companies make decisions regarding environmental sustainability and how these decisions are affected by the fast fashion business model. A qualitative case study approach was employed, focusing on the Swedish activewear brand Stronger as the case study company. An in-depth interview was conducted with the company to gain valuable insights into the relationship between the fast fashion business model and firms decisions related to environmental sustainability. The analysis of the data revealed key themes and patterns, highlighting the challenges, opportunities, and potential strategies for firms aiming to incorporate environmental sustainability into their operations within the fast fashion industry. The findings indicated that the fast fashion business model contradicts the principles of environmental sustainability, requiring significant modifications to align with sustainable practices. Based on the findings and analysis, it was also concluded that the firms’ decisions are influenced by the fast fashion business model, however it is possible to make decisions that prioritize environmental sustainability despite the constraints of the business model.

Purpose: From an anthropological angle, the purpose of this paper is to shed light into how young innovative fashion companies can exercise creative leadership and reflect the creativity of their external image in their internal environment, towards their path to prosperity and success.Design/methodology/approach: The research analyses the case of MUUSE, a paradigmatic fashion company based in Copenhagen, Denmark in order to examine its creativity inside-out (external image and internal environment/operations). The entrepreneurs and employees were interviewed during two workdays, as well as observations were held over a period of eight months. For the analysis of the case and its operations, the 4P’s creativity framework (person, product, process and press/situation) was used.Findings: The research shows that creative leadership in fashion business today can be linked with innovation, meaningfulness and transparency in all levels of infrastructure. Further it declares the significance of creative leadership traits, which can include: having a creative and purposeful vision, developing an effective global mindset, evolving a creative work environment and increasing intrinsic motivators. / Program: Magisterutbildning i Fashion Management med inriktning modemarknadsföring

Athletes have become more than sports professionals; they are million dollar investments for brand images. Businesses worldwide have transitioned old promotional schemes to athlete endorsements and have experienced positive reactions to the public change. Athletes connected with consumers on a heroic level and translated the brand’s message to purchasers through the theory of transference of affect (White, Goddard, & Wilbur, 2009). Subsequently, there had been an equal rise in the caution businesses exercised as several athletes found occupancy in negative press. Those involved in scandals posed reputational risks for businesses and could reduce positive transference to consumers. The purpose of this study was to test the impact of negative media portrayal (reputation) about athlete endorsers on male consumer’s purchase intentions and attitude favorability towards high or low involvement products. Online surveys were distributed to a Midwestern University, 196 surveys were analyzed. Findings showed purchase intention was affected by reputation for high involvement products; reputation was not an accurate predictor of consumer attitude toward high or low involvement products. Athletes involved in scandals remained effective as endorsers for low involvement products whereas, athletes with positive reputations succeeded when promoting high involvement products.

Retail store closures are on pace to pass those during the 2008 recession; meanwhile, consumer confidence is strong and unemployment is low.This puzzling situation sparks the question of how retailers can change their current business models and tactics to capitalize on a stronger economy and changing consumer preferences. Key solutions may lie in the strategies and decisions of America’s fastest growing retailers. The purpose of this study is to identify and understand common trends that are driving revenue growth in today’s consumer retail companies. The study produces characteristics useful for struggling retailers to develop and adapt in hopes of achieving growth and stability in the changing retail sector. The research design is a collection of variables from two data sets, one made up of 220 U.S. retailers and the other including the top 50 fastest-growing publicly traded U.S. retailers. This data comes from respective 10-K annual reports. The data is analyzed using STATA to identify strong trends and correlations among the top players in the retail space. Some notable characteristics are revenue in dollars, revenue growth percentages, gross margin percentages, square footage, employee count and sales ratios in dollars.

One dressmaker, Mrs. A. H. Taylor of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was studied in order to draw attention to the role of the dressmaker in American fashion. A biography of Mrs. A. H. Taylor and the business history were compiled; available designs were analyzed in relation to current fashion; and an investigation of the business organization was made. It was found that the dressmaking establishment played an important role in the lives of women of that time period. Fashionable custom fit clothing was made available to local residents and to mail-order customers. The establishment was one of the few businesses which offered women employment in that area. Through a comparison with contemporaneous fashion magazines, the examples of Mrs. Taylor's work which were available were found to be in current fashion, although many distinctive individual characteristics were noted. By the late 1920's the acceptance of ready-to-wear items and the death of Yrs. Taylor had brought about the decline of the dressmaking establishment, thus ending an important phase of American life.

The aim of this thesis “Deconstruction 3.0” is to show how the third wave of deconstruction in fashion is deconstructing the second [postmodern] French luxury fashion system. The deconstructionists of the post-Soviet collective – Demna and Guram Gvasalia, Gosha Rubchinskiy, and Lotta Volkova – question and deconstruct the established apparatus of the postmodern fashion system and its business model. With their business strategies and with help of demand by post-postmodern consumer culture proposed and predicted by Douglas B. Holt (2002), the post-Soviet collective constructs new business models and thus we are entering a post-postmodern fashion system. I have used a twofold methodology from the disciplines of business administration and humanities. In the literature review, I have aimed to close gaps between different scholars and made a concluding section of the postmodern fashion system and its business model, a synthesis that lies in parallel with Peter Drucker’s (1957) thoughts on postmodern organisational theory. Through the empirics and analysis with help of Jacques Derrida’s (1972) concept of deconstruction, I propose, in the end, a dialectic model between the established postmodern apparatus and the new and diametrically opposed post-postmodern apparatus operated by the post-Soviet collective.

Modebranschen är Sveriges största kreativa näring, den är även Sveriges snabbast växande exportindustri. Trots det, så är modebranschen tillika en av de mest känsliga och utsatta branscherna, som till stor grad påverkas av yttre faktorer. Konsumtionen har under de senaste åren gått neråt och valet rörande hur de svenska modeföretagen väljer att finansiera sig kan minst sagt komma att bli ett betydelsefullt beslut i denna lättpåverkade bransch. Denna studie undersöker om det finns en skillnad i hur kapitalstrukturen hos de svenska börsnoterade modeföretagen ser ut. Samt om denna struktur är beroende av om företagsledningen äger en stor andel aktier i företaget. Studien analyserar vidare om det finns ett samband mellan ägarstyrda företagsledningar och skuldsättningsgraden i företaget. Studien baseras på en kvantitativ studie av de svenska, börsnoterade modeföretagen; Hennes & Mauritz, KappAhl, MQ Holding, Venue Retail Group, RNB Retail and Brands och Odd Molly International. Undersökningen utgår från modeföretagens årsredovisningar, för att på så vis tillhandahålla information gällande företagens finansieringskällor, samt för att kunna utläsa hur många personer av de i företagsledningen som innehar aktier i företaget. Resultatet visar att en majoritet av de svenska börsnoterade modeföretagen har en kapitalstruktur som till större del består av eget kapital, och till mindre del av skulder. En majoritet har vidare en företagsledning där mer än hälften även äger aktier i företaget. / The fashion industry is Sweden's largest creative industry and Sweden's fastest export industry. Nevertheless, the fashion industry is one of the most vulnerable and exposed industries, that are also affected by external factors. The consumption has fallen in recent years, and the choice of how fashion companies are to finance themselves can be a significant decision in this easily affected industry. This study investigates whether there is a difference in the capital structure of listed fashion companies, depending on whether the management holds a large share of equities in the company or not. Furthermore, the study analyses whether there is a correlation between the company's debt-to-equity ratio and the management's ownership. The study is based on a quantitative study, analyzing the Swedish listed companies; Hennes & Mauritz, KappAhl, MQ Holding, Venue Retail Group, RNB Retail and Brands and Odd Molly International, in order to read the link between management and debt-to-equity ratios. The survey is based on the fashion companies' annual reports, to provide information about the sources of funding. As well as to identify how many of the people in the company's board and management that hold shares in the company. The result shows that a majority of the Swedish listed companies holds a capital structure that largely consists of equity, and a small portion of liabilities. A majority also has a management team where more than half of them also own shares in the company.

Genom tidigare studier kan det konstateras att det råder problematik kring entreprenörskap i modebranschen vilket avsaknaden av rätt resurser, främst brist på affärskunskap, ligger tillgrund för. För att få hjälp med detta söker sig många startup-bolag till inkubatorer vars uppgift är att ge stöd i grundandet och utvecklandet av ett företag genom att bidra med just resurser. Grundat i detta syftar denna studie till att undersöka inkubatorsprocessen från företagens perspektiv, med fokus på vilka resurser företagen upplever saknas hos inkubatorn. Fortsättningsvis undersöks även vad avsaknaden av resurser beror på, samt hur denna avsaknad påverkar företagens konkurrenskraftighet. Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgörs av Barneys (1991) teoretiska modell the Resource BasedView, RBV, och senare forskning som är grundat utifrån modellen. RBV används i studien för att kategorisera de resurser som nämns i empirin, samt för att kunna analysera och förstå hur de avsaknande resurserna påverkar företagen ur ett konkurrenskraftigt perspektiv. Genom ett kvalitativt förhållningssätt genomfördes studien som en fallstudie på Borås INK, Sveriges främsta inkubator för textil- och modeföretag. Empiri samlades in genomsemistrukturerade intervjuer i kombination med dokumentstudier, där dokument relaterade tillinkubatorverksamheten studerats, för att få en bild av den process Borås INK använder sig av. Intervjuerna har genomförts dels med en informant från Borås INK, dels med informanter frånföretag som genomfört inkubatorsprocessen. Resultatet från empirin påvisar att företagen saknar flera resurser hos inkubatorn. Närmare bestämt identifieras elva avsaknader av resurser, där de främsta avsaknaderna är relaterade tillhumana och organisationella resurser. Vidare identifieras en upplevd variation blandinformanterna som förklaras av en variation av handledare. Det argumenteras därför för att det kan finnas ett samband mellan de olika resursavsaknaderna, då en del av de avsaknade humanaresurserna eventuellt faktiskt finns i inkubatorns organisation, men den organisationellaf örmågan att hantera resurser saknas. Vad som avslutningsvis konstateras i denna studie är att en avsaknad av humana och organisationella resurser hos inkubatorer kan resultera i att företagspotentiella konkurrenskraftighet inte blir fullt nyttjad. Således lämnar studien ett teoretiskt bidrag genom ökad förståelse om inkubatorer samt hur avsaknader av resurser hos inkubatorer skulle kunna påverka inkuberade företagskonkurrenskraftighet. Dessutom ger studien ett praktiskt bidrag till inkubatorsverksamheter genom att identifiera förbättringsmöjligheter. Denna uppsats är skriven på svenska. / Through previous studies, it can be stated that there are problems regarding entrepreneurship in the fashion industry which the lack of the right resources, mainly the lack of business knowledge, is the basis for. To get help with this, many start-ups seek out incubators whose task is to provide support in founding and developing a company by contributing resources. Based on this, this study aims to examine the incubator process from the companies perspective, with a focus on what resources the companies think are lacking within the incubator. Furthermore, it is investigated what the lack of resources is due to, and how the lack of resources affects companies' competitiveness. The study's theoretical framework consists of Barney's (1991) theoretical model Resource-Based View, RBV, and more recent research that is based on this model. RBV is in the study used to categorize the resources mentioned in the empirical data, and to be able to analyze and understand how the lack of resources affects companies from a competitive perspective. Through a qualitative approach, the study was conducted as a single case study at Borås INK, Sweden’s leading incubator for textile and fashion companies. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews in combination with document studies, where documents related to the incubator were studied, in order to get an idea of the process Borås INK uses. The interviews were conducted partly with an informant from Borås INK but also with informants from companies that carried out the incubator process. The results from the empirical data show that companies lack several resources within the incubator. More specifically, could 11 themes be identified, the main shortcomings of which are related to human and organizational resources. Furthermore, a perceived variation among the informants is identified, which is explained by a variation of supervisors. For that reason, various resource shortages may be explained by the incubator’s organizational deficiency in managing these resources, despite the fact that they potentially exist within its organization. What is concluded in this study is that a lack of human and organizational resources within incubators may result in companies' potential competitiveness through other resources not beingfully utilized. Thus, the study makes a theoretical contribution through an increased understanding of incubators and how lack of resources within incubators could affect the competitiveness of incubated companies. In addition, the study makes a practical contribution to incubators byidentifying opportunities for improvement. This paper is written in Swedish.

Som en reaktion mot fast fashion-rörelsen och de oansvariga konsumtionsmönster som den medför har slow fashion uppstått som ett mer hållbart alternativ i modebranschen. Slow fashion beskrivs ofta som mode av hög kvalitet med en tidlös design vars syfte är att sakta ner flödena och minska konsumtionen. Tidigare studier beskriver slow fashion som koncept och några incitament och barriärer för att arbeta med slow fashion. Dock saknas en konkret definition av slow fashion-affärsmodellen och dess ingående komponenter. Det finns också ett gap mellan teorin och den praktiska tillämpningen av slow fashion-affärsmodellen, vilket gör detta till ett intressant perspektiv att undersöka. Därför är syftet med denna studie att bidra med ökad förståelse kring möjligheterna med slow fashion-affärsmodellen för modeföretag. Slow fashion-affärsmodellen definieras baserat på tidigare litteratur om affärsmodeller och slow fashion-konceptet. Detta presenteras som en modell med fyra komponenter: värdeerbjudande, värdeskapande, värdeleverans och värdelogik. Jämförelsen mellan denna definition och affärsmodellerna för sju modeföretag visar att det finns många möjligheter kopplade till slow fashion-värdeerbjudandet. I vilken utsträckning de andra komponenterna i slow fashion tillämpas i praktiken beror på företagets målgrupp, ägarstruktur och hur hållbarhet är förankrat i organisationen. När det gäller intressentperspektivet på slow fashion-affärsmodellen visar studien att myndigheter och beslutsfattare har störst möjligheter att möjliggöra slow fashion-affärsmodellen, genom att påverka både modeindustrin och konsumenterna. På grund av aktieägarnas inflytande över modeföretagens långsiktiga strategi kan de vara en drivkraft om hållbarhet prioriteras av dem. Andra intressenter kan agera som möjliggörare för tillämpningen av slow fashion-komponenter på grund av sitt potentiella intresse för hållbarhet och minskad konsumtion.Studiens syfte besvaras med följande propositioner: Proposition 1: Det finns en marknad för slow fashion-värdeerbjudandet men det saknas incitament för att tillämpa affärsmodellen fullt ut. Proposition 2: Konkurrenskraften i slow fashion-affärsmodellen ligger i värdeerbjudandet, inte i priset. Proposition 3: En styrka i slow fashion-affärsmodellen är dess lönsamhetspotential, vilket kan gynna ägare och investerare. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien att det finns potential när det gäller efterfrågan, konkurrenskraft och lönsamhet i slow fashion-affärsmodellen. Det finns dock begränsade incitament för modeföretag att tillämpa alla komponenter i affärsmodellen i sin verksamhet. Det finns också indikationer på att efterfrågan på mer långvariga kläder kan öka i framtiden. För tillfället verkar dock behovet av variation fortsätta vara starkt. / As a reaction to the fast fashion movement and the irresponsible consumption patterns derived from it, slow fashion has emerged as a more sustainable option in the fashion industry. Slow fashion is often described as fashion of high quality with a timeless design that aims to slow down the product flows and reduce consumption. Although previous studies describe slow fashion as a concept and some of its general incentives and barriers, a concrete definition of the slow fashion business model and its components is missing. There is also a gap between the theoretical and practical application of the slow fashion business model. The practical application is greatly influenced by different stakeholders in the fashion industry, which makes it an interesting perspective to study. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of the possibilities with the slow fashion business model for fashion companies. The slow fashion business model is defined based on previous literature on business models and the slow fashion concept. This is presented in a model of four components: value proposition, value creation, value delivery, and value logic. The comparison between this definition and the business models of seven fashion companies, shows that there are many possibilities connected to the slow fashion value proposition. The extent to which the other slow fashion components are applied in practice depends on the company’s target customers, owner structure and how sustainability is embedded in the organization. Regarding the stakeholder perspective on the slow fashion business model, the study shows that public authorities and regulators have the largest possibilities to enable the slow fashion business model by influencing both the fashion industry and consumers. Due to the shareholders’ say in the long-term strategy of fashion companies, they could be a driving force if sustainability is prioritized among them. Other stakeholders could act as enablers to the application of slow fashion components, because of their potential interest in sustainability and reduced consumption. The aim of this study is answered with the following propositions: Proposition 1: There is a market for the slow fashion value proposition but incentives for full application of the business model are missing. Proposition 2: The competitiveness of the slow fashion business model lies in the value proposition, not the price. Proposition 3: A strength in the slow fashion business model is its potential for profitability, which can benefit shareholders and investors. In conclusion, the study shows that there is potential regarding demand, competitiveness and profitability in the slow fashion business model. However, there are limited incentives for fashion companies to apply all of the components in their operations. Also, there are indications that the demand for more long-lasting clothing might increase in the future. At the time, however, it seems the need for variation will continue to be strong.

Newsvendor Models with Monte Carlo Sampling by Ijeoma Winifred Ekwegh The newsvendor model is used in solving inventory problems in which demand is random. In this thesis, we will focus on a method of using Monte Carlo sampling to estimate the order quantity that will either maximizes revenue or minimizes cost given that demand is uncertain. Given data, the Monte Carlo approach will be used in sampling data over scenarios and also estimating the probability density function. A bootstrapping process yields an empirical distribution for the order quantity that will maximize the expected profit. Finally, this method will be used on a newsvendor example to show that it works in maximizing profit.