Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of social media presence in thriving in and increasing brand awareness in the fashion retail industry of Sweden. The study investigates how social media usage affects brand awareness in the fashion industry of Sweden. The study also explored how respondents’ demographics influence the retail fashion brands' awareness campaigns/programs using various social media platforms in the fashion industry of Sweden. Method: This study has used exploratory research to examine the role of social media presence in increasing brand awareness in the Swedish fashion industry. The study used a qualitative method involving semi-structured interviews with the marketing, communication, and social media experts from the fashion retail brands of Sweden. The Swedish retail fashion industry was chosen as it is known for its minimalistic, functionality, and clean lines. The sampled retail fashion brands are chosen due to the nearby geographical presence of the researcher’s locality. Another factor that focused to interview the marketing, communication, and social media experts of these retail businesses was that they handle most of the social media activities within their businesses. Research findings: The study, through interviews with the digital marketers and social media experts of these brands as well as a review of related literature, concluded that social media marketing has a significant influence on fashion retail companies' efforts to build brand awareness. These retail businesses have benefited in terms of strong brand awareness, whether it be by simply having a social media platform presence or investing in social media paid ads. Most interviewees claimed to have seen an uptick in sales, and unquestionably a rise in customer interest. The study further concluded that demographics play a vital role in the brands' awareness campaigns/programs using various social media platforms in the fashion industry of Sweden. Theoretical Implications (Contributions): In the context of building brand awareness for fashion retail companies, this study has confirmed and added to existing marketing research. Based on the research's conclusions, it was concluded that social media marketing has a more positive impact on a company's exposure than other types of advertising. Additionally, the study's findings demonstrate the effectiveness of using free advertisements based on pages in social media networks like Facebook, and Instagram to engage users and keep them constantly aware of a brand's products online. Practical Implications: This study has positive ramifications for aspiring entrepreneurs who place a high priority on social media platforms. Additionally, it takes up less time and costs less money because it offers a selection of paid advertisements where you can choose how much money to spend. Other than that, having a free account and engaging in self-promotional activities like posting or keeping your online platform current with trends is a useful way to gradually increase the number of followers and customers while simultaneously raising brand awareness.

Marketing is crucial to the success of any company, and in line with an increased emphasis on sustainability, many companies now include sustainability issues in their communications. The clothing company Lindex's campaign ”Reinvent the Model” aims to reshape the female ideal and promote diversity in their marketing. They do this, among other things, by including different skin colors, ages and bodytypes in the marketing. The study ”Advertising for what, clothes or bodies?” examines Lindex's campaign and its portrayal of beauty ideals. Through a qualitative multimodal critical discourse analysis, based on Fairclough's three-dimensionalmodel, the campaign is analyzed with a focus on lexical choices, denotation, connotation, interdiscursivity, ideology and hegemony. The concepts of discourse andcommodified feminism also form the basis of the study's theoretical perspective. The results show that Lindex portrays beauty ideals as problematic and negative. The campaign mixes marketing, body positive, feminist and documentary discourses to challenge prevailing beauty ideals within the fashion industry. The body positive and feminist discourse is emphasized by ordinary women sharing their experiences around beauty ideals. Quotes in the campaign create a negative view of the female body as bodily flaws are discussed. The hegemonic view of beauty ideals is questioned in the campaign, but the result of making a comprehensive campaign about women's appearance means that the female body continues to be scrutinized and used as akind of marketing material. The conclusion is that, from an ideologically critical perspective, the campaign partially challenges the hegemonic view of beauty but at the same time maintains and commodifies norms around the female body.

This thesis sets out to examine whether there is a relationship between financial performance and CSR in fashion companies. Furthermore, there are significant regional differences in different markets; for instance, the European Union aims to counter the negative impact of fast fashion as part of a grander plan to become climate neutral by 2050. Therefore, a regional comparison is of particular interest as environmental regulations are increasing. Since the USA and the EU are home to the largest and most valuable brands to date, these regions will be examined in this thesis. This relationship is measured by using ESG scores as a proxy for CSR. The results stipulate that the relationship between financial performance and CSR activities is weak. Nevertheless, regional context is found to be a significant moderator variable in this relationship. The results indicate that CSR practices are more important in terms of financial performance in the EU.

The fast fashion industry is valued as one of the largest industries globally, with its enormous production significantly contributing to environmental injustice. This study investigates the role of fast fashion organisations in addressing consumer demands for sustainability, focusing on the H&M Group as a case study. Despite the organisational efforts towards sustainable practices, consumers require more honesty and transparency in the way fast fashion organisations communicate their actions.The study begins with an introduction to the environmental impact of the fashion industry and the research problem, followed by introducing the H&M Group as a single case study. The literature review is used to provide an overview of existing research and contextual information followed by a conceptual framework incorporating CSR, the triple bottom line, the concept of sustainability, and corporate sustainability. The study draws on the social constructivist methodology with an abductive approach, utilising both quantitative and qualitative data.This research uses the H&M Group’s sustainability reports from 2020 to 2022, analysing how the organisation communicates and constructs its sustainability practices. Additionally, a survey was conducted to capture consumer perspectives on the sustainability efforts of fast fashion organisations.The case study is further detailed before describing the methods of data collection and analysis, including discourse and thematic analysis. The data sets, comprising H&M Group’s sustainability reports and the survey results, are furthermore presented. The findings reveal a significant paradox and complexity for both consumers and organisations. Consumers distrust fashion organisations’ sustainability claims yet continue to purchase low-cost products. The fast fashion industry faces the challenging task of balancing profitability with genuine sustainability, while mainly highlighting possible future actions.

In contemporary times, the concept of brand activism has emerged among consumers and companies alike, particularly within the fashion industry. Consumers are increasingly seeking brands that demonstrate a commitment to societal and environmental concerns, leading to a rise in brand activism within this sector. The purpose of this research is to investigate and comprehend how consumers perceive fashion brand activism according to their gender. The empirical findings were acquired using a quantitative approach by an Internet-mediated questionnaire. The data were subsequently analysed and compared with existing literature reviews to highlight both similarities and disparities. This thesis demonstrates that while both men and women generally perceive fashion brand activism in similar terms of authenticity and inauthenticity, women tend to have a stronger affinity towards these brands due to shared values. In comparison, men often view them neutrally or negatively, suggesting potential disparities in emotional investment or perceptions of social commitment. Overall, although authenticity is universally considered, gender influences consumer perspectives on activist fashion brands. All conclusions proposed by the authors account for the predominant demographic characteristics of the sample population. Consequently, these generalisations primarily apply to students of French nationality.

In today’s digital era, the rapid rise of social media (SM) has transformed consumer behaviourespecially among university students. This study examines the influence of social mediamarketing (SMM) on the purchase intentions of university students within the fashion industry,focusing on a sample from Zambia. Addressing a gap in existing research on this demographic,the study explores how various dimensions of the SMM affect purchasing decisions.The study utilised the exploratory study approach, data were gathered through a semi-structuredquestionnaire distributed among university students in Zambia. Descriptive statistics and Pearsoncorrelation analysis were used to evaluate the relationships between the independent anddependent variables. A total of 96 valid responses were received and included in the finalanalysis. The findings revealed insights into these relationships, the correlation between entertainment,interaction and awareness was found to be weak (r=0.418) indicating that these factors do notgreatly influence student’s decision to purchase fashion products. In contrast, fashion trendinessand interest in a brand shows a moderate positive relationship (r = 0.422, p = 0.000), meaningthat when SM highlights current fashion trends, students are more likely to be interested.Similarly, the customisation of SM experiences with the desire for fashion products was found tobe moderately positive (r = 0.510, p = 0.000) suggesting that tailoring content to individualpreferences encourages purchases. The strongest relationship observed between e-word of mouthand purchase action (r = 0.726, p = 0.000) signifying that positive online recommendationsgreatly . influence students to buy fashion products. The study recommends that brands invest in monitoring SM trends, collecting extensive data oncustomer preferences and maintaining a positive e-word of mouth. Future research could exploreadditional variables influencing fashion product purchase decisions and consider larger samplesize for broader generalisation. This research contributes to the understanding of SMM influenceon consumer behaviour and offering insights for marketing strategies in the fashion industry.

As live shopping has become more popular in recent years, as seen in China, this concept has slowly spread to Europe and also the Scandinavian countries. However, the purchasing behaviour of consumers varies, which modifies the circumstances and methods in which businesses might apply this concept to achieve results. This qualitative study explores how  Swedish fashion retailers should use live shopping to influence females buying behaviour. The method used for data collection has been through an industry interview with a marketing specialist and consumer interviews. The conclusion is that live shopping can be a powerful tool if implemented with strategic considerations that tailor the preferences and experiences of Swedish female consumers. Companies need to invest in leveraging social media effectively, and focus on detailed, high-quality content. Promotions should balance immediate appeal with long-term value, and live shopping should aim to inspire and inform consumers, fitting seamlessly into their thoughtful purchasing process. By addressing these factors, Swedish retailers in the fashion industry can influence female purchasing behaviour through live shopping.

In recent years the fashion industry has experienced a high frequency of famous Creative Directors departing the companies for unknown reasons. The same problem does not seem to occur in the Scandinavian fashion industry. This study’s purpose is to explore why Scandinavia does not experience the same problem, contribute a deeper understanding of the leader-designer relationship in the Swedish fashion industry, and to examine how the Scandinavian Cooperative Advantage is applicable in the Swedish fashion industry. Three case studies were conducted at the Swedish fashion companies TRIWA, Baron and Weriseg where both leaders and designers were interviewed. The findings showed that the leaders view their designers as an essential part of the organisation but how they are prioritised depend on the situation. Further more, this study indicates that all of the studied companies have a stakeholder approach, uses a value creating strategy based on cooperation with their stakeholders, are aligned with a typical Swedish organizational culture, and has a Swedish Management Style. Thus this study indicates that the notion of Scandinavian Cooperative Advantage is applicable at the Swedish fashion industry and that this might be a factor for their success.

Background The growth of global e-commerce along with technology and information adoption has driven the international expansions of retail firms. Even though e-commerce companies (ECCs) are changing the way businesses operate and generally have fewer physical barriers to new markets, they still face numerous challenges while internationalizing. Dynamic capabilities are found to have an impact on the internationalization process of ECCs, where exploitative and explorative dynamic capabilities will be the focus of this study. This topic is particularly relevant for the fashion industry since the industry has the characteristics of being highly dynamic, global and complex. Therefore, this paper will focus on the internationalization process of ECCs in the fashion industry. Purpose Due to limited research regarding the internationalization process of ECCs, the purpose of this study is to seek a deeper understanding concerning the internationalization process of fashion ECCs. In particular, in what way exploitative and explorative dynamic capabilities affect the internationalization process of fashion ECCs and how they use these capabilities. Method This is a qualitative study with an abductive research approach. Furthermore, the empirical data was collected from semi-structured in-depth interviews with six international fashion ECCs. Conclusion One main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that all the ECCs use both exploitative and explorative dynamic capabilities in their internationalization, and hence, ambidexterity is achieved. Moreover, language, logistics and payment method are three major factors used in both activities and could be an explanation for how fashion ECCs use their exploitative and explorative dynamic capabilities when internationalizing.

Purpose − Previous research has shown that Swedish Small-and-Medium enterprises (SMEs) have a relatively low level of digital maturity when it comes to export, thus limiting growth potential in international markets. This study aims at investigating this phenomenon with a focus on e-commerce, as it is among the top digital channels that have a large impact on international expansion. Factors influencing the usage of e-commerce channels within internationalisation by Swedish SME fashion retailers will be investigated.  Design/methodology/approach −The overall methodology used in this study is qualitative with an abductive mode of reasoning. The study follows a case study approach using multiple cases with interviews as the primary data source. Based on literature review, thirteen factors are identified to have a certain influence on the usage of e-commerce within internationalisation. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with seven cases to examine the identified factors from literature and explore new factors if possible. Findings − The results present eleven critical factors including eight identified factors from the literature together with five newly discovered factors. They are Relative Advantage, Perceived Usefulness, Compatibility, Costs, Customer Reachability, Branding and Advertising, Time-efficiency, Technology Competence & Configuration, Organisation Size, Competitive Pressure, and Main Product Features. These critical factors have various effects depending on companies’ business operations and the degree of online internationalisation. The results further confirmed that the Uppsala Model is still applicable in the context of Swedish SME fashion retailers internationalising with e-commerce.  Value − This study has contributed to the existing research on e-commerce and internationalisation in terms of the influence on firms’ e-commerce usage within internationalisation in the post-adoption phase, and under the specific business context of Swedish small-and-medium sized fashion retailers. Based on the conclusion, practical implications are offered for similar companies in this industry