The research focuses on examining how the industry-level challenges and features of Finnish fashion influence the internationalisation process of Finnish fashion firms, and do the challenges related to profiting from innovation contribute to this relationship. The author argues that the industry-level challenges have an effect on the Finnish fashion firms’ possibilities to profit from innovation. The research aims to form an understanding of the state of internationalisation of Finnish fashion firms, identify and describe the challenges, and find means to overcome them. The study has been conducted as a qualitative case study, in which the author has combined data from previous research literature with new empirical data collected from interviews of four case companies. Three of the case companies are small Finnish fashion firms at different stages of internationalisation. In addition a Swedish fashion firm which has succeeded in the international markets was interviewed for a comparison.
The theoretical framework was formed by combining internationalisation discussion with profiting from innovation research, and then applied in the context of Finnish fashion industry. The findings of this study indicate that the majority of Finnish fashion firms’ challenges concerning profiting from innovation in international markets originate from the industry-level challenges and features. The industry-level challenges influence the firms’ complementary assets and capabilities that are critical in terms of capturing the value from an innovation. This in turn has in turn contributes to the relationship and escalates the effect the industry-level challenges have on the internationalisation of Finnish fashion firms by strengthening their hindering impact. The empirical examination also revealed that Finnish fashion entrepreneurs do not consider themselves as innovators or their products as innovations. This can have a significant impact on the fashion firms’ abilities to profit from their innovations.
Previous research on the industry-level challenges and features of Finnish fashion is rather limited, and this study contributes to the discussion concerning the impact they have on individual firms. This study also examines the phenomenon from a new perspective by applying Teece’s (1986) seminal profiting from innovation model to the fashion industry. The results of this study can be used to enhance the internationalisation possibilities of Finnish fashion firms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:nbnfioulu-201510152085 |
| Date | 19 October 2015 |
| Creators | Takkinen, T. (Tua) |
| Publisher | University of Oulu |
| Source Sets | University of Oulu |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © Tua Takkinen, 2015 |
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