Exploring the role of business models in degrowth-oriented socio-ecological transformations: insights from small and medium enterprises in the Fashion sector in Italy

This contribution explores the role of businesses in socio-ecological transformations towards degrowth based on empirical data from the business models (BSMs) of three small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the textile, apparel, and fashion sector (TAF) in Italy. Although the role of businesses in socio-ecological transformations is receiving increasing attention, including emerging studies in the fashion sector, degrowth researchers have just recently started to study private companies. We started from the assumption that businesses are both structures and agents of change, recognising that transformations go beyond the action of individual companies towards the impact in broader societal structures at different scales. Our case studies were chosen because of their alignment against overproduction and their environmental commitments. We built an extended business model canvass and conducted a qualitative content analysis of primary data sources (i.e., field visits, interviews, documents, social media) to study the processes through which the companies create, deliver, and capture value. Our preliminary results are focused on three topics: growth ethos, networking and activism, and spatial relations. First, our cases aim at reducing the size of the fashion market and show alignment with degrowth in their value propositions, e.g., prioritisation of product’s durability and strong sustainability communication. However, they struggle with economic viability and consider their own growth as necessary to have a transformative impact. Second, although they are founders or participants in business networks aimed at changing the fashion sector, such networking is almost exclusively based on a strong engagement with consumers, while public institutions and civil society organisations are rarely approached. Third, the companies are strongly embedded within their territories and seem to be creating social value through the provision of good quality work to local communities, the revitalisation of traditional production practices, and the construction of fair relations with their suppliers. Nevertheless, they source materials in distant locations and sell their products to third countries in other continents. These results show promising dynamics and limitations emerging from our cases’ competitive disadvantage in unequal global supply chains, characterised by the lack of regulations and the creation of socio-ecological externalities as a competitive strategy. The limitations are discussed as barriers of fashion SMEs to translate their inner transformation into broader impact on societal structures without external support. These insights help enrich the reflection about the social conditions needed for businesses to foster degrowth-oriented transformative change.