The lever for innovation in the business model: information systems in the fashion industry

There’s no doubt that today’s market is increasingly volatile, complex and competitive also due to the increasing use of new technologies and applications such as mobile devices and social networking. Nowadays fashion companies, operating in contexts characterized by a fast reduction in the times required for production, have to understand at what pace data needs to be gathered, sorted, and analyzed in order to produce insights in time for managers. Furthermore, outsourcing and industrial delocalization has become significant, especially in fashion industries, where currently a large part of their production is made prevalently by foreign contractors with consequent changes in the whole supply chain. Starting from these premises this research aims to test the role that fashion companies assign to information systems analyzing whether enterprises use them basically to reduce the costs of the main company's processes, reducing management time, or whether they are also seen as a lever for innovation in the business model and in the kind and strength of relationship with their clients. From a methodological point of view this study will perform a quantitative strategy of research through a cross-sectional and longitudinal study using questionnaires for data collection.