Fashion business resilience linked to technological innovation in the pandemic crisis
- Written byLCF Research
- Published date 10 March 2023
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Dr Francesca Bonetti, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Marketing at London College of Fashion, is the recipient of the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants 2022. Her project, on which she is working with Professor Gerard Tellis (University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, US) and Dr Alessandra Vecchi (London College of Fashion, UK) is titled ‘Turning a crisis into an opportunity: fashion business resilience linked to technological innovation’.
Companies able to turn the pandemic crisis into a viable opportunity are the ones manifesting agility and resilience by fully embracing technological innovation. Given that the fashion industry is worth £28 billion to the UK creative economy with a $1.5 trillion global value in 2021, the fashion industry offers a vital context for research on technological innovation following the pandemic shock. This project aims to investigate fashion businesses’ capacity for resilience, stemming from the extent to which they have committed to technological innovation. The project focuses on:
- Distribution channels
- Using technologies to enable product fitting
The research findings will contribute to an overall conceptual model of resilience based upon technological innovation that will be of use to the UK fashion industry and the innovation of their future practices.
Francesca is continuing her visiting scholarship with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she will be attending in person from March 2023 to complete her project. She has been invited to present her project to industry and academic events, both in the UK and internationally. She presented at the American Marketing Association (2023 AMA Winter) Conference, Nashville, TN February 10-12 2023.
