Bridging theory and practice in the humane entrepreneurship domain: insights from small and medium Italian enterprises

PurposeHumane entrepreneurship (HumEnt) has been theoretically proposed as a new model of entrepreneurship supporting the idea of an enlarged entrepreneurial strategic posture. The aim of paper is to frame humane entrepreneurial orientation's (HEO) characteristics by showing how firms apply the HumEnt approach, and to offer suggestions to build an HEO measurement scale.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a case study approach, focusing on five Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).FindingsThe study (1) identifies which are the characteristics of HEO strategic posture in the enterprises under examination;(2) shows that entrepreneurs' personal values and credos are fundamental to having an HEO strategic posture adopted;(3) provides indications on the development of a measurement scale through a discussion of emerging HEO themes.Originality/valueThe value of the study is that emerging themes of HEO strategic posture was derived from the analysis of five Italian SMEs. Entrepreneur's personal values have been proven to be relevant in the implementation of HEO. Based on the emerging HEO themes, the study contributes to the literature opening the way toward the building of an all-encompassing HEO measurement scale.

Behavior of Russian Premium Fashion Consumers and Designers after the COVID-19 Pandemic and International Sanctions

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the emerging changes in Russian premium fashion brand consumers' behavior on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic and international economic sanctions, the impact on foreign fashion brands' decisions to leave the market, and the willingness of some Russian fashion designers to scale their businesses and occupy vacated market niches. This problem had arisen for the first time;the situation is unexpected and unique. Therefore, the researchers combined multiple methods of data collection: (1) Observation;(2) Netnography to identify emerging changes in Russian consumers' behavior, which increases the objectivity of the data obtained since personal contact was excluded;and (3) Expert in-depth interviews to assess the situation by Russian fashion designers. QDA and qualitative content analysis were used. Fashion designers in Russia percept the situation as an opportunity for business development, similar to the situation that occurred in Iran, but entrepreneurs understand the market risks and expect more serious measures of state support for business. The results may inform state policymakers and stakeholders about the stated changes in consumer behavior and the capabilities of Russian entrepreneurs to scale the business, which will help identify possible growth vectors for domestic fashion designers in the premium sector. © 2023 Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

StyleTrendGAN: A Deep Learning Generative Framework for Fashion Bag Generation

Dealing with fashion multimedia big data with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms has become an appealing challenge for computer scientists, since it can serve as inspiration for fashion designers and can also allow to predict the next trendy items in the fashion industry. Moreover, with the global spread of COVID-19 pandemic, social media contents have achieved an increasingly crucial factor in driving retail purchase decisions, thus it has become mandatory for fashion brand analysing social media pictures. In this light, this paper aims at presenting StyleTrendGAN, a novel custom deep learning framework that has the ability to generate fashion items. StyleTrendGAN combines a Dense Extreme Inception Network (DexiNed) for sketches extraction and Pix2Pix for the transformation of the input sketches into the new handbag models. StyleTrendGAN increases the efficiency and accuracy of the creation of new fashion models compared to previous ones and to the classic human approach;it aims to stimulate the creativity of designers and the visualization of the results of a production process without actually putting it into practice. The approach was applied and tested on a newly collected dataset, “MADAME” (iMage fAshion Dataset sociAl MEdia) of images collected from Instagram. The experiments yield high accuracy, demonstrating the effectiveness and suitability of the proposed approach. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Luxury fashion retailers' localised marketing strategies in practice – evidence from China

Purpose>From an international retailing perspective, this empirical study aims to examine luxury fashion retailers' changing marketing strategies in China.Design/methodology/approach>Using case studies of 14 luxury fashion retailers, qualitative data were collected via 31 semi-structured executive interviews.Findings>Both standardised global and localised multinational marketing strategies were found to have initially been employed by luxury fashion retailers entering into China. Subsequently, localised multinational strategies became increasingly important for their post-entry operations and business development, particularly in terms of their product strategies. More specifically, as well as the introduction of Chinese brand names, product design has been adapted according to Chinese market conditions, and product portfolios have been adapted to satisfy regional differences. However, localised product sourcing in China is far less common.Research limitations/implications>As the findings are generated from China, they may not explain luxury fashion retailers' marketing strategies in other markets. Despite the relatively small sample size, the 14 luxury fashion retailer case studies originate from across a wide range of countries, retail formats and ownership structures and are therefore considered to be varied enough to represent the market.Practical implications>The study offers practitioners insights into the success that can be generated by the manipulation of marketing strategies, particularly product strategies, within the world's second biggest luxury market.Originality/value>This paper extends the current international retailing literature by examining and comparing the motives and practices of luxury fashion retailers and the increasing localisation of their marketing strategies in China as they move from initial market entry into their post-entry operations.