The 4th Industry Revolution was advocated by Klaud Schwab who is founder of World Economic Forum at the Davos Forum in 2016, and there are big differences on ICT based 4th Industry revolution in the aspects of speed, scope and impact compared with the 3rd Industry revolution. Creating new industries and values through technology such as internet of things, cloud, big data, and artificial intelligence are included in the meaning of The 4th industry revolution. In this article, the direction of change to water technology in response to the 4th Industry revolution is surveyed. 4G Water Infra should minimize environmental impact under the consideration of sustainable development and advanced technologies. To solve the existing water infra problems, it is common and fundamental that the intake water from nature can be regarded as borrowed from nature and it should be returned to natural state with improved water quality. Government, academic organizations and industries should prepare and collaborate together in order to help our country with outstanding capabilities in infrastructure construction and ICT to lead the 4G water technology development.

The total mushroom production in Korea in 2015 comprised about 200,000 ton with a value of about 700 billion won (one trillion won if mushroom factory products are included, 1 $=1,128 won). This is almost equal to the amounts generated by flowers and medicinal crops. Even though the cultivation area and the number of farms have been decreased since 2006, the scale of the farms is increasing. Also mushroom productivity and consumption (4.9 ㎏ / person in 2015) are steadily increasing. Major cultivated species are Flammulina velutipes, Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus eryngii, Lentinula edodes and Agaricus bisporus, which cover 90% of the total production. Shelves, logs, plastic bags or plastic bottles are mostly used for cultivation depending on the kind of mushroom. Mushroom export estimated about 43 million $ in 2016. Major exported mushrooms are Flammulina velutipes, Pleurotus eryngii, Lentinula edodes, Pleurotus ostreatus, Tricholoma matsutake and Agaricus bisporus that are destined for the U.S., the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and several other countries. Mushroom research in the RDA started in 1967. In the beginning, development of cultivation methods using rice straw was studied together with distribution of improved strains of the button mushroom. The costs of button mushroom production strongly increased due the improving national economy, shortage of workers, increase of wages and the oil crisis in the nation. This caused a weak competitive position for button mushroom export and resulted in reduction of the button mushroom cultivation area. After development of a cotton waste cultivation method for the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreastus), this mushroom was popularized and mainly studied. Development of automated plastic bottle cultivation systems in the 1990s changed shelf cultivation to mass production. The bottle system was applied to the oyster mushroom but also to F. velutipes and P. eryngii. Mushroom research in the RDA nowadays focuses on analysis of mushroom genetics in combination with development of new mushroom varieties, mushroom physiology and cultivation. Further studied are environmental factors for cultivation, disease control, development and utilization of mushroom substrate resources, post-harvest management and improvement of marketable traits. Finally, the RDA manages the collection, classification, identification and preservation of mushroom resources.

본 논문은 포터(Porter)가 제시한 요소조건, 수요조건, 연관·지원 산업 실태 및 기업 전략, 구조 및 경쟁관계를 토대로 중국 조선산업에 관련한 현황을 고찰하였다. 또한 중 국 정부의 조선산업에 대한 지원전략과 정책 특성을 분석하였다. 일본과 한국의 사례 와 비교하면 중국은 부실기업을 정리하고 우수기업을 더욱 지원하는 ‘선택과 집중’ 이 라는 전략으로 조선산업 지원정책을 추진하고 있다. 조선산업에 대한 한·중·일의 위기 극복 노력은 모두 정부주도로 추진되어왔으며, 조선산업의 특징을 고려하여 볼 때 정 부의 지원은 산업의 국가경쟁력을 강화하는 데에 매우 중요한 역할을 한다. 중국은 조 선산업의 구조조정 지원정책을 통해 동종기업 간 경쟁관계를 형성하고 전․후방 산업간 연계된 지원전략을 통한 산업의 활성화를 유도하였다. 이는 조선산업의 질적 선진화와 지속가능한 산업구조 구축으로 이어져 외부 위기에 강한 경쟁력을 갖출 수 있는 산업 으로 발전할 수 있게 할 것이다.

South Korea and developing countries like Uganda have sought to re-energize their agriculture sector growth using 6th Industrialization of Agriculture strategies. These strategies seek to upgrade farming households from just being producers or primary industry players to participants in the secondary and tertiary industry. This convergence is known as 1x2x3 = 6th Industrialization. This involves farmers strengthening production and investing in higher value chain activities such as agrotourism, agro-processing, farm restaurants, and the export market. These developments are driven by investment in institutional arrangements and technology that is often beyond the capacity of individual farming households as well as some farmer organizations and cooperatives. Qualitative approaches were used to draw lessons from two typical rice farmer organizations and two rice value addition groups and other sector players to investigate group formation dyanamics and the capacity of farmer organizations to attain goals for grouping. The results show being a member of a farmer organization increases access to inputs such as machinery, however, the key determinant to joining is trust/mistrust of leadership. In regard to attainment of 6th Industrialization, farmer organizations still have to hassle with uncertainty of marketing a new 6th industry product. Nevertheless farmer organizations seem closer to attaining the 6th industry goal due to exposure to primary processing and export business. Some implications have been drawn for Korea as well as localization to Uganda’s situation.

Advances in information technology, communication and network technology are radically facilitating digital convergences as the integration of human, equipment, and space in the current industry 4.0 era. In industry 4.0 environment, the vast amount of information with networked computing technology can be simultaneously accessible even in limited physical space. Two main benefit points out of these information are the convenience and efficiency in their online transactions either buying things online or selling online. Even though there exist so many benefits that information technology can create for the people doing business over the internet there is a critical problem to be answered. In spite of many such advantages, however, online transactions have many dysfunctions such as personal information leakage, account hacking, and cybercrime. Without preparing the appropriate protection methods or schema people reluctantly use the transaction or would find some other partners with enhanced information security environment. In this paper we suggested a novel selection criteria that can be used to evaluate the reliable means of authentication against the expected risks under on-going IoT based environment. Our selection criteria consists of 4 steps. The first step is services and risk identification step. The second step is evaluation of risk occurrence step. The third step includes the evaluation of the extent of damage. And the final step is the assessment of the level of risk. With the help of the above 4 step-approach people can systematically identify potential risks hiding in the online transactions and effectively avoid by taking appropriate counter actions

Defense industries which require high reliability need an optimized quality management system with well-planned implementation. And the government should examine the overall status of defense industries, then establish practical policies with a proper support plan in required areas to upgrade the quality management level of manufacturers. Thus, DTaQ developed the model for 2 years from 2014, which specialized in quality management level analysis for defense industries. And a survey has been undertaken with that model by DTaQ and Korea Research Center in 2016. The surveyed companies randomly sampled among those which have more than 30 employees and delivery history over past 3 years, and finally 106 defense industries were selected. This paper present survey method and indexes for survey of defense industry quality management level. The survey was conducted in the order of planning, data collection and data processing, and the validity and reliability of the data were verified to increase objectivity of survey results. The survey contents mainly consist of system quality and management quality. System quality includes Product Development Management, Production Operation Management, supply chain quality management, Safety & Environment Management and Reliability Management, on the other hand, management quality includes Strategic Leadership, Human Resource Management, Customer Market Management and Information & Knowledge Management. Thus this proposes the current overall quality management status of the 106 defense industries and shows level differences by company sizes and manufacturing sectors based on the result of survey. Specifically, this paper enables to track the areas which need prompt government support with the policy directions to make quality management level higher. Therefore, it is expected that this can be used as reference data in establishing quality policies for military supplies in the future.

The purpose of this study was to suggest torso patterns that fit the three main body shapes of elderly obese women. To reduce time, costs, and also the trial and error needed to make patterns, the CLO program for 3D test wear was employed. Three virtual models for aged obese women were use, with the YUKA system used to produce torso patterns. 3D simulation of test wear and corrections was done to design optimal torso patterns. The results were as follows: First, for the three models of obese women’s body shapes as realized by CLO 3D, Type 1 is lower-body obesity shapes, Type 2 is abdominal obesity shapes, and Type 3 is whole-body obesity shapes. Second, to design the study patterns, actual measurement values, back waist length and waist to hip length, were used. The armhole depth (B/4-1.5), front interscye (B/6+2.3), front neck width (B/12-0.5), front neck depth (B/12+0.5), front waist measurement (W/4+ 1.5+D), front hip measurement (H/4+2+0.5), and back hip measurement (H/4+3-0.5) were calculated using formulas. Third, according to the results of test-wearing the study patterns, reduced front neck width and depth improved the neck fit and reduced armhole depth bettered loose or plunging armhole girth and also reduced the sagging of bust c.. Also, tight sidesfrom aprotruded waist and abdomen improved with the increase of surpluses in the back waist and also back and front hip c. The exterior was enhanced by displacement of back and front darts, which distributed surpluses better.

The purpose of this study was to suggest torso patterns that fit the three main body shapes of elderly obese women. To reduce time, costs, and also the trial and error needed to make patterns, the CLO program for 3D test wear was employed. Three virtual models for aged obese women were use, with the YUKA system used to produce torso patterns. 3D simulation of test wear and corrections was done to design optimal torso patterns. The results were as follows: First, for the three models of obese women’s body shapes as realized by CLO 3D, Type 1 is lower-body obesity shapes, Type 2 is abdominal obesity shapes, and Type 3 is whole-body obesity shapes. Second, to design the study patterns, actual measurement values, back waist length and waist to hip length, were used. The armhole depth (B/4-1.5), front interscye (B/6+2.3), front neck width (B/12-0.5), front neck depth (B/12+0.5), front waist measurement (W/4+ 1.5+D), front hip measurement (H/4+2+0.5), and back hip measurement (H/4+3-0.5) were calculated using formulas. Third, according to the results of test-wearing the study patterns, reduced front neck width and depth improved the neck fit and reduced armhole depth bettered loose or plunging armhole girth and also reduced the sagging of bust c.. Also, tight sidesfrom aprotruded waist and abdomen improved with the increase of surpluses in the back waist and also back and front hip c. The exterior was enhanced by displacement of back and front darts, which distributed surpluses better.

Pulp and paper industry produces large volumes of wastewater and residual sludge waste, resulting in many issues in relation to wastewater treatment and sludge disposal. Contaminants in pulp and paper wastewater include effluent solids, sediments, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and biological oxygen demand (BOD), which should be treated by wastewater treatment processes such as coagulation and biological treatment. However, few works have been attempted to predict the treatment efficiency of pulp and paper wastewater. Accordingly, this study presented empirical models based on experimental data in laboratory-scale coagulation tests and compared them with statistical models such as artificial neural network (ANN). Results showed that the water quality parameters such as turbidity, suspended solids, COD, and UVA can be predicted using either linear or expoential regression models. Nevertheless, the accuracies for turbidity and UVA predictions were relatively lower than those for SS and COD. On the other hand, ANN showed higher accuracies than the emprical models for all water parameters. However, it seems that two kinds of models should be used together to provide more accurate information on the treatment efficiency of pulp and paper wastewater.

With consumption increasingly shifting to online and mobile, the physical retail environment has been called into question. However, not all facets of a physical experience can be substituted virtually (Anderson & Eckstein, 2013; Johnson, Kim, Mun & Lee, 2014, Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson 2014, Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). The enduring quest for real, tangible experiences with real people and in real environments is one reason for the acknowledgement of the importance of architectural branding 1 , enabling memorable experiences (Raffelt, 2012). Here, architectural branding plays a key role at the intersection of consumer behavior, marketing management, and design. Furthermore, one can also observe the trend of forward brand verticalization in retail: with brands increasingly strive towards direct distribution, they open and manage more retail stores themselves (Kahn, Inman & Verhoef, 2016, Nierobisch et al. 2017, Teufel & Zimmermann, 2015, Tischer, 2014). This is especially true for the luxury industry, where brands are looking for ways to attain more control over the brand in order to steer highend customer experiences (Wiedmann & Hennings, 2013, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2015). Therefore, demand to develop good architectural branding in retail and to improve retail design strategies for current and future challenges is crucial. During the last five years, marketing scholars, renowned management consulting firms, and the popular press have examined the role of brick and mortar as one aspect of an omnichannel strategy in a world of increasing digitalization (Anderson & Eckstein, 2013; Bauer, Beil, & Wege, 2014; Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson 2014; Worden, 2013; Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). The importance of architecture in general and retail design as a specialization thereof in marketing strategy has been broadly acknowledged (e.g. Kotler, 1973; Kotler & Rath, 1984; Martineau, 1958; Münster & Haug, 2017). Although, there is only little research focused on architectural branding (Raffelt, Littich & Meyer, 2011; Raffelt, Schmitt & Meyer, 2013). This is likely caused by its position at the intersection of the research fields on retail stores (e.g Kent & Stone, 2007; Kirby & Kent, 2010; Borghini, Diamand, Kazinets, Mccrath, Muiz, JR., & Sherry, JR., 2009; Hiss; 1987; Kozinets, Sherry, DeBerry-Spence, Duhachek, Nuttavuthisit, & Storm, 2002), brand experience (e.g. Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2009; Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Schmitt 1999), and atmospherics (e.g. Kotler, 1973; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Rayburn & Voss, 2013; Spence, Puccinelli, Grewal, & Roggeveen, 2014). Here, articles primarily focused on store design in general (e.g; Kent & Sone, 2007; Kirby & Kent, 2010; Meyers-Levy & Zhu, 2008),flagship store design (e.g. Borghini et al., 2009; Hiss; 1987; Kozinets et al., 2002), or were primarily published in retail management journals. However, in marketing and management research, there are limited journal publications about the role of physical stores in the luxury industry in times of digitalization. Dion & Borraz (2015) stated that luxury brands recently followed the strategy to build very costly and unique boutiques with star architects, which have become sacred places. The role of store design in the luxury industry is even scarcer. In two case studies, Jiang, Nagasawa, & Watada (2014) investigated the role of store design for the brands Bally and Tod's in Japan. Thus, this research project aims to fill this research gap and extend the research in the field of architectural branding in the luxury industry, investigating role of physical stores in an omnichannel construct and to gain a deeper knowledge on how to sustainably tangibilize brands in modern and future luxury retail environments, answering the following question: What is the role of store design for luxury monobrand stores in a digital economy? This research project will apply an inductive and exploratory research method, implying a qualitative research design. It will build upon existing literature in the mass market and draw from two studies using in-depth interviews with academics and practitioners from the field of marketing and retail primarily working in the luxury industry to gain more insights about the role of physical stores in this specific industry. One study will focus on ways to make brands tangible in store. The other study will lay its focus on how a omnichannel strategy supports luxury brands in offering a superior in-store experience. Furthermore, results from a workshop with executives from brands with high-end positioning will be taken into account as well as expert interviews about the role of store design in general. These four studies will be presented in an aggregated manner during the conference. The overall contribution of this project is to provide insights about the role of brick and mortar retail design in the luxury industry and thereby extend research in the field or architectural branding in retail.

One specific manifestation of CSR is the solicitation of donations in collaboration with an NGO. Especially in an online environment, companies can easily control if they present donation options to consumers either before or after the actual purchase moment of their products. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the sequence of purchase and donation requests in the customer journey influences the willingness to donate to a charitable cause and the potential revenues for the seller. As theoretical frame, we use two related concepts of moral self-regulation, namely moral licensing and moral cleansing. We assume that consumers spend a higher sum on a luxury product after donating to an NGO (moral licensing) and vice versa donate a higher sum to charity after purchasing a self-indulgent product (moral cleansing). While we do not consider luxury products as morally questionable per se, prior research has shown that consumers repeatedly feel bad after purchasing a luxury item. Our results indicate that the moral cleansing effect is present in our experiment. On average, participants who first indicate their WTP for a luxury product are subsequently more prone to donating money to an NGO. We could not observe a moral licensing effect at large. Both conditions lead to comparable mean WTP measures, hence to similar total potential revenues. In general, our results indicate that both parties profit the most, if donation options are available after purchase decisions.

Introduction The concentration of manufacturing factories in China signals a significant change in the global economy. Manufacturers in countries that are not price competitive feel a sense of crisis and use servitization in the manufacturing industry as a countermeasure. In particular, with the recent rapid development of IoT and AI, service methods are becoming faster and more diverse resulting in increased research on servitization. Vandermerwe and Rada (1988), who first mentioned the term servitization, define it as providing customer-focused products, services, support, self-service, and knowledge, all bundled together. Despite numerous studies on servitization few consider the customer’s perspective, although many consider the producer’s point of view. So far existing research only explored on how consumers accept value-in-use based on an accurate understanding of consumers' needs from the consumer perspective in servitization, based on expectation-confirmation theory. This study examines how customers accept servitization and links it to customer satisfaction. Literature review Servitization Ren and Gregory (2007) defined servitization as a strategic change in which manufacturing companies develop service-oriented or better services to satisfy customers, gain competitive advantage, and improve corporate performance. Raja et al. (2013) examined servitization to find the most important attributes of value-in-use for customers using servitized products and classified them into seven attributes. This study is based on the seven attributes identified by Raja et al. (2013). Perceived Usefulness, Confirmation, and Customer Satisfaction Bhattacharjee developed the Continuance Use Model based on the expectation-confirmation theory and conducted empirical studies for verification (2001b). Our study analyzes the correlation between customer acceptance process and customer satisfaction based on the Expectation-Confirmation model by Bhattacharjee (2001b). Research method We conducted surveys and analyzed the data of 50 Korean university students and members of the public using Smart Pay (Samsung Pay, Apple Pay etc.). The reliability of the questionnaire was verified by using the Cronbach’s alpha values and exploratory factor analysis. The seven variables of the value-in-use attributes of servitization identified by Raja et al. are as follows: relational dynamic, accessibility, range of product and service offering, knowledge, price, delivery, and locality. We measured three additional variables: perceived usefulness, confirmation, and customer satisfaction. Contributions Academic contribution This study provides a theoretical basis for examining the relationship between variables and the influence of the value-in-use attributes of servitization on customer acceptance and satisfaction. Practical contribution We present implications for customer satisfaction in the servitization process of manufacturing companies by explaining how customers accept the value-in-use attributes of servitization.

Recent years have brought along a significant increase of possibilities to get in touch and interact with potential and current customers (Neslin et al., 2006; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Especially the rise of digital media as well as sales channels has added new challenges and general complexity to the management of customer interactions (Brynjolfsson, Hu, and Rahman, 2013; Lamberton & Stephen, 2016). At the same time, consumers’ preferences regarding how, where, and when to get in touch with brands, be approached by, and interact with them are changing (Edelmann, 2010; Batra & Keller, 2016; Sherman, 2017). At the forefront of this trend are consumers of the millennial generation, who are stereotyped to be much more connected, social media present, and impatient than previous generations (Fromm & Garton, 2013; Goldman Sachs, 2016). For luxury brands the challenge is particularly difficult. They want to provide the best experience to their consumers to underpin their exclusiveness (Atwal & Williams, 2009; Kapferer, 1996; Kapferer, 2014) at the same time they are facing a high risk of inconsistency across touchpoints. Their limited experience with digital touchpoints reinforce the challenging task even further (Okonkwo, 2009; Heine & Berghaus, 2014). Not reacting does not seem to be an option in light of the market developments. Following every trend and being present in every possible channel does not appear to be the most compelling strategy either. It raises the risk of inconsistency and badly managed interactions. Rather, companies need to define goals along the customer journey, pick the right touchpoints and manage them in a way to reach those goals, and deduct strategies to provide an integrated customer experience. The question arises how can brands successfully exploit touchpoint strategies to engage Millennials in the luxury market? Most published studies focus on specific groups of touchpoints and conclude that a more holistic understanding of customer interactions is needed (Baxendale, Macdonald & Wilson, 2015; Verhoef & Lemon, 2016). Also in the luxury segment, research has mainly explored the new digital touchpoints or the retail channel in particular, but not taken a holistic view discussing overall touchpoint strategies (e.g. Kim & Ko, 2012; Heine & Berghaus, 2014; Lee & Watkins, 2016). We aim to close this gap by taking a strategic view on touchpoint management and its goals focusing on the luxury industry and Millennial consumers as a customer group to secure a forward-looking perspective. Based on Baxendale et al. (2015) we define a touchpoint as each direct or indirect interaction of a consumer with a brand. This means that brand to consumer as well as consumer to consumer and third party to consumer interactions are included in our understanding, which appears to be highly relevant in light of the high importance of word of mouth referrals for luxury brands and the increasing relevance of bloggers and influencers. To understand which touchpoints should and can be used for which purposes, we first want to understand what goals companies pursue along the customer journey and then deduct which touchpoints can help them accomplish those goals. Is a brand website for example a tool that should convert customers to buy or is it rather an information tool that nurtures awareness in the pre-purchase phase? Depending on the answer, the content and website design as well as the definition what constitutes success for the website presence need to be fundamentally different. If the goal has not been defined in advance, the management of the website may appear difficult as different directions may be pursued. To shed light on these challenges, we use a literature review to develop a semi-structured interview guide. We then speak to industry experts to learn more about the goals they pursue in each phase of interaction with consumers along the customer journey. We deduct the types of interactions that are the most fruitful to successfully perform these interactions. This way, we aim to deduct first insights into the management of touchpoints. These can later on be further deepened.

The fashion products are believed that reinforce the inequities, exploit workers, spur resource use, increase environmental impact, and generate waste. Sustainability has been recognized as a major concern worldwide, and this also increases considerations regarding the challenges to business need to be faced in the fashion industry. When the fashion industry aims to promote sustainability, the main change factors have been linked to environmental and ethical issues in production. This paper aims to exploring an index for measuring sustainable performance of fashion company based on customer’s perception. The index measurement system is built from the basic dimensions of sustainability: economic, environment and social and the key influencing items in fashion industry: culture. Culture acts an important role in fashion consumption since it gives effects to customer’s behaviou and customer self-identity. Based on these four dimensions the this study designs a model related with customer’s perception and expectation to measure the evaluation of fashion company’s sustainable performance. Based on the result of index this paper studies how the customer’s evaluation upon sustainable performance works on customer’s loyalty. This index is designed for evaluating the sustainable performance of fashion company and give a direction to the managers in fashion industry that what the advantage is and weakness is in the sustainability strategy. It is efficiency for the managers to improve the sustainability strategy to match customer’s needs for engaging long-term benefit from fashion customers.

The main objective of this study is to compare the difference of consumers’ perception on brand context. The focal factors are brand equity, brand personality and perceived customer value. This would enhance the knowledge of cross-cultural brand equity and brand personality, especially in Fast-Fashion industry. In addition, the findings of this study show that, for a brand in different marketing context, how customers perceive the brand and contribute it to their value. The sample size of 800 consumers is applied (400 Japanese consumers and 400 Thai consumers. The focal brand is randomly selected by the researcher. The Structural Equation Modelling with multiple group analysis would be conducted for examining the differences of consumer perception on a Fast-Fashion brand. All major model fits indicator would be evaluated. Finally, the results of the study would be discussed.

Fashion and apparel industry is facing difficult challenges due to several factors such as technology development, environmental changes, inherent characteristics of fashion industry itself, fast changing demands, supply chain, and consumer’s expectation of seamless purchase process. Consumers have the power in that fashion retailers need to provide variety and new products, to build brand loyalty, to provide corporate responsibility and sustainability, and to develop inventory intelligence (Beswick 2016). That said, enhanced efficiencies in those will grant fashion retailers and firms with sustainable competitive advantages. Such efficiencies are often based on digital technology development, creating a new trend. In this study, we examine and compare three big trends in the fashion industry along with an advance of technology in digital marketing. First, Ritzer (1993) observed a process by which the four principles of the fast-food restaurant began to increasingly dominate several aspects of American society. The four principles are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control, based on the observation of McDonald’s daily operation. He labeled this process and phenomenon as McDonaldization. In other words, any society or subsectors of society can be very successful with the four principles of McDonaldization, including the fashion industry. Second, in addition to McDonaldization, Netflix added one more, yet an extremely important aspect of such operation, that is personalized suggestions. Personalization becomes essential for most services and even for lots of products (personalized T-shirts, bags, etc.). Based on customers’ history of what they had watched, Netflix provides personalized suggestions of next movies, dramas, or episodes. More importantly, instead of physical DVD, Netflix provides online streaming services with personalized suggestions. Thus, an online order system with personalized suggestions for clothes would be an important aspect of fashion industry and retailers, which can be called as Netflixization. Lastly, from the case of Stitch Fix, we’d like to propose a new concept, that is, Netflix of fashion. Stitch Fix is an interesting firm in the fashion industry. The firm uses customized stylists for each customer based on the responses from style quiz. Thus, it focuses on personalization of what customers really want and need in terms of occasions and preferences. Second, it delivers, by mail, five clothes to customers so that customers can choose one or more from the five clothes or choose nothing. By doing this, the firm provides not only convenience, but also choice options for customers. Third, the firm guarantees customer satisfaction with an easy return policy. A more important thing is the fact that the firm can accumulate intelligence based on the customers’ feedbacks of why customers did not like the suggest clothes and decided to return. Thus, the firm can build a “Big data” for better understanding of customer’s needs and wants. In other words, the firm develops a new concept of “your fix.” I would label the whole process of Stitch Fix as Stitchfixization. In sum, any fashion industry and retailer that adopts the concept of Stitchfixization of efficiency, calculability, predictability, control, personalization, feedback, convenience, and intelligence building, would be well accepted by current tough customers throughout the world.

Luxury goods are characterised by a series of traits such as exclusivity, rarity, premium price, high quality and aesthetic value, but also to specific methods of production that focus on notions of excellent workmanship carried out by expert craftspeople. This paper focuses on the problematic relationship between craftsmanship and the luxury fashion industry by examining how representations of craftsmanship are employed by luxury fashion labels in their communication strategies. In particular, the strategies employed by Dolce&Gabbana will be examined. It will be argued that the label has emphasised in its online communication the craftsmanship involved in the creation of its products, but it will be observed how that element is presented only in association to limited categories of goods, and not to the totality of products that are associated to the name of the fashion brand. The case study of Dolce&Gabbana will be explored with regards to the role that the label's online communication strategies attributes to notions of Italian handmade craftsmanship, and in this sense those practices will be examined in terms of national identity. This phenomenon will also be contextualised in terms of the contemporary marketing strategies employed by luxury fashion labels and the relationship they hold with regards to traditional conceptualisations of luxury.

This study examines how small weaving manufacturers in Japan managed to successfully transform their cotton kimono businesses during the phenomenon of the growing popularity of Western clothing in the 1970s, and develop within the Sanbi industrial cluster to become global leaders in the production of high-quality denim and jeans worldwide. Introduction Japanese denim companies are very small but remain competitive due to their quality, compared with Chinese, Mexican, and Turkish companies. Some of these Japanese companies have won the Premier Vision Fabrics Handle Prize, while others have created new denim fabrics, such as soft denim, for luxury brands. According to the data of the Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA), as a proportion of sales in 2015 the United States imported most of its blue denim fabric from Japan (28.9 percent), with China in second place (26.2 percent), and Mexico third (17.3 percent); in terms of volume, the United States imported blue denim fabric from China (36.3 percent), with Mexico in second place (24.8 percent), and Japan third (13.5 percent). How was it that Japanese denim companies developed to become such prominent leaders in the field? Most of these companies are clustered geographically, with jeans companies sitting side-by-side with dyeing, processing, and finishing factories. These clusters were originally set up for the production of Kasuri cotton kimono clusters, and only shifted into denim and jeans production in the 1970s. This study will shed light on the development process of the denim industry in Japan – focusing on the Sanbi district, the largest denim and jeans cluster – and will examine the success factors in the global market from a historical perspective using primary sources. The Westernization of Clothing One success factor is the social and culture background in Japan (Fujioka and Wubs, forthcoming). Before the Second World War most people in Japan – male and female, old and young – wore kimonos. A kimono is a traditional Japanese robe that is tied at the waist by a wide belt called an ‘obi’. It has no buttons, zippers, or any other kinds of fastening. The shape of the garment is very simple and it has little decoration. A kimono is made from many different types of fabric, including silk, cotton, wool, and linen. The type of fabric defined the kimono’s suitability for different occasions, such as a high-quality silk kimono for ceremonial events and a cotton one for casual wear. The type of fabric also reflected a person’s social position, until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. During this time only the Samurai class could wear silk kimonos, while other social classes wore cotton kimonos. After 1868 people had freedom of choice in clothing, meaning that anyone could wear silk kimonos for weddings and funerals. Although Western-style clothing had already been introduced to the upper classes by the Japanese government during the Meiji Restoration, after the Second World War, the Japanese lifestyle began to be westernized at an ever-faster pace, particularly in the area of clothing. Along with the high economic growth in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the kimono market shrank and Western fashion became a mass phenomenon in Japan. First came tailor-made clothes for upper-class and upper-middle-class customers; after this, clothing companies rapidly increased their sales, and ready-to-wear clothing soon became common among every generation and income group in the 1970s. Jeans were one example of the clothing that was introduced at this time, and a niche market formed of mainly young customers who lived in urban areas. These young consumers had first seen jeans being worn by Americans from the General Headquarters (GHQ) during the recovery period, and they soon began to identify jeans as a symbol of freedom and individuality. With the increasing demand for jeans, several jeans and denim companies were established in the 1970s to capture this niche market. Since then the denim and jeans market in Japan has developed to specialize in high-quality premium denim and jeans. The Sanbi Industrial Cluster The main factor in the success of the Japanese denim and jeans industry is the effective transformation of the whole cluster. Cotton kimonos have a variety of styles based on various dyeing and weaving methods. The ‘Kasuri’ kimono, for example, is a type of cotton kimono that is dyed with indigo, requiring great skill in dyeing and weaving; as a result, it can be very expensive, although this type of cotton kimono is still regarded as casual, everyday clothing. There were three main industrial clusters for Kasuri kimonos in Japan, namely Kurume, Iyo, and Bingo, which had been established in around 1800. Among these, Bingo became the largest cluster and produced more mass products than the others in the 1960s. While Kurume and Iyo were striving to innovate a new Kasuri fabric and shifted to the high-end market to cover the decreasing demands of kimonos, the Bingo cluster created mass products more efficiently than before. It continued to increase its sales until 1960 with the improvement of technology, although in the 1970s sales began to decrease rapidly with the huge growth in demand for Western clothing (Shinichi Choshi Hensan Iinkai, 2002). Many manufacturers therefore suffered from the introduction of the new Western clothing. Some silk kimono manufacturers were able to shift their focus to the high-end market for ceremonial occasions due to their special place in Japanese society (Hashino, 2015). However, many cotton kimono manufacturers, particularly those in the Bingo cluster who focused on mass customers, were unable to do so, because of the shrinking casual kimono market. This industrial cluster was therefore forced by changing consumer demands to transform the whole nature of its business from the production of traditional cotton Kasuri kimonos to a brand new industry. The neighboring clusters of Bingo are Bizen and Bicchu, which were also cotton kimono clusters that used Kasuri fabric. Some manufacturers in Bizen who made kimono accessories started to produce ‘tabi’ (Japanese-style socks) in 1877 and then began sewing Western-style work clothes in the 1910s. In the 1920s many manufactures in the Bizen cluster started to produce Western-style school uniforms, which became increasingly popular (Fujii et al., 2007). This was a natural transition in terms of finding different uses for the same relevant technology: from the production of cotton fabric to tabi, and from tabi to school uniforms. All these products were made for daily use, and the same cutting and sewing skills for thick textiles that were used to make tabi were directly transferable to the production of work uniforms and school uniforms; by 1937 the Bizen cluster had become the largest producer of school uniforms in Japan. However, between 1965 and 1970 the demand for school uniforms fell, because the early generation of baby boomers had passed through school, and competition within each cluster became more intensive with the emergence of newcomers. In order to manage the distribution channel and build a stable production system, large cotton-spinning companies controlled the weaving mills and sewing factories and organized retailers to maintain retail prices. This was a well-known form of management in Japan at the time called ‘Keiretsu’. As a result, those manufacturers who were not working in partnership with any large spinning manufacturers found it very difficult to secure orders, and were eventually pushed out of the industry and forced to change the nature of their business. One of these small manufacturers in Bizen was called Big John, which had been established in 1940 to produce school uniforms. After transforming its business, it started to sew the first ‘made in Japan’ jeans using imported American denim in 1967, and later using Japanese denim in 1972 (Sugiyama, 2009). Its great success encouraged many of its surrounding manufacturers to join this emerging field, which resulted in the establishment of a whole new denim and jeans industry that spread across Bizen, Bingo, and Bicchu to the point where these three districts became collectively known as ‘Sanbi’ in Japanese. The Successful Transformation of Industrial Clusters New technology for producing denim and jeans was brought to Japan from the United States. Many denim companies started out as producers of Kasuri fabric and shifted to denim production in the 1960s and 1970s, using their existing skills and technology to make this transition. Although it was a natural path to take considering the change in consumer demand and the fact that both Kasuri fabric and jeans were dyed by indigo, there were many challenges involved in adapting to this change. Rope dyeing was the biggest hurdle that these manufacturers had to face, but they managed to learn the technique by reverse engineering American-made jeans and relying on their skills in indigo dyeing and sewing thick textiles. Making a success of this transition from a cotton kimono cluster into a denim and jeans cluster was the only way that these businesses could survive the huge growth in popularity of Western clothing in Japan. This whole transformational process was led by small, lesser-known manufacturers rather than by larger ones. As one of the major businesses in the Kasuri cluster in Japan, Bingo catered for the mass market, but was hardest hit by the introduction of Western clothing, as it was more difficult for its business model to adjust to westernization. Bizen, however, managed to shift to the production of Western clothing at an early stage, focusing on uniforms – and it was the dropout factories from the uniform industry that eventually became the driving force behind the emergence of the jeans industry. The resulting success of the Japanese denim business model then spread out across the cluster, which today enjoys an enhanced competitive advantage in the global market.

The New Product Development (NPD) in the textile industry is peculiar, as it follows constraints that are particular to the fashion business. A qualitative study comprising 45 interviews were conducted in a South American textile industry and results showcase that fashion forecast, pressure for newness, and cost reduction are relevant matters. Introduction The textile industry follows a particular cycle for New Product Development (NPD) as it answers the demand from the fashion industry. Fashion supply chain is fragmented, as the production process is fragmented with companies playing different roles in the production cycle. There are companies that uses the raw material to produce yarns that will be transformed into fabrics, which then it is transformed into clothes, through process that may be a single sewing to complex process that demands intermediate process such as industrial washes. These clothes are sold to consumers through various selling channels, such as stores, retailers, e-commerce, and even door-to-door. Usually one company plays only one of these roles in the supply chain, what makes the production plan to be fragmented amongst several different companies in the supply chain (Şen, 2008). After globalization, this supply chain became even more complex as each chain may be located in different parts of the world, due to production costs and optimization. This scenario results in a supply chain that demands several planning skills, that works, sometimes, with extensive production cycles. (Thomassey, 2014). But, as Christopher, Lowson, & Peck (2004) noted, the supply chain in the fashion business must be agile to respond to changes in demand from consumers, which often occurs, and it can be also very complex as clothing is a way for consumers to either differentiate or fit in society, and the rules to be in or out of society patterns changes fast (Cholachatpinyo, Fletcher, Padgett, & Crocker, 2002a, 2002b). Due to this complexity and richness of information, the production cycle in fashion business has been extensively studied in the literature (Alexander & Contreras, 2016; Aung & Sha, 2016; Oxborrow & Brindley, 2014) but authors often use a wide perspective to grasp an overview of the supply chain they are studying, using market data and information, or gathering general information from companies that are present in the fashion supply chain. Authors focused their analysis in the supply chain itself, and we could not find studies that focused on the perspective of the product development task in the challenging context of fashion business. There are some characteristics from the fashion business that differentiate New Product Development (NPD) from a classical Business to Business (B2B) scenario. In a brief description of the fashion business production system, we see that it starts with the production of raw materials that varies from natural fibers (e.g. cotton, silk, linen) or artificial fibers (e.g. polyester, nylon, elastane) that are then spinning into threads that may contain one or more different fibers. These threads are then transformed into fabrics through several different weaving techniques, and then it may go through some finishing treatments (e.g. dying, washing), and then it goes to garment manufacturing where garment makers produce clothes for their own brands or for third-parties brands. These clothes are then sold to consumers through various channels (e.g. retail stores, electronic stores). If we analyze this brief description we can see that fashion may influence in all parts of the production cycle, including the demand for raw materials: if denim products are in vogue, then there is a growing demand for cotton products, if sportswear is in vogue, then the demand improves for artificial fibers, and so on. One other thing that should be noted is that usually each part of the production cycle is performed by a different company: the most common scenario we see in the textile industry includes companies that produce only threads, and sell these threads to textile companies that produce fabrics to sell to garment makers that produces clothes to sell to brands to sell them to consumers. There are some companies that integrates two or more parts of the production cycles but they are the exception, not the rule. This fragmented production process combined with the fashion influence result in long production cycles: a designer’s idea may take from three to eighteen months to be available to consumers, depending on the production channels assessed by the designer. These characteristics showcase how NPD in the fashion business may be complex and therefore it should be investigated further in the literature, and this is the objective of this study. In order to do that, we researched the specific literature in NPD that is vastly discussed in literature as it is responsible for creating, managing and releasing products that are both appealing to customers and profitable to the company. (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). Understanding what makes an NP succeed in the market has been on the marketing agenda for a long time, including the fashion business (Alexander & Contreras, 2016; Clarke, 2012; Thompson & Haytko, 1997). One interesting point of view is to understand the predecessors of NP success in the market. Henard & Szymanski (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of 60 studies focused on the antecedents of NP success and proposed a list of 24 predictors of NP performance, which they grouped into four categories: (i) product characteristics, (ii) firm strategy characteristics, (iii) firm process characteristics and (iv) marketplace characteristics. We selected the most relevant predecessors discussed by Henard & Szymanski (2001) and Song & Xie (2000) to use as a basis for a script for interviews with NPD professionals. Methodology We conducted in-depth interviews with 45 professionals from different areas that participate in, or are impacted by, NPD process in a South American textile industry. From now on we will call this company “Southex”. These interviews offered a deep understanding of the perspective of NPD professionals, both insiders (professional that work in the NPD team) or outsiders (professional from departments that work as an internal supplier or client for the NPD team). Southex is one of the biggest textile producers in the world, with producing units in Latin America, commercial offices in Europe, Asia, and America. Sales are over U$ 1 bi/year, and the company employed more than 8,000 people in 2012, when this study was performed. Their main market is Latin America where fashion seasons are in opposition to the ones in the North part of the globe, home of the fashion trendsetters for global macro trends (Europe, USA, and Japan). This leads to a one-year postponement of fashion trends, so when something is released as a fashion trend for summer in Europe, it will be considered a trend for summer one year later in Latin America. Southex NPD team had 12 exclusively dedicated professionals as of 2012. Southex launches products in the market with the concept of collections, when the company releases a group of NPs in the market. Every year, the company releases two collections in the market. It usually takes up to six months for NPD team to complete and launch a new collection. Research into fashion trends, commercial needs and technological improvements available in the market are the main sources the company uses to develop NP. Prior to launching a product in the market, the NPD team needs to test its production process in order to guarantee that the product can be produced on a large scale at competitive costs. Every collection is launched as a sample of fabrics that will be produced 4-6 months in the future. If a collection is released in January, the products that Southex is launching will start to be produced in June. So their clients, mainly garment makers and fashion brands, need to coordinate their production chain to start receiving these fabrics after June. Considering the production cycle in these garment makers, it is estimated that the clothing produced with the fabric launched by Southex in January will be delivered to retail stores (and then available to the consumer) in November, almost one year after Southex has launched the fabric in the market. In order to gather a deep perspective of all matters related to NPD we interview 45 professionals, totaling over 1,600 hours of recorded interviews. 12 insiders, comprising 100% of the team available at that moment, and 33 outsiders from departments such as Marketing, Sales, and Technical Support. Their positions ranged from analysts to directors.. All interviews followed a predefined script of topics. Interviews were transcribed and sent to the corresponding professional for validation, during which they could ask for adjustments. 12 professionals asked for changes in the transcription and we used the changed and approved text, together with the 33 unchanged texts in this analysis. Results and Discussion All texts were then codified according to content, which involved identifying similar topics and applying codes to facilitate analysis of the interviews. Using the predecessors of NP success has facilitated our understanding of the matters related to NPD at Southex. By formatting the presentation of information gathered in the interviews with the predecessors we were able to see the main issues found in NPD. In total, there were 421 mentions codified. After analyzing the codification of the interviews, we can see that Cross function is the main topic addressed by respondents. This is due to the relationship that the flow of NPD activities in the company. As we can see, there were several issues related to the relationship of NP team with the outsiders and that communication amongst insiders and outsiders needs to be improved. There are some context-specific content that appeared as relevant in the analysis of these interviews: insiders are worried with the pressure they feel to forecast fashion preference for products. They say that fashion industry is constantly demanding new technologies, new products, and this has been creating a pressure to accelerate product development they think it is not healthy to the system. Also there is a general worry (insiders and outsiders) with the pressure for price reduction in basic products. Some products are considered basic and are included for several collections (interviewees mentioned that some products are included in more than 15 successive collections) and for these products instead of demanding for innovation, there is a demand for price reduction which leads outsiders to perform tests to substitute materials or changes in the production to reduce costs without prior knowledge from NPD team, which causes several problems in the organization. It is important to point out that even though we used only one company in this study, it was a complete and deep perspective, as we were able to collect high quality data with all 45 professionals that are directly or indirectly related to NPD in the company. Also, as Southex works as a thread and fabric producer, it showed us an insider perspective about the textile supply chain in the fashion business. Even though the exploratory study presented the reality of a firm in an extensive and very detailed way, it may not reflect the full complexity of other organizations in the market; thus, caution is advised if applied in a market that differs deeply from the scenario presented in this study. However, it is also important to remember that this is a qualitative approach where generalization is not expected, and the attention for details is important.

Purpose: While many consumers claim to include ethical considerations in their consumption behavior, only a small fraction adheres to these self-made standards. For example, although two thirds of consumers polled by Nielsen in 2015 in thirteen countries stated to be willing to pay more for sustainable brands only ten percent actually purchased this type of product. Even if responsibly produced products still only account for a small share of the market they represent a pervasive marketing phenomenon that merits further scientific research. The so-called attitude-behavior-gap has received a considerable amount of attention not only in the business context, but also in scientific marketing research. Nevertheless, previous studies commonly discussed responsible consumption from an information-processing perspective concentrating on the rational and goal-directed side of responsible consumption. What is still largely missing, though, is the consideration of emotions as drivers or influencing factors for consumer responsibility, even though the few existing studies suggest a positive influence. This holds especially true for the self-conscious emotions of guilt and pride. Furthermore, the few studies at hand generally focus on non-durable goods like tea, coffee or juice and leave a research gap with regard to durable products like fashion items. Thus, the aim of this study is to further investigate the influence of self-conscious emotions on responsible consumption in the context of the fashion industry. Specifically, the influence of the two emotions guilt and pride as well as the influence of social visibility on the consumer’s decision-making and purchasing process shall be investigated. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach containing qualitative and quantitative methods is applied. While in-depth interviews and focus groups with fashion consumers shed light on potential influencing factors and outcomes of self-conscious emotions, a scenario-based experiment further validates these results on influence of guilt and pride in the context of responsible consumption. The experiment follows a 2 (negative vs. positive responsibility outcome) x 2 (social vs. no social visibility) design and is conducted via online questionnaires. Findings: Experiences of self-conscious emotions provide feedback on past behavior that ultimately leads to a revised behavior linked to consumer responsibility in the future. Specifically, pride (guilt) can potentially lead to increased (diminished) word-of-mouth and purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: Limitations lie in the type of research design as a scenario-based experiment was chosen for the quantitative study. Future research should investigate the topic at hand with a field study, ideally with a suitable partner from the industry. Another limitation lies in the examination of only one industry that strongly differs from other industries. Further investigations should compare the self-conscious emotions’ impacts on different types of industries. Practical implications: The current research provides suggestions on the adequate use of communications to promote sustainable fashion brands and to develop according campaigns that elicit emotional reactions from consumers. Furthermore, although guilt and pride refer to past behavior, they can nevertheless be used by management to influence future consumer actions, e.g. choice of responsibly produced garments as opposed to conventional ones. Incentives for successful word-of-mouth of sustainable fashion brands could strengthen this effect. Additionally, the final results deliver insights on whether social visibility should be increased (e.g. through offerings in offline channels) or rather reduced (e.g. through promotions in online channels). Originality/value: This study closes a research gap by investigating consumer responsibility not from an information-processing, but an emotion-based perspective. It furthermore complements research on emotions in the context of responsible consumption by investigating durable products, namely fashion items, that differ strongly from previously examined product groups like tea or coffee.