Creativity and innovation are crucial components of new product development (NPD) and incorporating environmental sustainability adds an extra dimension to the creative process, particularly for the fashion industry, which is a key sector in the UK creative industries that form a significant part of the national economy. Fashion designers’ creativity during NPD can be facilitated by effective collaboration with roles such as product technologists and buyers. This paper discusses ways in which creative knowledge and processes can be applied to innovative sustainable product development, exploring barriers and enablers involved in widening the availability and adoption of environmentally sustainable fashion. NPD is one of the more tangible aspects of creativity that can be managed, whereas creative design thinking is less tangible and logical, thus making it potentially incompatible with managers who are often more business-orientated and risk-averse in their approach than designers (Puryear, 2014). This can create tension for teams when selecting the most appropriate products for production and sustainable product features have traditionally not been a priority for fashion companies. Making products more sustainable is one of the challenging constraints that designers increasingly need to address within NPD, due to the high sustainability impacts of clothing in both environmental and social terms (Hjelmgrem et al., 2015). This research will adopt a qualitative approach, involving semi-structured interviews with a sample of 20 product development professionals from retailers, brands and manufacturers in the UK fashion business, during August to October 2018. In conclusion, the study will build on the primary research results to develop an original conceptual framework in the form of a model to facilitate product developers’ awareness and understanding of sustainability issues within creative processes and to adopt a new vocabulary to elicit more effectual communication regarding sustainability between NPD actors.

By adopting transactional social commerce functions from mobile apps, individuals can sell products and services directly to friends on their contact list. This drives micro entrepreneurs with fewer than ten employees and less than a €2million annual balance (European Union Law, 2013) to become key drivers for economic growth (Paoloni & Dumay, 2011). In particular, individuals aged 18-34 become inspired by images on social networks for clothing and fashion products. Hence, fashion products are popular business items for micro-entrepreneurs. Despite potential benefits for social commerce, micro-fashion entrepreneurs in many countries are still unaware of apps’ use in social commerce to sell products, and to create and manage social capital for their business. This exploratory research aimed to investigate how micro-fashion entrepreneurs adopt transactional-focused social commerce and utilize social capital embedded in network ties for their marketing and sales, based on innovation diffusion and social capital theory. Research questions included: (1) How do micro-fashion entrepreneurs adopt social commerce? (2) How does social capital in network ties contribute to marketing and sales in social commerce? To answer these research questions, qualitative data from phone interviews with 16 micro-fashion entrepreneurs selling fashion products through WeChat in China were analyzed, adopting a thematic analysis. Data indicated micro-fashion entrepreneurs have positive attitudes, based on their experience and knowledge of WeChat. They adopt social commerce to (1) sell products in a new way, (2) connect with customers, and (3) reduce financial risk, while an innovative channel for entrepreneurship. Also, operating a business through WeChat required less time commitment compared with brick and mortar, and online stores, because accessing services like WeChat have payment systems, share images and messages. Free calls and messages are already available. The interview data demonstrated micro-entrepreneurs have an advantage when adopting social network ties in WeChat and implementing social capital embedded in marketing sales networks. Structural, relational, and cognitive capital contribute to micro-entrepreneurs’ marketing and sales interactively. An individual could access target customers, based on networks already established social media platforms and facilitate entrepreneurs’ adoption of social commerce. Also, since trust, shared goals, and languages exist on these network ties, there exists an increase for entrepreneurs’ accessibility to use social commerce to initiate their business, while decreasing business operating expenses, promoting products, and building relationships with customers. In addition, relational capital built by interactions with each customer brings cognitive capital to promote products and strong network ties.

Dongdaemun Fashion Town, a representative clothing wholesale and retail market in South Korea, is a traditional market that was formed in the 19th century in the late Chosun Dynasty. Since then, the market system has strengthened and, as of now, Dongdaemun Fashion Town can produce various products in batch production and is characterized by a quick market response (Jung, Choo, & Chung, 2007). Furthermore, all fashion-related functions are available, making Dongdaemun Fashion Town an industrial cluster where all related businesses and services are locally concentrated (Ko, Choo, Lee, Song, & Whang, 2013). These characteristics of Dongdaemun Fashion Town relieve market trade cost and build a unique production system. It is positioned as a central clothing wholesale and retail district with the function of a national wholesale market. This Dongdaemun Fashion Town system creates services that customers demand through cooperation, partnership, or outsourcing between various suppliers and various resources (Nam, Kim, Yim, Lee, & Jo, 2009). Thus, Dongdaemun Fashion Town is a system space composed of subordinate markets with unique taste functions; here, a systematic network between the suppliers is significant. It produces value co-creation through collaboration with suppliers. However, few previous studies have investigated co-value created through co-production or co-innovation from Dongdaemun Fashion Town. Also, the shift from product-centered thinking to the customer-centered thinking implies the need for an accompanying shift to the customer-based strategy. It also refers the necessity of strategy to improve customer equity (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). Therefore, further study is needed on co-creation research to make cyclical growth of traditional market and customer equity. The structure of this study is as follows. First, the characteristics of the Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation are investigated and each of the subordinate aspects is investigated. Second, the influence of co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity driver is analyzed. Third, the moderating effects on the types of suppliers’ (wholesale/retail) influence relationship are analyzed. In total, 300 samples by wholesalers and retailers were collected for the final analysis. Data analysis was performed used SPSS 21.0 for exploratory factor analyses, reliability analysis, and descriptive statistics. Based on the results, AMOS 18.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group analysis. The results of this study provide an insight into the influence of Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity by wholesalers and retailers. The study concludes with outlining future directions of research that can be used in the development of marketing strategies.