How can Fashion Brands Enhance Value and Life-Span Extension of Products? An Exploratory Study of Circular Economy in Regard to the Economic Viability of Product Life-Span Extension

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: A, , course: Fashion Entrepreneurship and Innovation, language: English, abstract: Awareness of the fashion industry's harmful impacts that significantly affect the environment and the society has increased enormously, specifically the problem of an ever-growing throwaway culture. This has led researchers and practitioners to find feasible solutions, dealing with post-consumer garment waste. In that respect, the CE has undoubtedly become the focus of current research. Substantial economic benefits are expected to accompany the transition from a linear to a circular economic model. However, there is still a lack of frameworks that explain how companies have to adapt their BMs in order to succeed in a circular environment. Furthermore, the question remains, if this could be economically feasible from a company perspective because the economic model of the fashion industry is still highly linear and its success depends on product obsolescence.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify motivations, enablers and challenges of implementing circular strategies and PLE initiatives in BMs, and explicitly exploring the economic feasibility of prolonging the lives of products.
To explore these phenomena, pioneers in the field of CE and PLE were studied. The researcher employed an inductive-exploratory case study design that allowed her to investigate the practical implementations of circular approaches and contribute to existing CE and PLE theory.
The findings of the cross-case analysis revealed that the transition towards a CE has been voluntary, underlying the companies' internal motivations and sustainability agendas. External pressures do not play a role at this moment. Circular approaches support the companies' visions to realise long-term strategies. Despite the higher costs of circular strategies and PLE initiatives, this study found that these have a positive effect on the businesses regarding enhanced customer loyalty and long-term relationships with the customer.
The study is one of the first academic studies that investigates the economic feasibility of PLE initiatives from a company perspective. However, the findings of this research cannot be generalised, as the scope of the study and the sample size are constricted. Therefore, further research in this field is required.