“Don’t buy stuff you won’t wear!” - The influence of anti-consumption on executive decision-makers: A dynamic managerial capabilities view. Evidence from the slow fashion industry

Abstract

Firms increasingly need to adapt to changing environments, such as industry changes, changes in government-led policies and legislation, societal movements, such as changing consumer behaviour, to stay competitive. The ability to overcome stakeholder and environmental pressures as well as the ability to gain a competitive advantage is often linked to a firm's resources and capabilities. Firms capable of continuously addressing growing social and environmental constraints in a firm's external environment have developed, deployed and exploited distinctive competencies, also called dynamic capabilities (DCs), to stay competitive while also being environmentally and financially sustainable. Current DCs literature is mostly conceptual and lacks empirical support. This research explores how a growing global consumer phenomenon, anti-consumption (AC), influences executive decision-makers in enabling DCs in the slow fashion movement. Furthermore, this study explores implications for international businesses in the global market place. AC explores consumer reasons and motivations to not consume goods and services. This study explores AC as an external and internal factor influencing executive decision-making and strategy development. This research aims to provide an understanding of the influence of AC attitudes, behaviour and values on executive decision-makers in enabling DCs. Existing AC literature has explored the phenomenon from a consumer perspective, the view of AC at a firm level remains unexplored. This thesis seeks to answer the overarching research question: How are DCs developed and deployed at a managerial level when addressing and embracing AC? This study identified three elements discussed in the dynamic managerial capabilities (DMCs) literature, a sub-set of DCs, managerial cognition, social capital and human capital, to explore how the three elements differ, shape and interact with one another to enable DCs and how AC may influence any interaction across these elements. A qualitative, multiple case study strategy was selected because of the fragmented and nascent DCs and AC literatures. The study covers forty-seven companies in the slow fashion movement, located in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. The slow fashion movement demonstrates characteristics of AC, focusing on reducing consumption and production. The findings show that the three DMCs elements are influenced by executive decision-makers beliefs and values enabling DCs. Executive decision-makers in the slow fashion movement demonstrated environmentally-oriented AC values and beliefs, which were visible in their executive decision-making, through strategies like social marketing or global impact sourcing. These values and beliefs influenced how the DMCs elements were shaped and interacted with one another. Moreover, sensing, seizing and shifting of opportunities was influenced by these three elements leading to changes, adaptations and the development of new strategies in these companies. The study is limited to findings in the slow fashion movement. Future research could compare fast with slow fashion in relation to AC attitudes. Moreover, firm-driven AC may be visible in a comparable movement, such as the slow food movement. Furthermore, there is a need to further develop and empirically test the conceptual DMCs framework.