Comparing Competitive Priorities of Slow Fashion and Fast Fashion Operations of Large Retailers in an Emerging Economy

Miguel Afonso Sellitto (), Domingos Rafael Ferla Valladares (), Erica Pastore () and Arianna Alfieri ()
Additional contact information
Miguel Afonso Sellitto: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS
Domingos Rafael Ferla Valladares: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS
Erica Pastore: Politecnico di Torino - POLITO
Arianna Alfieri: Politecnico di Torino - POLITO

Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2022, vol. 23, issue 1, No 1, 19 pages

Abstract: Abstract The purpose of this study was to compare the competitive priorities of the slow and fast fashion retail operations of large retailers in an emerging economy. The study embraces the six largest Brazilian companies operating both fast and slow fashion businesses. The methodological path comprises a qualitative phase, in which four experts review the competitive priorities in fashion supply chains. Then follows a quantitative phase, in which the practitioners, supported by AHP, the analytical hierarchy process, weight the fast fashion and slow fashion supply chain priorities. Finally, the study compares the two sets of priorities by considering the uncertainty in the judgment. The most relevant priorities in slow fashion are price and quality, whereas those in fast fashion are customer relationships and flexibility. This study proposes guidelines for simultaneously managing these two strategies. In slow fashion, companies should reduce costs and improve quality by implementing online process controls. In fast fashion, companies should decrease lot sizes, increase the variety of mixes and assortments, and strengthen ties with customers. The main novelty of this study is the evidence that retailers operating fast and slow fashion must simultaneously manage two different strategies to achieve different priorities. In addition, some novel procedures are adopted to mitigate the uncertainty in the judgments.

Keywords: Competitive priorities; Customer relationships; Fashion supply chain; Fast fashion; Flexibility; Slow fashion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L60 L67 L68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40171-021-00284-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:gjofsm:v:23:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s40171-021-00284-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/40171

DOI: 10.1007/s40171-021-00284-8

Access Statistics for this article

Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management is currently edited by Sushil

More articles in Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management from Springer, Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().