The role of non-local external resources and less-urban location in design processes – A study of the Danish fashion industry

ABSTRACT

The fashion industry is heavily dependent on constant revitalization of the design of its products. Fashion products are on the one hand based on local cultural values and on the other hand a global business. Due to the need for new designs, the fashion industry is often associated with urban location and urban buzz. The geography of the industry is, however, more complex. Fashion firms are also located in less-urban areas competing on the same parameters as urban located firms, namely design. Based on a survey of 51 Danish firms in the fashion industry and 9 interviews with representatives of firms in the fashion industry, this paper explores the importance of use of external non-local resources in the design process in the fashion industry and further to what extent the importance of these resources differs between urban and less-urban located firms in Danish fashion industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Design
• resources
• Knowledge-sourcing
• urban non-urban

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Location of firms was coded as either “urban” or “less-urban” based on the type of municipality they are located in, making the variable “firm location” a nominal variable with two categories. Municipalities classified as “Metropolitan municipality” and “City municipality” are defined as urban areas, while municipalities classified as “Provincial municipality”, ’Hinterland municipality’ and ’Rural municipality’ are defined as less-urban areas. 27 municipalities are defined as metropolitan municipalities and city municipalities. This is municipalities around Copenhagen and the cities Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense. The remaining municipalities consist of 71 municipalities with provincial, hinterland or rural characteristics. For further details see, dstat (2020).

2. In the case of industry-related sources and feedback from customers, the geographical extent of the resources is measured only on two levels: national (Danish) and international.

3. Denmark consists of 5 regions.

4. Also, the effect of firm location is significant in models DV1 and DV18 on the 0.1 level indicating a significant relationship, although weaker. Firms in less-urban areas have a higher probability of more regularly visiting shops abroad (DV18). This might be due to the fact that there are more shops in urban areas in Denmark that sell products from international brands and firms get exposed to the international market to a greater extent. Thus, when travelling to foreign cities, these firms are less focused on visiting shops compared to other inspirational sources, for example, people on the streets or architecture, as opposed to firms from less-urban areas which visit shops in a more planned manner due to the absence of local shops in the home area. Also, firm location has a negative effect on the regularity of cooperation with external designers from another region in Denmark (DV1). Thus, firms in urban areas have a higher probability of more regularly cooperating with external designers from Denmark than firms in less-urban areas have. However, the probability is relatively small in both urban and less-urban areas, cf. predicted probabilities, see, Appendix 1.

5. For predicted probabilities of DV14, see, Appendix 1.