Corporate social responsibility guiding sustainable innovation in the fashion system: The role of standards

Abstract

The theme of sustainability is an interesting topic in the fashion industry. This industry has one of the highest levels of pollution and also from a social outline is responsible for serious injuries to human dignity, given the poor working conditions in many factories in developing countries. The paper deepens the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation in the Italian fashion system. Which is the level of sustainable innovation in the Italian fashion industry? This is the research question deepened through the analysis of the degree of the social and environmental standards in the fashion system. Standards represent an important driver of organizational, process and product innovations, they impose the use of new technologies, new processes, new materials, but also a different organization of supply chains, and allow evaluating fashion companies’ concrete commitment in CSR. The research intends to explore this relation in order to contribute to the debate on this topic