• Understand and reflect critically on the theory, concepts, tools and cases covered in the course
• Demonstrate knowledge of the core concepts and contemporary condition of the fashion industry
• Apply analytical frameworks of the course to identify opportunities and address challenges of fashion enterprises.
• Present a convincing business plan for an upstart fashion business, a project which helps address challenges of growth and develop an established fashion enterprise, or an analysis of salient issues in the fashion industry or theory of fashion (business).

This course introduces students to the fashion business and helps them develop the analytical and practical skills to help establish and develop sustainable fashion enterprises. The course starts with an outline of the contemporary structure and transformations of the fashion industry in Denmark and beyond. It identifies key trends and forces driving change, including globalization of sourcing and markets, digitalization and demand for more sustainable and responsible business practice. Drawing on the outline as well as company cases, the course will explore the main challenges faced by entrepreneurs as well as more established fashion enterprises, and the opportunities for developing succesful business models and strong brands in contemporary fashion. The course presents a framework for understanding different phases, critical moments and key value relationships in the growth of fashion companies. The framework addresses central aspects of running a fashion business and provides students practical insights and tools to deal with issues of finance, sourcing, CSR, design, production, sales channels, communication, legal affairs, IPR and brand building. Relating to fashion's networks and entrepreneurship ecosystem, we examine which resources emerging fashion entreprises have access to under which conditions.

During the course, the students should acquire the skills to competently formulate, develop or review business models of fashion companies and propose action to address challenges of business growth or analyze key issues in contemporary fashion.

The course draws on different disciplines, including fashion theory, entrepreneurship studies, business model theory, business economics, strategic brand management, CSR theory.

The course provides students with analytic concepts and practical knowledge and skills to help establish and develop sustainable fashion enterprises as entrepreneurs, consultants or business analysts.

The course is developed and will be offered in close collaboration with Danish fashion industry associations and companies.

It seeks to build stronger relations between CBS and Danish fashion and help facilitate and encourage student internships and projects and research on business development in fashion. 

Aspers, P., & Godart, F. (2013). Sociology of fashion: Order and change. Annual Review of Sociology, 39, 171-192.

Berg, A.; Berlemann, B. & Hedrich, S. (2013), The global sourcing map – balancing cost, compliance, and capacity. McKinsey Apparel CPO Survey.

Bhardwaj, V. et al. (2011) A case study on the internationalization process of a ‘born-global’ fashion retailer, The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 21:3, 293-307.

Bruce, M. & Daly, L. (2007) “Challenges of fashion buying and merchandising”, (chapter 3) Hines, Tony & Margaret Bruce (eds.) (2007), Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. 188-216.

Brynjolfsson, Erik, Yu Jeffrey Hu, and Mohammad S. Rahman. "Competing in the age of omnichannel retailing." MIT Sloan Management Review 54.4 (2013): 23-29.

Clark, Hazel (2008) "Slow fashion - an Oxymoron-or a Promise for the Future...?" in Fashion Theory vol. 12:4. 427-446.

Entwistle; Joanne: "Sustainability and Fashion" (chapter 2) in: Fletcher, Kate and Mathilda Tham (eds.) (2014), Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion. UK: Routledge, pp. 13-24

Fletcher, Kate (2014): "Framing and expanding sustainability and fashion" (chapter 1) in: Fletcher, Kate and Mathilda Tham (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion. UK: Routledge, pp. 25-32

Hansen, R., & Sia, S. K. (2015). Hummel's Digital Transformation Toward Omnichannel Retailing: Key Lessons Learned. MIS Quarterly Executive, 14(2).

Isenberg, D. (2011). The entrepreneurship ecosystem strategy as a new paradigm for economic policy: Principles for cultivating entrepreneurship. Presentation at the Institute of International and European Affairs.

Jonsson, S., & Lindbergh, J. (2013). The development of social capital and financing of entrepreneurial firms: From financial bootstrapping to bank funding. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(4), 661-686.

Kozlowski, A., Bardecki, M., and Searcy, C., (2012), "Environmental Impacts in the Fashion Industry: A Life-cycle and Stakeholder Framework", Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 45 (Spring 2012), pp. 17-36.

Le Pechoux, Beatrice, Trevor J. Little and Cynthia L. Istook (2007), "Innovation management in creating new fashions" (chapter 8) Hines, Tony & Margaret Bruce (eds.) (2007), Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. 188-216.

Macchion, Laura, Pamela Danese, and Andrea Vinelli. (2015) "Redefining supply network strategies to face changing environments. A study from the fashion and luxury industry." Operations Management Research 8.1-2 (2015): 15-31.

Manlow, V., & Nobbs, K. (2013). Form and function of luxury flagships: An international exploratory study of the meaning of the flagship store for managers and customers. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17(1), 49-64.

McRobbie, Angela (1998), "What Kind of Industry? From Getting Started to going Bust" + "A mixed Economy of Fashion Design", i British Fashion Design: Rag Trade or Image Industry? Routledge, pp. 69-101.

Moeran, Brian (2008), "Economic and cultural production as structural paradox: the case of international fashion magazine publishing", i: International Review of Sociology: Revue Internationale de Sociologie, vol. 18:2. Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group, s. 267-281.

Moroz, P. W., & Hindle, K. (2012). Entrepreneurship as a process: Toward harmonizing multiple perspectives. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(4), 781-818.

Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010), Business Model Generation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hobroken, New Jersey. (excerpt)

Riegels Melchior, Marie (2010), "Denmark", Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: West Europe, vol. 8 (Lise Skov ad.). Berg/Oxford, s. 330-335.

Rinnebach, P. & Richter, S. (2014) Redefining Fashion Business Models. Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Competitive Edge. Frankfurt: Kurt Salmon Ass.

Rocamora, Agnès (2011) "Hypertextuality and Remediation in the Fashion Media", in: Journalism Practice, 6:1, p. 92-106. Routledge

Skjold, Else (2014), "Towards Fashion Media for Sustainability", in: Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham (eds.): Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion., pp. 171-180.

Skov, L. (2012), Fashion Designers' Transition from School to Work in Denmark, 1980s-2000s. In: Careers in Creative Industries. ed. /Chris Mathieu. Abingdon: Routledge, 270-288

Spieth, P., Schneckenberg, D. and Ricart, J. E. (2014), Business model innovation – state of the art and future challenges for the field. R&D Management, 44: 237–247. doi: 10.1111/radm.12071

Taplin, Ian Malcolm. (2014) "Global Commodity Chains and Fast Fashion: How the apparel industry continues to re-invent itself." Competition & Change 18.3: 246-264.

Tran, Yen (2008) "The Danish Fashion Companies: Challenges for Growth". from Part III in Fashion in the Danish Experience Economy - Challenges for Growth. Frederiksberg, Samfundslitteratur, 63-82

Vangkilde, K. T. (2011). A Funky-Formal Fashion Collection: Struggling for a Creative Concept in HUGO BOSS. The Journal of Business Anthropology, 1-17.