Search Styles in Style Searching: Exploring Innovation Strategies in Fashion Firms

Style – namely, the aesthetic and symbolic choices a company makes regarding its products, their main features and how they are combined – is increasingly influencing the innovation strategies of firms. Currently, however, we still lack an understanding of search strategies behind new style creation. This paper provides a granular description of style search by means of a semi-grounded analysis of the process of change of leading international firms in the fashion industry. Our findings highlight two different approaches to search – a design-driven search and a market-driven one. The styles differ in terms of triggers of change, locus of change, the role of individual vs structured units (teams and departments) in style creation and style selection, and the expected outcomes. We provide detailed evidence of the two approaches and conclude by highlighting managerial and academic implications that might inform future research on the topic.