CO-CREATING CASE STUDIES TO TEACH AND LEARN FASHION AT A BUSINESS SCHOOL

Case studies are a recognized method to teach and learn in a business school, as they provide the students with the opportunity to analyze real situations in companies in an in-depth manner.
The goal of this paper is to describe a novel methodology of co-creating fashion case studies among students, professors, and companies in a fashion business school, and to establish learnings and improvements in this teaching methodology.
Two are the methods used to create the cases: one top-down, triggered by fashion companies, and the other bottom-up, based on the students' interests. The analysis of a sample of 133 cases elaborated in an academic institution in Spain since 2005 shows both the evolution of the challenges faced by the fashion industry and the permanence of some topics across time. Moreover, it highlights the contribution of students and academics to the companies' development.

Silvia Pérez-Bou, María Angeles Burguera, Teresa Sádaba. Year 2022

Millennials and Fashion: Branding and Positioning through Digital Interactions

Millennials, consumers born between 1980 and the early 2000s, are characterized by living their lives linked to technology and new forms of communication. In Spain, through social networks, millennials are connected to the main brands, multiplying their interaction and constantly evolving perceptions with them, a phenomenon that contrasts with other generations that could not relate so quickly and frequently with brands. By studying the perceptions that millennials have regarding Zara, H&M, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, we seek to discover the positioning of each of these brands within the selected target, Spanish millennials, as well as understanding the position they occupy amongst millennials. A moderate association exists between attributes and brand, together with a high degree of recognition and awareness.

Joan Francesc Fondevila-Gascón, Pedro Mir Bernal, Patricia SanMiguel, Teresa Sádaba, Silvia Pérez-Bou. Year 2021

"The role of e-commerce in the internationalization of Spanish luxury fashion multi-brand retailers" - Journal of Global Fashion Marketing.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role that e-commerce has to play in the internationalization of Spanish luxury multi-brand stores. Possible answers are sought to the following research question: How might the adoption of e-commerce platforms affect the international sales of multi-brand retailers? This paper presents a data analysis of the 15 most important Spanish fashion multi-brand retailers and the different prospects of e-commerce today. Our analysis of online stores shows an open mentality when it comes to adapting to this new business model, but the late integration and inexperience of the majority of retailers limit their performance. Information from different channels and further research through the collaboration of brands would have given us more detailed information regarding the current situation within this sector. The paper analyzes the current situation of e-commerce luxury fashion multi-brand stores and mainly focuses on the Spanish market, even though it also offers a global overview.

Pedro Mir-Bernal, Teresa Sádaba, Simone Guercini. Year 2017

"Is the Golden Era of Fashion Blogs Over?" An Analysis of the Italian and Spanish Fields of Fashion Blogging" - Fashion Tales. Feeding the imaginary.

Is the golden era of fashion blogging over? In more than a decade after their first appearance fashion blogs have established themselves as a constant element on the fashion scene, but in many aspects, they have not yet found a definitive position in the field of fashion media, at least in terms of legitimization. Blogs have been often celebrated as instruments for the democratization of fashion, able at the same time to reduce the distance between "the establishment" and ordinary fashion lovers and to push young and unknown outsiders toward the center of the fashion system; on the other side they have been opposed - at least at the beginning - both by fashion journalists and companies, the former looking at blogging as an unprofessional practice that threatens to destroy the quality of the fashion-related tales, the latter displaced in front of the new 'fashionable' practice of inviting bloggers to catwalks and using them as testimonials.
The arguments made in this chapter are based on quantitative and qualitative research carried out in Italy and Spain. Through a desk analysis of the twenty most popular blogs (ten for each country), according to the ranking provided by Le Guide Noir, we investigated the features of the bloggers with the highest level of visibility and their activity on the social media, as some recent studies points out (Sádaba and SanMiguel, 2016). It must be remembered that, even if we label them as bloggers, they manage a structured communication strategy whose blogs are just a piece together with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest accounts, and so forth. We also recruited a snowball sample of 62 bloggers who were interviewed with qualitative techniques. The Italian sample includes 42 interviewees (11 male, 31 female); testimonies are based on a non-directive method ("life- story approach", see Bertaux 1981) and have been collected between 2011 and 2015. The Spanish branch of the study relies on semi-structured interviews to 20 bloggers (3 male, 17 female) collected between 2014 and 2015 .

Marco Pedroni, Patricia SanMiguel, Teresa Sádaba. Year 2017

"Fashion Influentials in Spain and Italy: Comparing two national fields of fashion blogging"-Presented at the congress: X INTERNATIONAL FASHION CONFERENCE "Fashion On the Move: Rethinking Design", April 2016 Pamplona, Navarre.

The impact of the Internet on society has clearly changed the way we communicate, interact and consume. In the communication and marketing area institutional agents like companies try to find the best way to reach their consumers in the online scenario, but outsiders (such as fashion bloggers) are often able to achieve significant results by using Web 2.0-based tools and innovating the language of fashion communication.
Since the 1990s several studies have shown that marketing based on opinion leaders (Influentials/influencers) is one of the most successful strategies (Mowen, 1990; Weimann, 1994; Keller & Berry, 2003). What are the personal characteristics of these leaders in fashion? Are fashion bloggers the new influencers? How do they interact with readers and brands? How do these leaders work in the Mediterranean Europe?
This paper explores these issues through a comparison between the Italian and Spanish fields of fashion blogging, where the rise of these new opinion leaders has begun later than in the Anglo-Saxon world, presenting the first Fashion Influentials comparative study between two countries. The study is made of two sections: first, an opinion leadership questionnaire (sample: 200 bloggers, 100 for each country); second, a desk analysis of the twenty most popular blogs (ten for each country) with the highest level of visibility and their activity on the social media.
Findings show the profile of influential fashion blogger (personal characteristics, knowledge criteria and social factors) and the way they interact with their community and fashion companies. From an interpretative point of view the paper (second in a series of comparative studies realized by the authors) aims at discussing fashion blogging as a social field able to change the way the whole system of fashion communication works.

Patricia SanMiguel, Teresa Sádaba, Marco Pedroni. Year 2016

"Re-defining Fashion Influentials in the Internet Age: a Spanish Case-Study based on Stylelovely.com" - Communication Magazine 13, 2014.

Research on opinion leadership has traditionally been dealt with by political communication, ever since Paul Lazarsfeld inaugurated the study of influencers. However, Lazarsfeld also investigated influence in the area of fashion. The prescriptive power of these influencers is a very relevant issue for fashion brands and is the focus of this study. It is also the first study carried out on fashion influence, taking into account the advances made possible in this area by the emergence of the Internet.

Teresa Sádaba and Patricia SanMiguel. Year 2014

Hoss Intropia: a Spanish brand that is born with sustainability as its main value proposition

Abstract: Hoss Intropia is one of the Spain "s largest fashion brands and the first one that since its birth aims to generate the lowest possible impact in society and environment. Sustainability in the fashion industry has become a widely discussed issue. The fast fashion brands contribute to this matter. It is widely accepted th at the fashion industry needs new attitudes towards ethical and environmental practices. In this paper we will try to investigate the case study of susta inability in the brand strategy. Hoss Intropia was created in 1994, has presence in 48 countries with 1 600 points of sale. We consider that nowadays this Spa nish brand is a good example not only for new trends in branding but also in the way they are influenced by this matter within all the business activities. This case study takes us to be able to be able to offer s ome conclusions extendable to o ther brands and highlights the role of sustainability as a strategy goal.

Verónica Arribas, Teresa Díaz, María Eugenia Josa, Patricia Sanmiguel, Teresa Sádaba. Year 2013

Challenges of our foreign action: Public Diplomacy and Brand Spain. Chapter: Fashion and Brand Spain

Teresa Sádaba and Luis Lara. Year 2012

Elízaga, R., & SanMiguel, P. (2024). Zara: Pioneering a phygital experience in the mainstream fashion sector. In B. Alexander (Ed.), Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing. Taylor & Francis. Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing | Merging Theory and Practice.