International e-commerce for fashion products: what is the relationship with performance?
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
ISSN: 0959-0552
Article publication date: 14 July 2017
Issue publication date: 5 September 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the adoption of e-commerce improves company business, innovation and operational performance and whether sales internationalisation might moderate this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a survey within the fashion industry and a multi-step linear regression model investigating the relationships between e-commerce and performance.
Findings
Results reveal that e-commerce improves innovation performance but has no significant relationship with business and operational performance. Also investigating whether the sales internationalisation might moderate the relationship between e-commerce and performance, the findings reveal that the adoption of these tools might even be negative when applied at the international level in particular by considering innovation operational practices, and the research suggests for fashion companies the necessity to develop strong markets’ knowledge and brand awareness among foreign markets and customers before investing internationally.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original analytical approach to identifying the relationships between a company’s adoption of e-commerce, performance and internationalisation within the fashion industry.
Keywords
Citation
Macchion, L., Moretto, A.M., Caniato, F., Caridi, M., Danese, P. and Vinelli, A. (2017), "International e-commerce for fashion products: what is the relationship with performance?", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 45 No. 9, pp. 1011-1031. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-11-2015-0171
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited