Beyond fashion: Emerging strategies in the Italian clothing industry

After the good results achieved during the last decade, the Italian apparel industry is encountering new problems. On one side, changed customers' tastes and the crisis of the ‘griffe’ have contributed to heavily reduce the attractiveness of the ‘made in Italy’ label. On the other, the increasing globalisation and the growth of low wage competition have made a direct presence abroad essential. To tackle this intriguing situation many companies have reconsidered their business strategy by looking for new competitive arrangements. This paper presents the results of a multi‐case analysis concerning the process of strategic orientations started by several Italian clothing firms. More specifically, it tries to identify and describe the strategic responses that a substantial group of important and widely known enterprises have recently given; the aim is to understand if there is a common guideline that inspires them.