New product development-processes in the fashion industry: Evidence from Indonesian Islamic fashion companies
ISSN: 1759-0833
Article publication date: 14 May 2019
Issue publication date: 10 September 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine the design requirements of Islamic fashion in the new product-development process; second, to explore the different practices of new product-development activities from successful and unsuccessful new product lines; and third, to investigate the sequence of the new product-development practice in the fashion industry, specifically the Islamic fashion industry in Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaires were distributed and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect information regarding the practice of the new product-development activities. The Mann–Whitney U test was performed based on the quality of the new product-development activities of 100 Islamic fashion firms, including five innovative companies that had won several awards in Indonesia. An analysis of the extent to which fashion firms were engaging in new product-development activities provided a more detailed picture of the sequence of those activities.
Findings
Islamic norms were adapted during the early design and promotional phases of new product development in Islamic fashion. Various choices of design and colour in Islamic fashion were also perceived as a way of preaching to women to dress more accordingly to the Islamic norm. The new product-development activities that were conducted differently for successful vs unsuccessful new product lines were idea conceptualisation, market analysis, technical and engineering analysis, financial analysis and commercialisation. The commercialisation phase was given the least priority of all the activities. Nevertheless, it contributed to the very first communication to the customers about new product lines.
Originality/value
This study makes an important contribution to the deeper and more detailed research on how Islamic fashion companies perceive Islamic values during new product developments and how they perform new product-development activities between successful and unsuccessful products.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded under Universitas Padjadjaran Internal Research Grant 2017. The writers would like to express gratitude for the invaluable inputs and comments from anonymous reviewers, which enhanced the quality of the paper.
Citation
Sari, R.P. and Asad, N. (2019), "New product development-processes in the fashion industry: Evidence from Indonesian Islamic fashion companies", Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 689-708. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-02-2018-0033
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited