Sustainable and responsible creation of shared values in the fast fashion industry

Abstract

The fashion industry is well-known for its negative social and environment impacts and a problematic compliance with criteria related to sustainability, Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Creating Shared Value (CSV). However, even fast fashion businesses, despite their low-cost approach “at any price”, claim to have moved towards sustainability. To examine the extent to which their claims are genuine requires scrutiny involving four steps. First, the concepts of sustainability, CSR, and CSV in relation to the fashion industry are determined. Second, the particularities of their measurement for fast fashion businesses are examined with particular reference the fundamental virtues of respect and no waste. Third, these two virtues are assessed as precursors of the sustainable and responsible creation of shared values regarding a number of well-known fast fashion businesses in the EU, on the basis of their own qualitative content analysis in comparison with that of third-party websites. Fourth, results are critically and comparatively discussed. This leads to conclusions concerning the presence or absence of respect and no waste virtues and the variability in purported sustainable and responsible creation of shared values in the fast fashion industry. Our findings are that what is proclaimed and practiced by fast fashion businesses is thus far highly heterogenous and without regard for the question of measurability and the ability of the public to monitor it. The inherent limitations of our study will need to be offset by future longitudinal studies with a larger sample of businesses involving wider jurisdictions and using more sources.