Search Styles in Style Searching: Learning Exploration Strategies from Fashion Firms

Style – namely, the aesthetic and symbolic choices a company makes regarding its products, their main features, and how they are combined - is increasingly influencing innovation strategies of firms competing in different settings. At the current stage, however, we still lack an understanding of search strategies behind new style creation. By means of a semi-grounded analysis of the process of change of leading international firms in the fashion industry, we provide a granular description of style search. Our findings highlight two different approaches to search – namely, a design-driven search and a market-driven one. The styles differ in terms of triggers of change, locus of change, the role of individual vs. structured units (namely, teams and departments) in style ideation and style selection, and the expected outcomes. We provide detailed evidence of the two approaches and conclude by highlighting managerial and academic implications that might inform future research on the topic.