Innovation patterns in global fashion: firms’ behavior and the influence of critical audience evaluation

Radical innovation is an important driver of firm success. Yet, domain consensus is also a necessary condition for long term company survival. So far, few studies have investigated the relationship between radical innovation and domain consensus. We aim at contributing to this stream of research by focusing our attention on two main issues. On the one side, we want to understand whether a company is sanctioned by the critical audience within its domain when it introduces an innovation that violates its past identity. On the other hand, we want to see whether the evaluation it receives affects and shapes its subsequent behaviour. We analyze these issues in the context of global fine fashion with longitudinal data on firms' innovation patterns and critical audience evaluation.