| Abstract [eng] |
The relevance of global challenges, such as climate change and consumerism, is forever growing, especially in the fashion industry, because of this the businesses should find it crucial to come up with innovative solutions to tackle these challenges. To think of innovative solutions that would conform with the goals of a circular economy and would be welcomed by the consumers, the concept of strategic innovations should be adopted. But this concept is fairly new and is mostly discussed in research papers. This shows the difficulty of implementation of strategic innovations, especially in the context of SMEs, despite them being the majority found in Lithuania. For this reason, the research aims to substantiate the conceptual implementation of strategic innovations for the circular economy in the SMEs of the clothing industry. Objectives set to achieve the goal: 1. To reveal the problems of implementing strategic innovations for the circular economy in the SMEs of the clothing industry. 2. To examine the concept of the circular economy and the essential features of the circular business model. 3. To analyze definitions of strategic innovation and identify key dimensions 4. To create a conceptual framework for the implementation of strategic innovations for the circular economy in the SMEs of the clothing industry. 5. To empirically study the process of strategic innovation, and identify challenges and motivation of change in the clothing industry SMEs. 6. To provide recommendations for the implementation of strategic innovations for the circular economy in SMEs in the clothing industry. The results of empirical research showing the analyzed cases showed some fundamental elements of the strategic innovations concept. Moreover, the empirical research aims to find out what kind of challenges SMEs face when trying to implement strategic innovations for a circular economy and to understand the reasoning behind businesses making changes in the fashion industry. This thesis aims to give recommendations on how to overcome the challenges when implementing strategic innovations to a circular economy for SMEs in the fashion industry. The paper explains the problem of circular economy application in Lithuania and analyzes the elements of the circular business model, strategic innovation and dimensions. The empirical research examines theory-based strategic innovations to a circular economy for SMEs in the fashion industry conceptual framework and reveals the motives and ambitions when creating changes for the circular economy in the fashion industry. The author of this thesis conducted qualitative research – in-depth semi-structured interviews with circular economy SMEs representatives that integrate strategic innovations. The theoretical framework of a circular economy for SMEs, which was created and revised during the creation of the thesis, is based on the information obtained from the empirical research. This thesis includes insights on how to overcome the challenges when implementing strategic innovations. |
