The coevolution of new organizational forms in the fashion industry: A historical and comparative study of France, Italy, and the United States

In many industries, the contemporary context of acute environmental disloca tion shows the limits of traditional organizational recipes. In direct resp onse to environmental challenges, companies are experimenting with new orga nizational solutions. While flexibility, or the capacity to redefine organi zational form to follow changing purposes, is undeniably a common trend, th ese experiments otherwise differ greatly. Diversity is such, in fact, that it is difficult to clearly identify and define a unique organizational para digm for the future. To explore the connection between environmental dislocation and organizatio nal transformations, we adopt a historical and comparative perspective. Our empirical base of evidence is the luxury fashion industry in three countri es, France, Italy, and the United States. For many years, this industry was defined by stable environmental conditions, and a craft model of organizat ion remained dominant. We show that, over a more recent period, increasing environmental turbulence has brought about a redefinition of the rules of t he game. A common response has been for organizations to move towards great er flexibility or modularity and to experiment with network forms. However, we also show that the paths or trajectories leading to organizational flex ibility have varied significantly across countries, reflecting historical l egacies and institutional constraints. We identify in fact three different network forms in that industry, which represent national ideal types-the "u mbrella holding" company in France, the "flexible embedded network" in Ital y, and the "virtual organization" in the United States. We argue that the process of change in the luxury fashion industry has been one of coevolution, where environmental transformation and organizational change have fed upon each other through time. Pioneer firms in the luxury f ashion industry originally devised organizational solutions within the boun ds set by nationally defined constraints and opportunities. Becoming instit utionalized, these early solutions in turn shaped the environment for indiv idual organizations and organizational populations, creating new sets of op portunities and constraints. In a path-dependent manner, different models o f organization and national competitiveness thus emerged. In conclusion, we are brought to question the likelihood of full and stable convergence towards a unique organizational form or paradigm. There appear s to be, in each national context, a process of construction of new organiz ational solutions that starts from local foundations. Embedded as they are in powerful historical and institutional legacies, organizational differenc es are there to stay, we believe, beyond the period of transition and acute environmental dislocation.