A decision model development for crowdsourcing in the fashion industry

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is emerging as a tactic for the fashion industry to better integrate customers' needs and quickly react to the industry's rapidly changing environment. This is a visible shift from the past focus on a designer's know-how based on individual experience and creativity.Yet there is a lack of academic research on the use of crowdsourcing in the fashion industry. How can crowdsourcing go through a methodological evaluation process? What specific criteria are important for fashion companies to evaluate designs based on objective parameters? The purposes of this study are: (1) to generate an evaluation standard for a crowdsourced fashion design, and (2) to build an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision model for making final design selections. Two methods are used to produce the robustness of a decision model: taxonomic analysis and AHP. This study reveals that the most important evaluation factors are brand suitability, design excellence, production efficiency, marketing effect, and additional management considerations. Another important feature is the paper's attempt to evaluate a design, a strategic asset of any fashion brand, by approaching the subject with a systematic, scientific method.