Sustainable Business Strategies for Local Fashion Communities (small and medium scale enterprises) in Ethiopia and Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of the research study is to carve sustainable business strategies for the fashion communities in Ethiopia and Ukraine which are suffering today due to ever-increasing share of fast fashion consumerism. Fashion houses and international brands propagandize sustainability and consumption for better consumer base, where as originally sustainable local-based craftsmen still stay in the shade. Four communities/local designers are selected from the countries through the method of purposive sampling. Qualitative analysis is the basis of the research as we performed personal interviews and in-depth analysis of the communities to diagnose the problems and subsequently devise the solutions. In this research, we have studied and analyzed the problems faced by hereditary communities and ethnic designers in small and medium scale enterprise sector from two emerging economies. After the grounding the difficulties faced we advised strategies for sustainable future growth to the companies. The current academic literature on small and medium scale enterprises highlights the problems and solutions for general industry sectors. This paper brings attention to fashion communities and designers who promote national heritage and are struggling to survive in emerging economies due to industrialization and globalization. Moreover the comparison of the two geographies is unique in nature.