The challenge of young Romanian designers: creativity in business

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the subject of creativity in business starting from a set of interviews with young designers (fashion designers mostly, but not exclusively). In order to provide an updated overview of the “ecosystem” of creativity, we intend to add to the field literature, thus offering a more comprehensive understanding of creativity by focusing on the role of designers in facilitating or inhibiting creativity in business in the fashion industry. The work was limited contextually to the fashion sector in the western region of Romania, with the data being collected through semi-structured interviews with entrepreneur fashion designers (producers of clothing, footwear and accessories). The analysis aims to identify and highlight the attributes of entrepreneur designers in the creative industry, as well as the ways in which they are inclined to develop their creativity in order to combine various materials or textures into something original. The results of our research are in fact empirical evidence regarding the strategic role of entrepreneur designers when it comes to creativity in business, a role that can allow them to achieve durable competitive advantage for their own businesses by developing both the analytical skills necessary for interpreting economic data to validate an idea, and the intuitive skills regarding the economic climate. Although the specific context may be considered a limitation of the study, it may become a real advantage for potential future research that will extend the boundaries of the present one.