Integrating international fashion retail into new product development

The integration of new product development (NPD) and the supply chain (SC) has been extensively analysed by researchers as a critical means to achieve success. However, most studies have focused on the integration of NPD and upstream SC, mostly from a local perspective. This paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework to investigate the integration of the NPD process and international retail in the fashion industry with a contingency approach. In particular, the internationalisation of retail is analysed by considering the influence of foreign countries' characteristics on NPD. To achieve this goal, thirteen exploratory case studies of Italian fashion companies are performed. The cases allow the identification of the framework variables as well as the analysis of the relationships among those variables. Finally, three main archetypes of behaviours are identified. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.