The Influence of the Internet of Things Concept on Business Strategies of International Corporations in the Fashion Industry

This paper is devoted to the problem of the influence of the Internet of things concept on the business strategy of corporations of the fashion industry. The relevance of the problem is determined by the upcoming new fourth industrial revolution, which integrates the latest technological advancements caused by the Internet to create the technology connecting physical and digital worlds. The awareness of the upcoming opportunities would provide the competitive advantage for the corporations seeking for the way for develop their business. In the first chapter we analyze the definition of strategy according to the five forces theory of M. Porter and detect the specificity of traditional corporation business strategy of the fashion industry. It also describes the Internet of things concept inception and main tools and instruments of the fourth industrial revolution, specifies the instruments relevant for the fashion world. Second chapter is devoted to the existing projects of the IoT implementation by the fashion brands in the sphere of retail, on the factories and in the products. Finally, the third chapter discloses the key changes of the fashion industry specified by the Internet of things implementation and defines which business aspects of the company strategy could be modified with the technological advancement of the industry. The hypothesis of the master thesis: Since IoT creates an environment to directly communicate and collaborate with customers, gives actionable insights to the corporations-producers, it dramatically transforms business strategy, making it more data-driven and customer-oriented.