Building Dynamic Capabilities for Fashion Retailer Internationalisation

This chapter seeks to examine the role of dynamic capabilities (DCs) in fashion retail internationalisation. It explores the constantly changing global fashion retail landscape and how environmental turbulence and technological advances have made the possession of strong DCs a source of competitive advantage. The chapter is underpinned by Teece’s (2007) tripartite conceptualisation of DCs as comprising sensing, seizing and reconfiguring activities. Whilst Teece’s (2007) framework provides the basis for the chapter, it will also examine how this theory has been developed by other scholars to gain a comprehensive understanding of the significance of DCs for fashion firms operating or seeking to expand in international markets. Practical examples of how fashion brands sense and seize international opportunities and how they harness their resource base to leverage them are also provided. The chapter concludes by affirming the importance of managers and specifically, teams, in the development and maintenance of DCs within firms.