Abstract for: Dynamic Challenges of New Digital Technology-Based Business Models for Customer Diversity in the Fashion Industry

Digital Textile Microfactories have been characterized as potential game changers especially in the fashion industry. Their basic principle is a digitally networked end-to-end digital design and production process. This digital backbone allows for speed, efficiency, high quality, deep con-sumer interaction, and increased sustainability, which in turn bears great potential to meet new market trends that are driven by customer diversity in terms of e.g. morphology, design, or sus-tainability preferences. In spite of the potential benefits of this new digital technology, the in-dustry is still reluctant to adopt it due to perceived uncertainty with regard to new business models. To analyse their potential risks, qualitative modelling based on system archetypes can be a starting point. In this paper, we first describe the new technology of Digital Textile Microfactories as well as recent diversity-related market trends in the fashion industry. We then outline three different business models for Microfactories and propose related systems archetypes that offer a wider systems perspective on potential dynamic effects. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of new business models in the fash-ion industry by providing insights from the perspective of systems archetypes in order to un-cover unfavourable dynamics and effects in advance.