Knowledge-Intensive Innovative Entrepreneurship, Education and Varieties of Knowledge in Fashion

This paper explores the role of artistic education for knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship (KIE) in the fashion industry. Through an exploratory case study of the Swedish School of Textiles at the University of Borås, Sweden, we examine varieties of knowledge developed by fashion design students (at BA and MA levels), and analyse how they relate to KIE and the proposed opposed logics between artistic creative freedom and commercialisation through entrepreneurship. We systematically analyse programme syllabi and course curricula over time, contrasting these findings with interviews with alumni and teaching faculty. Our study shows that students develop varieties of knowledge necessary for artistic innovation, combining aesthetic knowledge with research-driven and technological knowledge, acquired through tight links to research throughout the education. Furthermore, we observe that students are exposed to entrepreneurship education through modules incorporated into the overall curriculum, however that alumni in general maintain a perceived opposing logic between creative freedom and commercialisation. We conclude that artistic education can play a crucial role for KIE in the fashion industry as related to the development of artistic innovation, however that the imbalance in varieties of knowledge related to market and business needs further attention in order to reach commercialisation.