This is my last re[p]ort

 Dear all,

I hope you all had a good summer and are ready to start the new semester with fresh energy!

These past months have been a lot. I had many ups and downs in many ways with the field study beening more challenging than I anticipated. However, I am slowly coming to an end; one final push and I am hopefully done and happy with my results.

One of the biggest struggles for me has been to simply sit down and focus on the research with everything happening around me. With my mind being all over the place, the research kind of went a bit the same and got lost. I ended up researching too broad, losing the focus and having too much information and no real structure. Nevertheless, I am on the right track now: restructuring, refocusing and restricting the research.

I am finally done with the findings and am now moving on to the conclusion and discussion for which I already have brief structure, ideas and notes.

Finishing off with what I do best, a song reference. Papa Roach: This is my last resort. This song summarises the path of this field study in its own (slightly overdramatic ;)) words.

Stay safe and take care of yourself and the ones you love.

See you soon with fresh energy and drive to learn!

/Laura 

Part III: Research assistance in scalability strategies used by the fashion industry to increase CBM activities

Dear all,

this is my final blog entry, and I can tell you that this field study has been a rollercoaster! One moment I was really satisfied with all the theoretical background I researched, the next I doubted its relevance for the whole case. In the end I had to cut down the word count by two thirds, which hurt a lot due to all that time and effort of establishing an informative background for the reader.
However, I admit that I lost the research question out of sight and included a lot of interesting but not as relevant facts. Also, I focused too much on the establishment of the mapping framework, which solely had the function to exemplify scalability strategies used by the industry.

However, this process also pointed out that the developed Scalability Matrix Model by Hultberg et al. is only applicable on a general level rather than showing off a road map of actions towards increased circular business model (CBM) scalability. In general, my findings of what the industry is currently pursuing to increase CBMs is performed with the aim towards efficiency, rather than adaptability. Also, collaboration seems to be preferred in uncertain fields, whereas "safe" practices are carried out individually.

Enjoy the rest of the summer – and see you soon! :-)

Melanie

Research Assitant Internship with the Handelslabbet, Blogpost #3

 Hej alla,

It’s been a hot second since you’ve read from me last but now I am back to give you my final update of the field study experience.

The last time you’ve heard from me, I have been struggling with a serious case of FOMOA (fear of missing out on an article) and have been tasked with the creation of my own research model and experimental guideline.
Going from there, I focussed on analyzing the research models and experimental guidelines of articles I read, filtered out the hypothesized relationships, and evaluated which connections were proven to be correlated and which weren't.
As I am a very visual person, it helped me a lot to actually draw onto those models (via Adobe Illustrator) and visually map out my thought process. Like this, I was able to see which hypotheses were proven, which scholars managed to prove similar relationships and which connections were proven to not exist or influence each other in a reversed way. Additionally, I was able to see, which connections weren’t hypothesized within this group of articles I evaluated. Furthermore, how trust is incorporated within the observed research models is done in a variety of ways. Seeing this, helped me to formulate and design my own research model by thinking about the connections that I am curious about, and that would help e-tailers gain insights into the cognitive and emotional processes influencing a customer's decision to purchase. I sketched out my research model on paper and then transferred it to adobe illustrator to be able to move around and test out different ideas.
Together with Jenny Balkow and her research team from the Handelslabbet, the research model was discussed and further refined. I was tasked to narrow it down and think about ways to operationalize my hypothesized connections within an experiment with the digital showroom. Our final meeting involved me presenting my idea and thought process and us further refining the model. This was the final product of my research assistant internship and could be tested within an experiment on a later stage.
To conclude, I can definitely say that this experience taught me a lot and gave me a new perspective on the work of a researcher within social sciences. I learned, that, even though no paint, fabric, or other material is involved, the work of researching is still a very creative process that requires curiosity, thinking out of the box, and analytical skills. It is safe to say that this time opened up a new perspective and sparked an interest in research in me.

So, if you are wondering whether a research assistant internship would be the right thing for you, I can tell you don’t be afraid to dive into it and try researching out even when coming from a practical background. You’ll learn a lot and gain a new understanding of academia and social sciences.

Literature Review: Risk Management strategies and practices to cope with risks in the Textile Supply Chain

Hey fellow students! 

I hope you had a great summer, even though the weather (in Europe) did not show its best side .. 

 

It’s time for the third and last blog entry about my attempt to conduct a systematic literature review. Since the last time, I finished summarizing the risks prevalent in the Textile Supply Chain and started to summarize my findings from the literature search in order to analyze them. The 3^rd phase included issues like what type of information I need to be abstracted to fulfill the purpose of my review. Since I aimed to find strategies to cope with risks specifically prevalent to the Textile Supply Chain, I sorted the literature I found regarding the risk types to see if certain risks allow specific strategy or practices. 

Moreover, it was important to determine which type of information I need to conduct my analysis. Since I aimed to additionally investigate trends in Risk Management strategies in the era of digitalization, not only the findings of each study were important for my analysis, but also the publication dates and research methods. Nevertheless, the difficult part of the 3^rd phase is to see specific patterns or irregularities in the literature to abstract findings. Luckily, Excel is a helpful tool. 

 

Finally, I could start with the 4^th phase, structuring and writing the review. I started off with clarifying the purpose and motivation of my review. Afterwards, it is important to document and report my research process as detailed as possible to ensure replicability. The level of information provided needs to be appropriate in order to allow for transparency, so that the reader can easily judge the quality of my literature review. However, I am aware that my review is highly biased since I searched, summarized, categorized and analyzed all the data myself. 

Next, I am going to present and explain my findings, hopefully in a clear and structured way, so that my review makes a contribution to the literature.

 

I do not regret the choice to conduct a literature review during the field study, especially since the topic I choose seems relevant and up to date. However, looking back I recommend to not work by yourself on a literature review, because a second opinion on certain issues is very valuable. I had several times when I got stuck in my thinking and conclusions and even though I asked friends for advice, they could not help me since they did not have the same level of knowledge about the topic as I did. This definitely prolonged the process. 

 

I hope you all had a good experience during your field study!

See you soon!

 

Best,

Michaela