The IT strategy in the luxury sector: the case of a fashion company

For centuries, Italy has been the benchmark for the high fashion and luxury sector, and while the ownership of the firms is often no longer totally Italian, the majority of the production is still “made in Italy”. During the financial crisis, the luxury industry has not been affected by downturn much, also thanks to “Millennials”, who assign a symbolic meaning to luxury goods as they endow relevance to virtual windows created by social networks. The brands capable of seizing the opportunity of digital communication (i.e. e-commerce; social network pages; sponsorships and commercial agreements with “influencers”; etc.) have overcome the adverse economic cycle rapidly. The goal of the paper is to illustrate the case of a successful business, to demonstrate the connections either between the prevailing gender of human capital of a fashion retailer and its IT strategies or between the use of social networks and digital media and company’s performance. Particularly, the main research question is “can the gender affect the relevance of Information and Communication Technologies in a luxury fashion company?”. As digital communication is a resource for the future, is it able to guarantee stable revenues and income? If a business, thanks to social media, reaches the success, is this attainment independent by the history of the company and by the knowledge of the management team? Is it easier or more difficult for a woman to succeed in the luxury market than for a man? To answer the above questions, we selected a famous company, operating in the fashion luxury sector, managed by women and whose products are advertised or sold through digital channels; we considered its history and the profile of its management; then, we analysed not only its main historical financial ratios but also some “digital” indicators (such as the number of visitors, the number of online customers, etc.). By using a descriptive statistic method, we demonstrated that even if the use of information technology can improve the growth rate of a business, the knowledge, the human skills, the experience of the creative director as well as the quality of raw material can ensure the generation of stable positive results.