Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases

CONTENT

Part of Bloomsbury Fashion Central, Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases establishes a link between education and business aspects of the fashion industry. The collection has three categories of case study: field cases (based on an individual’s experiences in the industry), public cases (based on public information about the industry), and scenarios (realistic fictional cases). Each case is designed for three levels of expertise: introductory (for foundational studies and first-year students), intermediate (for mid- and upper-level undergraduate students), and advanced (for post-graduate students). There are more than 200 cases, covering branding, buying, law/ethics, marketing, merchandising, retailing, textiles, and more.

The cases are valuable and insightful tools for instruction and curriculum-building to “equip the next generation of fashion industry leaders” by presenting real-life and imagined scenarios that encourage analytical and critical thinking. One case asks students to create an online marketing strategy for Blue Shears, a bespoke tailoring brand whose business has suffered in the wake of the pandemic; another case asks what Victoria’s Secret (which once dominated the lingerie market) could do to compete with brands espousing inclusive attitudes to body image.

Each case features a DOI, an abstract, a table of contents, a list of learning objectives, an introduction to the case, an overview of the business problem and questions, teaching notes (which detail how the case is intended to be used in instruction), references, and suggestions for further reading.

Extended teaching notes are available for instructors only and contain sample answers and possible solutions, along with grading guides. These are accessible via an authenticated personal account. A guide to “Teaching with Business Cases” provides an introduction to the case study method of instruction, outlines learning objectives, and explains how to use case studies for classroom activities and course formats.

A list of related cases is provided below the text of each case. Some cases also include definitions for related concepts and terms. Cases are displayed in HTML, but can be downloaded in PDF. Citation information is provided in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles, via the Cite button at the top of each article.

The collection is curated and edited under the direction of editor-in-chief Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas (marketing and sustainable business, British Sch. of Fashion, Glasgow Caledonian Univ.), and a committee of regional editors representing the U.S. and Canada, China, Europe, and the UK.

USABILITY

Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases can be accessed via the Bloomsbury Fashion Central portal. Users can find cases via the basic or advanced search interfaces or browse a list of categories. The “What’s in Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases” page also makes it easy to browse cases by topic. There is no change in branding to indicate that the user is accessing the Business Cases collection, beyond a list of “my databases” on the home page. Access for this review was limited to this collection, but users accessing the full suite of Fashion Central products can select Business Cases from the “content type” section listed under the “browse” menu (which includes links to Business Cases and Business Cases with Extended Teaching Notes for authorized users).

The “browse” menu makes it easy to access cases across various categories (including content type, design and making, dress, fashion business, organizations and design houses, people, periods, places, textiles, materials, colors, and themes), each of which is further subdivided into relevant themes. Along with basic record information, such as title, author, and collection source, items listed on the results page include case level and a selection of “explore” links.

PRICING

Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases is available for purchase by perpetual access ($12,473 to $37,481, which includes four years of updates, with an optional annual content update fee of $600 to $1000 beginning five years after purchase). It is also available by subscription ($1,439 to $4,783), with pricing based on size and type of institution; discounts may be available from consortia.

VERDICT

This is a strong resource for business, marketing, and industry-related studies. The teaching notes in particular stand out as a value-added feature for instructors and curriculum designers. Business Cases is an excellent addition to the Fashion Central collection, and may be of interest to academic programs that support marketing and business studies beyond the realm of fashion.

Gricel Dominguez is a Librarian at Florida International University.