LifeStyle - Impact
Our Projects
AlpTextyles
emlyon business school, through the Lifestyle Research Center, is project partner of AlpTextyles, an Interreg Alpine Space project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Swiss Confederation which has the goal of developing collaborative solutions for a heritage and consumer-sensitive relocalization of sustainable, circular and innovative textile value chains in Alpine regions.
Overview
Textile production is one of the most polluting and CO2 intensive economic sectors. However, the Alps have a rich textile heritage with specific aesthetics and know-how based on values of circularity and sensitivity to local resources. Consumers’ expectations of a more sustainable lifestyle could contribute to the relocation of Alpine textile value chains, fostering regional development and job creation. The AlpTextyles project will help companies and cultural institutions to take into account heritage and circular aspects in textile value chains and to valorise the Alpine textile heritage at transnational level. This will contribute to economic revitalisation and the development of a less carbon-intensive textile production system.
The project in brief
With its 12 partner organizations from 6 Alpine countries, AlpTextyles will bring together the textile ecosystems to create a common ground of expertise in research and innovation, foster regional development and job creation, and safeguard cultural heritage and circularity.
During its 3-years implementation, the project will:
- Map the Alpine textile heritage, value chains, and consumers demand for sustainability;
- Test and evaluate heritage- and consumer-sensitive circular solutions through numerous pilot actions
- Transfer solutions to the textile eco-system.
emlyon’s role
The Lifestyle Research Center contributes to the AlpTextyles project by offering expertise on sustainable markets and brands, post-carbon consumer lifestyles, circularity, using qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop insights for business and policy. Key activities will be:
Mapping consumer’s expectations for and perceptions of circular, sustainable products from Alpine textile value chains
Developing case studies of brands that have revitalized the textile heritage of the Alps and identifying best practices in the relocalization of textile value chains in Alpine countries and the valorization of local textile resources (wool, linen, hemp, dyeing plants) from local animal breeds and plant varieties
Organizing a Research Day on the Living Textile Day of the Alps
Coordinating the project’s pilots in the 6 Alpine countries, contributing to the design of actions’ concepts and formats
Coordinating a cross-border pilot action in France and Italy, focused on manufactured wool products from autochthonous sheep breeds
Contributing its expertise to the development of orientation guides for textile SMEs, textile heritage safeguarding toolkits for cultural institutions, policy briefs for regional/national governments and the EU, a MOOC on the living textile heritage of the Alps, and various events for the dissemination of results to the project’s target audiences.
Involved emlyon researchers
- Diego Rinallo
Diego Rinallo, Ph.D., associate professor of marketing at emlyon business school, is one of the ideators of the AlpTextyles project. He brings to the project his expertise on qualitative research methods, place branding, and the valorization of cultural heritage. - Marta Pizzetti
Marta Pizzetti, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at emlyon business school, brings to the project her expertise on sustainable consumption and experimental research methods.
- Polo Poschiavo (Switzerland), lead partner
- Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia), ERDF lead partner
- emlyon business school (France)
- Development Agency Sora (Slovenia)
- Lombardy Region (Italy)
- Textile and Fashion Federation – Italy Fashion System (Sistema Moda Italia, Italy)
- Bellissimo (Italy)
- Istituto Marangoni (Italy)
- Association Techtera Auvergne Rhône Alpes
- Stand Montafon (Austria)
- Mediplant (Switzerland)
- Friedrich-Alexander-university Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany)
| Alpine Space Programme Period: 2021-27 | Start date: November 2022 |
| Priority: Carbon neutral and resource sensitive Alpine Region | End date: October 2025 |
| Specific Objective 2.2 – Promoting the transition to a circular and resource efficient economy | Total project eligible costs: €2,979,694 ERDF grant: €1,970,770 |
| Type of project: Classic Project | emlyon budget: €326,855 ERDF grant: €245,133.75 |
All our projects
Developing Policy and Managerial Insight for place branding in the Alpine Region
emlyon business school, through the Lifestyle Research Center, was a partner of Made in the Alps: The image of Alpine Products, a common resource for pan-Alpine territorial brand cooperation (2022-23).
The project was funded by ARPAF, the Alpine Region Preparatory Action Fund, created by the European Parliament to promote EUSALP, the EU Strategy for the Alps by supporting its Action Groups in implementing their work plans and establish economic and social cooperation in the Alpine macro-region.
This project generated funds for emlyon business school (budget €49,166). Lifestyle research center members involved were Diego Rinallo (project coordinator) and Marta Pizzetti, with the support of Ms Elisabeth Gelas.
Project Goals and Partners
The project carried out research activities and pilot actions to generate insight on how the image of the Alps, considered as a territorial resource, can facilitate cross-border collaboration contributing to the relocalization of traditional value chains (food, wood, textiles) in Alpine regions. The lifestyle research center collaborated with 2 other partners – the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (a leading Research Institution in Slovenia) and Polo Poschiavo (a competence center on sustainable territorial development in Switzerland).
The project took as a point of departure that much applied research has focused on national or regional brands as policy tools for sustainable territorial development. These brands however hinder the building of cross-border value chains, which are necessary for technologically complex value chains for which smart regional specialization processes might needed. By filling this gap, the project looked at how supra-national place brands can facilitate local economic development.
Films
The Lifestyle Research Center commissioned two films, directed by Ms Antonia Marsetti, under the scientific supervision of Prof. Diego Rinallo, with filming and editing assured by Mr Riccardo Frizziero. These films summarize in an easily accessible language key findings from the project’s research activities.
- « It’s Made in the Alps »: The image of the Alps as a resource for a sustainable and collaborative Alpine Region (film, 11′ 35 »)
- EUSALP Youth Council discusses Alpine legacy: food and culture (film, 7′ 46 »)
Territorial Brands’ Uses of the Image of the Alps
This research report is based on an analysis of the commercial uses of the image of the Alps carried out through:
1) a literature review on place brands and their effects on consumers;
2) a desk research on how the image of the Alps is used to promote local products by brands of different kinds;
3) a systematic content analysis of references to the Alps in trademarks and figurative logos, based on data from the EU trademark search engine TMViews.
Place image connotes the image of locally made products and can generate positive consumer responses, including a more favorable attitude and greater willingness to pay a premium price. The Alps have a strong image that is transferred to products from different value chains. Based on the limited evidence available, consumers associate the Alps mostly to traditional agri-food products – cheese, but not only. Alpine references are however used in trademarks beyond agrifood value chains – for example wood and textiles/clothing – and in a wide range of services. Such is the attractivity of the Alps as a place image that even brands without strong links to the Alps use it – a phenomenon we termed ‘Alpinewashing’.
Today’s complex value chains often require territorial specialization and an international division of labor. Globalized value chains are today increasingly under scrutiny for their negative environmental impacts and unfair labour practices. Interregional and cross-border collaboration can contribute to the relocation of manufacturing and crafts in the Alpine macro-ragion and to more environmentally and socially sustainable value chains. Consumer preference for regional products or national value chains might however penalize cross-border value chains. In this context, the Alp’s shared image is a cultural resource that can facilitate the promotion of these products. The Alps spontaneously project a strong brand image, which does not need the establishment of a formal ‘made in the Alps’ label covering the entire Alpine space. Cross-border value chains might also be facilitated by alliances among existing territorial brands.
Consumers’ perceptions of « Made in the Alps »
Building on the previous analyses, we adopted mixed methods to investigate consumers’ perceptions of products from various Alpine value chains (food, wood, textiles). First, we carried out qualitative analysis involving 23 informants from various Alpine regions, after which we carried out 9 quantitative studies, involving more than 1,000 consumers (2 surveys and 7 experimental designs), based on which we developed key implications and conclusions.
The study concluded that the Alps have a rather positive and attractive image, which connotes some products ‘Made in the Alps’ more than others. Consumers tend however to think of Alpine products in binary terms (local/non-local). They have limited awareness of the complexity of Alpine value chains, mixing local and non-local raw materials and processing. Our findings show that the 100% Local model can co-exist with other approaches to place branding in the Alpine space.
Policy Brief and Managerial Recommendations: Territorial brands as a tool for a collaborative, sustainable and circular Alpine Region
This report summarizes key insights from the project and proposes managerial recommendations for territorial brands, the organizations managing them, and their stakeholders; and discusses the role that territorial brands can play as policy tools in the context of the EU Strategy for the Alps, with a particular focus on the EUSALP Action Groups’ cross-cutting priority on the circular economy.
Further information: rinallo@em-lyon.com