Navigating the Transition Toward a Sustainable Textile Industry: Exploring Challenges for SMEs

Sustainability as a force behind innovation and innovation as a means to achieve sustainability: the paper fits within this context, considering sustainability and innovation as interconnected factors. The study emphasizes the efforts of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop sustainable innovations and analyzes some main challenges hindering the transition of SMEs toward sustainability. The textile industry is explored. As a sector both driving economic growth and facing significant criticism for unsustainable practices, textile companies are actively pursuing the development of sustainable and innovative products. The paper aims to answer the following research question: What obstacles hinder the sustainable transition of SMEs that propose innovative textile materials? Methodologically, it presents a single-case study of an Italian SME in the textile sector that proposes sustainable innovative materials besides traditional offerings. The study identifies five key challenges ultimately attributable to product-induced and market-induced obstacles. These obstacles feed a vicious cycle in SMEs' sustainability transition. The paper proposes implications for facing these challenges, advancing the academic debate on the sustainable transition of SMEs.