Beyond Novelty and Growth: A Virtue Ethics Enquiry into Fashion Entrepreneurs’ Responsible and Harmonising Practices Towards Sustainability

Andrea Werner, Patrick Elf, Fergus Lyon and Ian Vickers
Journal of Business Ethics | Dec 2025

Summary

The paper examines the growing movement of small fashion entrepreneurs who aim to provide alternatives to the mainstream fashion industry, which often prioritises novelty and growth at the expense of societal and environmental well-being. It highlights the importance of understanding how such entrepreneurs can act as agents of change within the industry.

Drawing on rich data from an in-depth study of 27 UK-based entrepreneurs, the authors propose a novel framework that combines MacIntyre’s virtue ethics and Jonas’s responsibility imperative. The paper identifies key virtues—passionate commitment, authenticity, humility, sharing and empowering, and temperance—that inform the practices of these entrepreneurs, aligning them with a profound sense of responsibility for sustainability. These virtues, the authors argue, underpin entrepreneurial processes that negotiate and harmonize sustainability with business demands.

The paper also explores the varied ways in which fashion entrepreneurs take responsibility for sustainability, ranging from adopting a ‘growth for impact’ strategy to remaining small while achieving influence through replication. The authors conclude by conceptualising the varieties of ‘postgrowth entrepreneurship,’ which align deep-rooted responsibility with business objectives, offering a vision for a more sustainable and alternative fashion industry.

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