Sustainability-oriented material strategies and their upgrading effects: evidence from the fashion industry

Energy crises and user preferences have driven industrial focus towards sustainable development, yet the impact of implementing sustainability-related strategies on industrial transformation and upgrading remains unclear. This study constructs an empirical model to systematically quantify and analyse the multidimensional transmission mechanisms through which sustainability strategies drive industrial transformation and upgrading via market, cost, and innovation effects. Considering factors such as transformation pressures and consumer relevance, taking the fashion industry as an example: firstly, based on theoretical research, this study proposes the hypothesis that sustainability strategies can promote industrial transformation and upgrading; secondly, representative variables were selected and an indicator system established. Subsequently, key terminology for sustainable strategies was extracted through expert interviews, with frequency data collected from relevant corporate annual reports. Finally, the model was applied to empirically test the data, assessing the extent and mechanisms of sustainable strategies’ impact on industrial transformation and upgrading. The results indicate that sustainable strategies significantly promote industrial transformation and upgrading, exerting influence through market, cost, and innovation dimensions. This study overcomes previous research limitations by systematically analysing the impact of sustainable strategy implementation on industrial transformation. Through constructing a multi-factor benchmark regression model, it quantitatively assesses the comprehensive effect of sustainable strategies on industrial transformation and upgrading.