The purpose of this report is to present competitive strategies implemented in small fashion
designer businesses that are part of a creative ecosystem in the Metropolitan Region of Recife.
A research was carried out to investigate alternatives and apply them, aiming at improving
management and innovation, with a consequent increase in competitiveness and access to new
markets by these small businesses producing authorial fashion brands. In this perspective, the
research considered two stages: a literature review and a field study. In the first stage,
diversified theoretical sources support the strategic approach to design in companies, according
to the Design Management model, management theories and the relationship between design
and competitiveness and innovation to point out ways of accessing new markets, considering
the context of the creative fashion ecosystem and its interrelationships. The second part of the
research follows the methods of observation and semi-structured interview with entrepreneurs
of small businesses in the fashion segment who develop and commercialize authorial products.
The analysis of the results is based on the list of theoretical and practical data of the research,
to indicate the strategies that aim to add value to small businesses of authorial fashion, through
management qualification and improvement programs that make them more competitive in the
market.