Analyzing the Intellectual Paradigm of Fashion Branding in International Research

Fashion branding is decisive to create a distinctive image of a product. It is more important in the fashion apparel industry. Despite the existing studies, there is a need for a comprehensive investigation that can accurately portray the realities regarding fashion branding. In this regard, to provide a complete image and a deep understanding of the state of research in this field, the visualization technique of scientific networks was used. The research population consisted of all articles indexed on the Web of Science (WoS) database using the keywords such as "branding" and "fashion" from 1900 to 2019. The data was collected via a systematic review and analyzed by VOSviewer software. The research results included the data on identifying top scientific researchers and most influential countries; analyzing the relationships among researchers and countries, identifying keyword occurrences; and identifying research hotspots and subjects on which little research had been done. 1679 researchers, 64 countries, and 2522 keywords were obtained from 906 articles in total. This research seeks to explore and present emerging research topics. The research new insights and instruments emphasize the intellectual paradigm governing branding in international research for managers and owners of the fashion apparel industry. The intellectual paradigm investigated in this study by providing a comprehensive image of research conducted over the past thirty years in the field of fashion branding guides researchers to select research fields, keywords and also cite international articles and thus make Iranian research outputs more valuable. Managers of the fashion and clothing industry are also advised to use the fashion branding intellectual paradigm, which has been studied in detail in this research, in order to gain a comprehensive insight into the research background and scientific management of their brand.