To read this content please select one of the options below:

Personal values and ethical fashion consumption

Srikant Manchiraju (Department of Apparel, Merchandising, and Design, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA)
Amrut Sadachar (Department of Apparel, Merchandising, and Design, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA)

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management

ISSN: 1361-2026

Article publication date: 8 July 2014

18454

Abstract

Purpose

The role of personal values in consumer behavior is well documented; however, in the context of fashion consumption, the role of personal values’ influence on consumers’ ethical behavior has not been studied. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to seek to explore whether consumers’ personal values predict consumers’ behavioral intentions to engage in ethical fashion consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study employed the Fritzsche model, which states that an individual's personal values are related to his/her intentions to engage in ethical behavior. The present study examined the causal relationship between the personal values and behavioral intentions to engage in ethical fashion consumption. Data collected from the US national sample were subjected to structural equation modeling.

Findings

The proposed model explained 42 percent of variance in consumer's behavioral intentions toward ethical fashion consumption. Furthermore, a significant negative relationship between self-enhancement personal values and behavioral intention toward ethical fashion consumption was found. Several theoretical and practical implications related to the present study were discussed.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge, the study is first of its kind in several aspects: first, ethical fashion consumption has been conceptualized in the broadest definition possible, as oppose to focussing on a particular facet of fashion consumption (e.g. organic products or counterfeit fashion); second, linking consumer personal values as a predictor of his/her ethical fashion consumption behavioral intentions; and third, employing the Fritzsche model in fashion behavior context.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank Dr Ann Marie Fiore for her helpful comments during the initial stages of the study development.

Citation

Manchiraju, S. and Sadachar, A. (2014), "Personal values and ethical fashion consumption", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 357-374. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-02-2013-0013

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles