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The purpose of this paper is to identify key aspects of business model development for sustainable apparel consumption, as actors show an increasing interest in product‒service systems. This purpose should be seen from a retailers’ perspective so as to develop sustainable solutions for long-term survival in the apparel industry when meeting consumer preferences for fashion as well as an increasing interest in consuming less. Further, this is from a perspective in an economy where sharing and circularity are potential drivers for changing consumer patterns.

The study is based on the apparel retailer Houdini Sportswear and its business model development from a traditional model of selling sportswear to a more future-oriented model where sustainability is more salient. The data for analysis were collected through interviews with employees within the studied company. The interviews have been guided by overarching themes covering relevant areas of interest for this study.

Overall, the paper shows how sustainability can be included in strategic development, from product idea, product development, production and sales/rental to repair, reuse and finally recycling. The paper also highlights potential obstacles in a developed business model with increased sustainability, including technological platforms, distribution networks for collecting and returning products and consumer consumption preferences. There are a few intertwined factors to be considered on different societal levels to achieve long-term success.

This study contributes an increased understanding of how more sustainable solutions can be included when developing business models. While the manufacture, distribution and consumption of clothes have an impact on the environment, some retailers and producers want to reduce this environmental impact. One alternative is to change the way clothes are consumed, to include more sharing and circularity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key features of fashion rental from a business model perspective with a focus on the role played by digital platforms.

A qualitative research design was used based on multiple case studies of three Italian fashion rental enterprises.

The findings reveal the key aspects characterizing fashion rental business models and the centrality of digital platforms in value creation, configuration and capture activities. The study also found that fashion rental platforms are likely to exhibit further successful development in the future.

The academic literature on fashion rental has been mainly focussed on examining consumers' motivations and concerns, paying little attention to the enterprise's viewpoint. To date, no previous study has examined fashion rental business models from the retailer's perspective. This paper is the first to explore the key components of fashion rental business models and how digital platforms influence them from the perspective of retailers. The originality of the study is further strengthened by the unique context of analysis, namely, Italy, a leading country for global fashion.

Due to e-commerce growth, technological advancements and environmental concerns, developing a more nuanced service portfolio has become a critical issue for last-mile logistics service providers. Concurrently, consumers are adopting new modes of consumption. This paper aims to investigate the potential for last-mile logistics service providers to act as intermediaries in access-based consumption and to revitalise their service offerings through product-service systems – a pioneering strategy not executed in the market yet.

This strategic customer foresight study uses a quantitative survey of 1,000 respondents and an online focus group comprising 10 early adopter consumers to investigate emerging last-mile service models. Potential service concepts were identified through the survey, and two distinct concepts were subsequently selected for evaluation and co-development within the focus group. The research was conducted in partnership with an SME logistics company in Finland.

The consumers expressed selective interest in access-based consumption related to the proposed offering of essential household goods. Young adults and consumers in early middle age living in the city centre emerged as the most potential user groups. Economic reasons and short-term needs were the primary motivations for adopting access-based consumption.

The study showed that engaging consumers in a customer foresight process is viable for SMEs innovating their offerings and demonstrates how the process works in practice.

Documented cases of customer integration into foresight processes are rare in earlier research, and this paper extends the knowledge base through a multidisciplinary examination of future consumer behaviour in the last-mile logistics domain. The paper also expands the limited literature on the role of logistics in access-based consumption.

To meet their ambitious targets for a circular economy, multinationals need to speed up their innovation efforts. This requires experimentation capability. But it is not clear what this capability entails, and how companies can build it. The purpose of this paper is to give companies guidance on how they might develop experimentation capability for the circular economy.

We conduct in-depth interviews with innovators in frontrunner multinationals, H&M, IKEA and Philips. We use the Gioia method to analyse our data.

This article identifies novel institutional, strategic, and operational actions that build experimentation capability for a circular economy.

The identified actions help innovation managers experiment and speed up their innovation efforts for a circular economy.

To reverse environmental degradation, multinationals need to transform their dominant linear take-make-waste business models. This research provides actions that help them organize this transformation.

This article is based on extensive research with leading multinationals and reveals novel insights on how to innovate for a circular economy.

The quality of the customer journey has become a critical determinant of successful service delivery in contemporary business. Extant journey research focuses on the customer path to purchase, but pays less attention to the touchpoints related to service delivery and consumption that are key for understanding customer experiences in service-intensive contexts. The purpose of this study is to conceptualize service journey quality (SJQ), develop measures for the construct and study its key outcomes.

The study uses a discovery-oriented research approach to conceptualize SJQ by synthesizing theory and field-based insights from customer focus group discussions. Next, using consumer survey data (N = 278) from the financial services context, the authors develop measures for the SJQ. Finally, based on an additional survey dataset (N = 239), the authors test the nomological validity and predictive relevance of the SJQ.

SJQ comprises of three dimensions: (1) journey seamlessness, (2) journey personalization and (3) journey coherence. This study demonstrates that SJQ is a critical driver of service quality and customer loyalty in contemporary business. This study finds that the loyalty link is partially mediated through service quality, indicating that SJQ explains loyalty above and beyond service quality.

Since service quality only partially mediates the link between service journey quality and customer loyalty, future studies should examine alternative mediators, such as customer experience, for a more comprehensive understanding of the performance effects.

The study offers concrete tools for service managers who wish to understand and develop the quality of service journeys.

This study advances the service journey concept, demonstrates that the quality of the service journey is a critical driver of customer performance and provides rigorous journey constructs for future service research.

The study aims to examine female sexuality in marketing communications and how it shapes the millennial buying decisions in the fashion industry. The focus of the study is to connect fashion industry and marketing communication to understand how female sexuality influence buying behaviours and decisions of the millennial.

The study was underpinned by the dimensions of skin colour, brand image and market share in sexual appealing marketing communication, and the millennial in the study comprises youths between the age of 21and 40 years and demographically defined by Wells and Guber (1966) as bachelors, Full nests 1 and 2. Multistage stage sampling was used with a structured questionnaire.

Findings show that youths, 2019 buying decisions and behaviours are strategically influenced by different manifestations of female sexuality in the context of the study and equally affect market share and patronage.

The study shows what shapes the marketing communication strategies of the rising fashion industry but is limited to the millennial buying decisions and not the larger fashion industry consumers.

The needs for fashion industry to understand the influence of increasing use of female sexuality in marketing communication on male and female consumers and the effects on their respective buying behaviours is strategic to the industry as shown in the study.

Female sexuality in marketing communication is strategic to fashion industry in today's market among youths.

The millennial constitutes a larger percentage of the developing economy market with rising income thus the need to understand their buying behaviours in the fashion industry

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of two potentially important antecedents of female Generation Y consumers’ attitudes towards beauty products. In particular, the impact of the media and groups is analysed through their influence on subjective norms.

Structural equation modelling analysis of moment structures was used to propose and test a research model by means of data from a substantial size of female Generation Y consumers.

The study’s results confirm that female Generation Y consumers have a favourable attitude towards beauty products and that this attitude is influenced by their subjective norms. Furthermore, the findings suggest that group influence, which includes the opinions of friends, family and peers and media influence both predict female Generation Y consumers’ favourable attitude towards beauty products via their influence on this segment’s subjective norms.

These results emphasise the strategic importance of incorporating subjective norms, together with media and group influence into beauty product marketing communication campaigns targeting female Generation Y consumers. Given that this generation is known to be prevalent users of social media and often consult online peer product reviews, such strategies should also be extended beyond traditional media platforms to include social media, particularly social media influencers and online product review platforms, thereby tapping into subjective norms and group influence.

This study contributes to understanding female Generation Y consumers’ attitudes towards beauty products, especially the combined influence of subjective norms and media and group influence on such attitudes.

El propósito de este trabajo es examinar la influencia de dos antecedentes potencialmente importantes de las actitudes de las consumidoras de la Generación Y hacia los productos de belleza. En concreto, se estudia la influencia de los medios de comunicación y de los grupos a través de su influencia en las normas subjetivas.

Se empleó el análisis de modelos de ecuaciones estructurales de estructuras de momento para proponer y probar un modelo de investigación mediante datos de un tamaño considerable de consumidoras de la Generación Y.

Los resultados del estudio confirman que las consumidoras de la Generación Y tienen una actitud favorable hacia los productos de belleza y que esta actitud está influenciada por sus normas subjetivas. Además, los resultados sugieren que la influencia del grupo, que incluye las opiniones de amigos, familiares y compañeros, y la influencia de los medios de comunicación predicen la actitud favorable de las consumidoras de la Generación Y hacia los productos de belleza a través de su influencia en las normas subjetivas de este segmento.

Estos resultados enfatizan la importancia estratégica de incorporar las normas subjetivas, junto con la influencia de los medios de comunicación y del grupo, en las campañas de comunicación de la comercialización de productos de belleza dirigidas a las consumidoras de la Generación Y. Dado que se sabe que esta generación es la usuaria habitual de los medios sociales y suele consultar en línea las revisiones de los productos, esas estrategias también deberían ampliarse más allá de las plataformas de los medios de comunicación tradicionales para incluir los medios sociales, en particular las personas que ejercen influencia en los medios sociales, y las plataformas de revisión de productos en línea, aprovechando así las normas subjetivas y la influencia del grupo.

Este estudio contribuye a comprender las actitudes de las consumidoras de la Generación Y respecto de los productos de belleza, especialmente la influencia combinada de las normas subjetivas y la influencia de los medios de comunicación y los grupos en esas actitudes.

摘要

本文旨在研究两个重要的潜在因素，对Y世代女性消费者对美容产品态度的影响。具体来说，是通过媒体和群体对主观规范的影响来进行分析。

本研究采用结构方程模型分析力矩结构，结合相当规模的Y世代女性消费者的数据，提出并检验研究模型。

研究结果证实，Y世代女性消费者对美容产品持积极态度，而且这种态度受到她们主观规范的影响。此外，研究结果表明，群体影响（包括朋友、家人和同伴的意见）和媒体影响都能通过对Y世代女性消费者主观规范的影响来预测她们对美容产品的好感度。

本文的研究结果强调了将主观规范和媒体、群体影响纳入针对Y世代女性消费者的美容产品营销传播活动的战略重要性。由于Y世代是社交媒体的普遍用户，并且经常查看其他用户评价，因此这种策略应该超越传统媒体平台，将社交媒体，特别是社交媒体网络红人和在线产品评论平台纳入其中，利用他们对消费者主观规范和群体的影响力。

本研究有助于了解Y世代女性消费者对美容产品的态度，特别是主观规范和媒体、群体对这种态度的综合影响。

Digital markets are increasingly constructed by an interplay between (non)human market actors, i.e. through algorithms, but, simultaneously, fragmented through platformization. This study aims to explore how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors co-codify markets through expressive and networked content across social media platforms.

This study applies digital methods as cross-platform analysis to analyze two data sets retrieved from YouTube and Instagram using the keywords “sustainable fashion” and #sustainablefashion, respectively.

The study shows how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors, co-codify markets across two social media platforms, i.e. YouTube and Instagram. The authors introduce the notion of sticky market webs of connection, illustrating how these dynamics foster cross-platform market codification through relations of exteriority.

Research implications highlight the necessity to account for all involved entities, including digital infrastructure in digital markets and the methodological potential of cross-platform analyses.

Practical implications highlight considerations managers should take into account when designing market communication for digital markets composed of (non)human market actors.

Social implications highlight the possible effects of (non)human market co-codification on markets and consumer culture, and corresponding countermeasures.

This study contributes to an increased understanding of digital market dynamics by illuminating interdependent market co-codification dynamics between (non)human market actors, and how these dynamics (de)territorialize digital market assemblages through relations of exteriority across platforms.

Companies utilize increasingly capable Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to deliver modern services across a range of consumer service industries. AI autonomy, however, sparks skepticism among consumers leading to a decrease in their willingness to adopt AI services. This raises the question as to whether consumer trust in companies can overcome consumer reluctance in their decisions to adopt high (vs low) autonomy AI services.

Using a representative survey (N = 503 consumers corresponding to N = 3,690 observations), this article investigated the link between consumer trust in a company and consumers' intentions to adopt high (vs low) autonomy AI services from the company across 23 consumer service companies accounting for six distinct service industries.

The results confirm a significant and positive relationship between consumer trust in a company and consumers' intentions to adopt AI services from the same company. AI autonomy, however, moderates this relationship, such that high (vs low) AI autonomy weakens the positive link between trust in a company and AI service adoption. This finding replicates across all 23 companies and the associated six industries and is robust to the inclusion of several theoretically important control variables.

The current research contributes to the recent stream of AI research by drawing attention to the interplay between trust in companies and adoption of high autonomy AI services, with implications for the successful deployment and marketing of AI services.

The purpose of this study is to explore the changing buying behavior of young Bangladeshi consumers in this pandemic situation toward online orientation. The major determinants of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and consumer value theory are used to explore their impact on buying attitudes toward behavior.

In this study, a model has been conceptualized to examine the influence of hedonic and utilitarian motivational values along with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on actual buying behavior under pandemic conditions. A structured questionnaire has been prepared for an online survey, and data have been collected from 395 online shoppers. The structural equation modeling technique has been applied to analyze the data using SPSS and SmartPLS 3 software.

The results of this study support that perceived enjoyment and utilitarian attributes (price, convenience and health aspects) positively affect online buying attitudes along with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Finally, online buying behavior is significantly influenced by the positive attitude of consumers.

The findings of this study may contribute to developing marketing strategies that may attract buyers toward a new business orientation with prosperous supreme features in the future. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the existing behavioral patterns of consumers and opened a new opportunity for marketers.

Young consumers are a larger section, and deep knowledge about youngsters may direct marketers toward appropriate use of marketing tools and strategies in the future.

This study integrated the TAM with hedonic and utilitarian motivational predictors to measure their impact on consumers' online buying behavior.