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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between social and environmental responsibility knowledge, attitudes, and purchasing behavior.

An online questionnaire was developed to assess knowledge of, and attitudes towards, issues of social responsibility, including social and environmental aspects related to the production and distribution of apparel and textile goods. Information regarding engagement in socially and environmentally responsible apparel‐purchasing behavior was also collected. Participants included students enrolled at a four‐year institution located in the Midwestern USA.

Participants indicated being more knowledgeable about apparel environmental issues as compared to apparel social issues. Overall, participants exhibited low involvement in socially and environmentally responsible apparel‐purchasing behavior. However, both knowledge and attitudes of social and environmental issues were significant predictors of socially and environmentally responsible purchasing behavior.

Given the competition among apparel companies operating in the marketplace, this study lends valuable insight for firms in implementing strategic social and environmental practices and policies. The implications of this study also suggest that firms within the industry may need to respond to the barriers perceived by consumers in engaging in sustainable apparel‐purchasing behavior.

The findings of this study are useful in understanding the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Previous research on this topic has been inconclusive. A thorough examination of this topic is important, as noted by previous scholars, consumers have the ability to effect change in the marketplace through their purchasing behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to understand consumers’ purchase intention toward green apparel products using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Specifically, this study aimed to compare US and Chinese consumers to understand how green apparel behaviors differ by a country’s green market status and cultural differences.

By employing two antecedents, man-nature orientation and environmental knowledge into the TPB framework, a theoretical model was proposed and tested to explain how and to what extent each variable affected the purchase intention of US and Chinese consumers. To compare the two countries consumers’ purchase intention, moderating effects were proposed. To test this model, a total of 437 valid data sets were collected at universities in the USA and China.

Findings indicated that the subjective norm was found to have the highest direct influence on purchase intention in both countries. Regarding internal perceived behavioral control (PBC) and external PBC, internal PBC was important for purchase intention in the US consumers while external PBC significantly influenced purchase intention among Chinese consumers. For the USA, two indirect antecedents to purchase intention (man-nature orientation and environmental knowledge) positively influenced variables in the TPB. In contrast, for China, the path between man-nature orientation and attitude toward green apparel products was not supported, but all other paths were supported. Only environmental knowledge (indirect antecedent) positively influenced internal PBC. Country moderating effects were not tested because of lack of supported evidence of invariance tests.

This study is an empirical research that focuses on purchase intention of green apparel products rather than on the production of green textiles, a topic that has received considerable attention in previous studies. This research is based on TPB with specified indirect antecedents to purchase intention. By testing the proposed model, the study explains the paths from two indirect antecedents (i.e. man-nature orientation and environmental knowledge) to the intent to purchase green apparel products. Therefore, academically, this study contributes to understanding the interrelationships among the factors that lead to purchase intention of green apparel products.

The apparel industry is often scrutinized for its lack of environmental stewardship, and thus pro-environmental initiatives have been of significant consideration among apparel brands in recent years. However, one personality trait of specific concern to brand marketers is consumer skepticism toward climate change, which has the potential to negatively impact the success of brands’ pro-environmental initiatives. In this light, research indicates that knowledge of the environmental impact of products can lead to lower skepticism (Tobler et al., 2012) and ultimately higher purchase intentions of such products. Thus, this study investigates the impact of consumers’ knowledge about environmental impact of apparel, climate change skepticism on their evaluation of brands’ pro-environmental initiatives (shared value and perceived benefit) and ultimately their relationship with the brand (perceived trust, commitment), leading to purchase intention for both familiar and unfamiliar brands.

Two separate studies were conducted for familiar and unfamiliar brands. Data for online surveys were collected from two US nationwide samples and analyzed using path analyses.

Consumers’ intention to purchase from a pro-environmental brand was influenced by knowledge and skepticism. Particularly, the obtained shared value perceptions and perceived benefits of consumers influenced their relationship with the brand through trust and commitment, which eventually impacted their intention to purchase from the brand. Differences were observed for familiar and unfamiliar brands.

Findings of this study will help brand managers design effective pro-environmental marketing messages. Both familiar and unfamiliar brands would benefit from educating consumers about the true environmental impact of their apparel choices, as well as the personal benefits and values earned when purchasing/consuming pro-environmental apparel. This, in turn, reduces consumer skepticism toward climate change, leading to favorable evaluations of the brand’s pro-environmental initiatives and improvement of long-term brand relations.

This study extended the social exchange theory by understanding antecedents of consumers’ shared value and perceived benefits, namely, their knowledge about the environmental impact of apparel and their skepticism toward climate change, with the final outcome variable being consumers’ patronage intention of pro-environmental brands.

Consumers’ environmental behaviours are not only the result of their positive attitudes towards environments, but also different reasons and motivations exist. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to find out important factors affecting sustainable apparel buying behaviour. Applying the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study further examines how knowledge about sustainable apparel, perceived money availability, and perceived accessibility to the store influence sustainable apparel consumption.

Using a purposive college student sample, 235 usable responses were collected to answer the questions. An exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis was first performed followed by confirmatory factor analysis, and a structural equation modelling analysis.

Results revealed that the TPB was successfully applied in the context of sustainable apparel buying behaviour. Furthermore, it was found that consumers’ perceived money availability and perceived store accessibility are important factors that affect control beliefs and sustainable consumption.

This study found the needs of educating college students for contexts of environmental apparel and textiles issues.

Even though previous literature often found the gap between the behavioural intentions and the actual behaviour, this study found the respondents of this study walk their talk. This study successfully applied the TPB to explain consumers’ sustainable apparel buying behaviour.

This study aims to examine the influence of past environmental behaviour, green peer influence and green apparel knowledge on the subject of Indian consumers’ evaluation of the perceived benefits of green apparel.

Data was collected through a mall intercept technique in 10 cities across India.

Past environmental behaviour, green peer influence and green apparel knowledge had an impact on green apparel perceived benefits. Perceived benefits comprise of product attributes such as awareness of fair trade practices, the perceived value in buying fair trade clothes, and enhancement of self-image.

The research did not examine the impact of demographics and lifestyle on green apparel buying or the influence of product attributes such as quality, price and functional features in predicting consumers’ behaviour towards green apparel.

Green apparel manufacturers should focus on altruistic, physical and aesthetic product attributes. Green apparel can be marketed as a distinct product that communicates environment-friendly commitment. The social influence could be used to spread awareness about green apparel benefits.

There is little research on consumers’ perception of the benefits and value of green apparel in India. The study looks into altruistic and physical product features of green clothing and their role in enhancing an individual’s self-identity.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze changes in undergraduate student knowledge of issues of sustainability relevant to the apparel and textiles industry. Assessment occurred prior to and upon completion of a course that addressed topics specific to the global production and distribution of apparel and textile goods. The study also examined modifications in students' reported apparel purchasing behaviors.

Participants included those in their third, fourth or fifth year of undergraduate education in the apparel and textile discipline at a higher education institution located in the Midwestern USA. All participants were enrolled in a course focused on globalization and the apparel and textile industry. Measures used to assess students' knowledge of social and environmental sustainability issues related to the industry and their apparel purchasing behavior were included in the research instrument.

Pre and post comparisons revealed significant changes in students' knowledge of social and environmental issues relevant to the apparel and textile industry. However, the study found no significant adjustments in apparel purchasing behavior. Further, a post hoc analysis revealed no significant relationship between students' knowledge and their reported purchasing behavior.

Limited resources exist which examine methods for educating apparel and textile students about sustainability issues, with even less research documented on assessing the effectiveness of these methods. The paper analyzes the contributions sustainability‐focused curriculum can make in modifying the level of knowledge and purchasing behavior of students and recommends further strategies to yield possibly even greater results.

The purpose of this paper is to understand US and Chinese young Millennials’ perceptions of and consumption behaviour towards sustainable apparel products.

Quantitative research was conducted, and empirical data were collected from 590 US college students and 379 Chinese college students.

For both US and Chinese young Millennials, this study provides consistent empirical results of the positive and significant effects of young Millennials’ apparel sustainability knowledge and personal values on consumer attitude towards sustainable clothing, which in turn positively and strongly impacts purchase intention. In addition, a cross-cultural comparative analysis reveals similarities and differences regarding apparel sustainability knowledge and values between young Millennial consumers in the US and China.

The scale of environmental and social impacts from global apparel production and consumption makes sustainability increasingly important in the contemporary business environment. Young Millennials in the US and China represent large and influential consumer segments for sustainable consumption. This study contributes to the literature by surveying young Millennials in the US (developed market) and China (emerging market) in a cross-cultural context. The study offers insights into the global apparel industry in developing strategies for expanding sustainable apparel markets in the US and China.

The purpose of this study was to provide more information about the effectiveness of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) approach in textiles and apparel by applying it to a semester-long sustainability course.

A University-level course was re-designed using the ESD concepts. The course was taught from a consumer viewpoint using the product lifecycle as a focus, so the information was applicable to students’ lives and multiple consumer products. Quantitative results of a pre- and post-test taken by students measured changes in knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to sustainability. Qualitative data from open-ended questions collected student feedback on instructional strategies.

A significant change in knowledge and attitudes were observed on the post-test. Students perceived assignments that required critical thinking, research and related to their lives as the most beneficial.

The ESD approach changed student knowledge and attitudes to be more sustainable. Assignments that included real world examples had the most impact on pro-environmental attitudes and support the use of a student-centered pedagogy.

This study is based on a semester-long sustainability course designed with ESD, while many existing studies are based on a single intervention or lesson. The results of this study add to the body of ESD literature in the textile and apparel area and are applicable to other disciplines.

The study examined how consumers responded to apparel advertisements with varying environmental claims. Respondents were 274 undergraduate students at a US university. Three attitudinal perceiver variables (environmental knowledge, concern and commitment) were analysed in relation to perceptions of credibility of environmental messages. Although significant differences in perceptions of credibility among certain types of environmental ad claims were found, results suggest that the sample of consumers did not respond more positively to advertisements with environmental messages. Environmental advertisement claims were not effective in generating more positive consumer response to apparel advertisements.

Apparel manufacturers' achievement of green manufacturing (GM) goal remains low. This paper aims to identify and prioritise the barriers to GM implementation in apparel companies.

First, an extensive literature review is conducted to identify the key barriers to GM implementation. Second, 374 usable questionnaires are collected from apparel manufacturing companies to (a) examine the impact of and (b) rank the barriers. Third, interpretive structural modelling (ISM) is applied to test the relationships among barriers. Finally, structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to improve the model derived from the ISM.

The results reveal that the independent barriers – lack of eco-literacy among upstream or downstream supply chain members, lack of specific company-level training and monitoring of the progress of GM implementation and inadequate support from regulatory authorities – are the root causes of all the barriers. These three barriers are also at a low level of the ISM model, indicating that they significantly affect the entire system and therefore should be accorded the highest priority in dealing with these barriers.

The results are useful for decision-makers and apparel companies to understand identified barriers, develop potential GM interventions and formulate appropriate strategies to overcome these barriers.

The listed barriers are yet to be comprehensively synthesised in a coherent model and empirically tested in the apparel sector using a combination of the ISM and SEM techniques. The empirically validated model presented in this study is an important step in that direction.