Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethical fashion and consumer purchase behavior (their willingness to pay a premium for ethical fashion), with the focus on consumers’ concerns and beliefs about, and knowledge of, ethical fashion.

A self‐completion questionnaire was administered to 109 respondents. Factor analysis and other statistical analyses were applied to test hypotheses.

The findings suggest that consumer beliefs about ethical fashion, which are based on their perceptions of a company in terms of its reputation in the fashion industry, influence their support for what they perceive as socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

The sample size, which is relatively small, is a limitation for this research. The data were collected in Hong Kong, limiting findings to that geographic region.

An important implication is that consumer education is essential to mitigate the prevailing throwaway culture and raise consumer awareness of ethical issues facing the fashion industry. Thus, retailers should take initiatives to educate consumers so as to ensure the success of their newly‐launched ethical fashion products.

The paper proposes an approach to clearly understand the impacts of ethical fashion on consumer purchase behavior.

The task of this paper is to explore the interplay between fashion, consumer lifestyles and economic growth in the context of a world of technological change in which the menu of possibilities that consumers face is constantly changing and tending to increase in length. Our working definition of ‘fashion’ is simple, namely the tendency or behavioural norm of actors to adopt certain types or styles of customs or commodities nearly simultaneously, only to adopt a different type or style of custom or commodity in future periods. The demand spikes associated with fashion may pertain to newly introduced products or to products that have been around for some time; they may also occur in hybrid cases where a seemingly defunct product or genre is given a brief rebirth by being reincarnated in terms of a new technology.

The fashion industry has been accused of being the second largest environmental polluter in the world. Millions of tons of post-consumer waste are dumped in landfills and garbage disposal sites each year. However, environmental concerns are emerging as a mainstream issue among modern-day consumers. This critical problem has prompted fashion retailers and brands to embrace sustainable practices to address consumers’ environmental concerns by reducing pollution. Given this background, this research aims to understand consumer’s perceptions of value towards second-hand fashion consumption in the context of Sri Lanka.

This exploratory study uses a qualitative approach to understand consumers’ perceptions of value towards second-hand fashion consumption.

This research uses the theoretical model of the means-end chain model and shows five consumer’s values of second-hand consumers: price-consciousness, consciousness on emotional bonds, comfortability consciousness, quality and brand consciousness and social and environmental consciousness. Furthermore, the authors show non-second-hand fashion consumers’ values as social status consciousness, hygienic consciousness, comfortability consciousness, quality and brand consciousness and self-expressive consciousness.

This research sheds some light on the emerging knowledge of second-hand consumption. This research further points out certain practical implications by drawing attention to a few opportunities and challenges associated with the second-hand fashion business within the Sri Lankan fashion retail sector, in particular when launching new fashion brands catering to second-hand fashion consumers.

The Muslim population is growing at twice the non-Muslim rate and forecast to represent over 25% of the global population by 2030. The Muslim fashion market is predicted to be worth $311bn globally by 2024. This market is currently not well understood or served. This study aims to present new insights into the fashion consumption opinions, attitudes and behaviours of female Muslim consumers through the lens of consumer culture focusing on Muslim identity.

An inductive qualitative method was adopted comprising 23 in-depth semi-structured interviews from respondents of seven ethnicities residing in the UK. Data were coded using a thematic approach.

Findings highlight the effect of Muslim identity on fashion consumption. Data demonstrates the importance of fashion for Muslim women despite the potential conflict between Islamic principles and public image. Respondents were conscious that their fashion behaviours were consistent with their identity; however, concerns were raised around limited choice and availability. Religiosity and family context/background were highlighted as key influences.

Findings provide clear guidance, enabling fashion brands to most effectively serve this substantial and rapidly growing market. It is important that Muslim women are able to engage fully with fashion trends, satisfying their will to fit in with both their religion and their wider community.

This qualitative research provides depth of understanding of consumer motivations and attitudes and a multi-ethnic perspective which is lacking from previous studies that have adopted quantitative and single nationality approaches.

This research applied Homer and Kahle's (1988) theoretical framework, which describes the hierarchical relations of personal values, attitude and behavior to test the moderated mediation model. The major focus of this study was to evaluate how individual characteristics such as fashion involvement and materialism influenced the formation of socially responsible attitudes and ethical fashion purchasing intentions. By focusing on fashion aficionados and materialists, this research examines each step of the hierarchical model by exploring the relation between values and attitude and evaluating the attitude–behavior gap. The main finding highlights the critical role that attitude plays in ethical fashion consumption.

Different sets of latent models with each ethical quality such as ethical concern and ethical obligation were tested to explore if those consumer characteristics had any moderating effects on both front-end (IV-M) and back-end (M-DV) relations of Homer and Kahle's (1988) hierarchical model.

Both ethical values failed to instill a socially responsible mindset in individuals who were heavily immersed in fashion or materialism. Once such attitudes were formed, however, those who were fashion-conscious or materialistic were more likely to purchase ethical apparel than those who were less interested in fashion or materialism.

Previous research has mainly identified external or situational factors that create the attitude or intention and behavior gap in ethical consumption. Given the lack of understanding about psychological factors in understanding the gap, this study added to the literature by identifying fashion involvement and materialism as critical factors positively influencing attitude and behavioral intention associations.

Brand centrality is a religion-like brand–customer relationship, which refers to the extent to which a brand is in the center or heart of a consumer’s life. While its role in the fast fashion industry is prominent, its drivers and effects have not been comprehensively studied. This study aims to investigate the relationships between three psychological drivers (i.e. fashion-conscious, chronic shopping orientation and self-esteem), one behavioral driver (i.e. the average frequency of shopping), brand centrality and relationship quality in the fast fashion industry.

A survey of 250 fast fashion consumers was conducted and partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data.

The study shows that fashion consciousness and chronic shopping orientation are positively related to brand centrality, whereas self-esteem is negatively related to brand centrality. The findings also show that shopping frequency moderates the relationship between fashion consciousness and brand centrality, and between chronic shopping orientation and brand centrality. Post hoc analysis indicates that brand centrality fully mediates the relationship between chronic shopping orientation and relationship quality.

This study is one of the first studies to investigate the psychological and behavioral drivers of brand centrality.

La centralidad de la marca es una relación religiosa entre marca y cliente que se refiere al grado en que una marca está en el centro o corazón de la vida de un consumidor. Aunque su papel en la industria de la moda rápida es destacado, sus impulsores y efectos no se han estudiado exhaustivamente. El presente estudio investiga las relaciones entre tres impulsores psicológicos (la conciencia de la moda, la orientación a las compras crónicas y la autoestima), un impulsor conductual (la frecuencia media de las compras), la centralidad de la marca y la calidad de las relaciones en el sector de la moda rápida.

Se realizó una encuesta a 250 consumidores de moda rápida y se utilizó (PLS-SEM) para analizar los datos.

El estudio muestra que la conciencia de la moda y la orientación a las compras crónicas están positivamente relacionadas con la centralidad de marca, mientras que la autoestima está negativamente relacionada con la centralidad de marca. Los resultados también muestran que la frecuencia de compra modera la relación entre la conciencia de la moda y la centralidad de marca, y entre la orientación de compra crónica y la centralidad de marca. El análisis post-hoc indica que la centralidad de la marca media totalmente la relación entre la orientación a las compras crónicas y la calidad de las relaciones.

Este estudio es uno de los primeros en investigar los impulsores psicológicos y conductuales de la centralidad de marca.

品牌中心性是一种类似于宗教的品牌-客户关系, 指的是一个品牌在消费者生活中处于中心或核心的程度。虽然它在快速时尚行业中的作用很突出, 但它的驱动和影响还没有得到全面的研究。本研究调查了三个心理驱动因素（即时尚意识、长期购物取向和自尊心）、一个行为驱动因素（即平均购物频率）、品牌中心性和快时尚行业的关系质量之间的关系。

对250名快时尚消费者进行了调查, 并使用部分最小二乘法-结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）来分析数据。

研究表明, 时尚意识和长期购物取向与品牌中心性呈正相关, 而自尊心与品牌中心性呈负相关。研究结果还显示, 购物频率分别调节了时尚意识以及长期购物导向对品牌中心性的影响。事后分析表明, 品牌中心性在长期购物取向和关系质量之间具有完全中介作用。

本研究是最早研究品牌中心性的心理和行为驱动因素的研究之一。

Detrimental impacts on social and ecological well-being of excessive fashion consumption and production practices are posing threats on future generations. Therefore, the need for sustainable solutions and endorsing them through social marketing efforts is more urgent than ever. From the consumption angle, this study aims to explore the driving forces behind consumers’ restless desire for the new and the growing need to consume sustainably.

This paper is conceptual in nature, and through a review of the literature in fashion, consumer, sustainability and social marketing studies, it examines why consumer desire for the new is so profound and how it conflicts with sustainability goals of the fashions industry. With a macrosocial approach, it reveals how multiple constituents of the fashion system can contribute toward sustainability goals.

This study explains consumers’ psychological and social needs driving their restless desire for the new and the role of fast fashion companies fuelling this desire. It also discusses the consequences of excessive fashion consumption and presents social marketing solutions at micro, meso and macro levels with upstream and downstream effects toward sustainability goals.

Considering the increasing consciousness about the negative impacts of excessive fashion consumption, this study suggests both practical and social implications that are associated with multiple stakeholders including consumers, fashion companies and public policymakers.

This study reveals in detail the challenges and potential social marketing solutions at micro, meso and macro levels, concerning the conflict between consumers’ restless desire for the new and the pressing need to consume more sustainably.

This study aims to explore young German consumer perspectives of rental fashion platforms by studying their perceived benefits, potential barriers as well as preferred clothing categories to rent from. This “new” kind of shopping has not yet found great success among young German adults, although there is a substantial margin of growth for this generation.

This qualitative study was conducted through 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews with young female and male German consumers out of Gen Y and Z. The analysis of the data was supported by the software NVivo.

Results indicate that young German consumers value renting clothes for occasions, to frequently change up their wardrobe, out of sustainability aspects and because of efficiency and convenience reasons. However, an entry barrier to the use of rental platforms still persists through a lack of awareness and information, as well as price and high demand issues.

As the interview’s focus group was set to young German consumers, a generalization of the findings to consumers from other countries or out of other generations might be limited.

Managers first need to lower the currently existing entry barrier that prevents many consumers from renting fashion online by raising their awareness and providing them with sufficient information about the platform’s processes as well as their terms and conditions.

This research intends to better understand young German consumers’ attitude toward rental fashion platforms and why renting fashion has not yet achieved more success among them.The results first give managers helpful insights for implementing successful marketing strategies by focusing on spreading awareness among young German adults to stem current entry barriers. Second, these results serve as a basis for future quantitative research that deepens the understanding of the correlation of current findings with other variables (e.g. age, the importance of material possessions in consumers’ lives).

The study investigates the factors that influence young consumers (Gen Zs and Ys) in emerging markets to engage fashion ads of non-luxury fashion retail small- to medium-size enterprises (SMEs) on social media. Through a desk assessment of practice and the phenomenon's available evidence in the extant literature, four main drivers were delineated, reviewed and subsequently tested to influence young consumers' behavioural engagements of emerging markets' fashion SMEs' social media contents.

A non-probability sample of 1,150 respondents (Gen Y and Z combined) in Ghana, an emerging market, formed the sample for the study. The respondents assessed four empirically identified antecedents (sales campaigns, relevant sales-related information, catchy and inspiring product/brand photo/video and consumer-generated contents) that are likely to influence their behavioural engagement on social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter). SmartPLS (version 3.3.3) was employed to perform partial least square structural equation modelling.

The results showed that to engage fashion-related ads, particularly from non-luxury fashion SMEs, young consumers consider sales campaigns, cues from consumer-generated contents, as well as quality and inspiring videos and photos. Less attention is given to relevant sales-related information.

The three significant drivers of engagement found in the current study provide managerial knowledge for non-luxury fashion SMEs in emerging markets. Videos and still pictures must be of high definition and quality. Short and long promotional campaigns may drive positive behavioural engagements. Interactivity between fashion SMEs and young consumers is encouraged as it precipitates the positive engagement behaviours enabled by social media. The study concludes with actionable recommendations for the non-luxury fashion SME sector in emerging economies.

The study is the first of its kind to ascertain what drives young consumers' engagement with non-luxury fashion SMEs on social media. It provides managerial insights and guidance to SMEs in emerging markets on effective social media fashion retailing targeted mainly at digital natives, the dominant generational cohorts on social media in most emerging economies.