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Organic cotton, which is produced without any chemical fertilizers and pesticides, is playing a vital role in creating a less harmful environment. An investigation of the properties of weft knitted fabrics produced from organically made cotton vis-à-vis regular cotton knitted fabric is reported. The yarn is made with both organically produced and regular cotton, and the fabric is knitted by using single jersey machines. The fabrics are subsequently dyed by using natural dyes. The naturally dyed knitted fabrics are examined for shrinkage, bursting strength, abrasion resistance, and colour fastness properties. The result shows that the knitted fabrics produced from organically grown cotton is superior in performance in comparison with fabrics produced from regular cotton.

The purpose of this paper is to identify attitudes, behaviors, motivations, and consumption patterns of potential and current consumers of organic cotton products in the Hawaii market.

Data were collected from face‐to‐face structured interviews from an intercept sample of 420 Hawaii consumers. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi‐square tests and correlation analysis to provide additional information about the association of variables.

Significant associations were found between gender and knowledge about organic cotton, between cotton preference and ethnicity, and between cotton preference and knowledge of differences among organic and conventional cotton. This study also found that people who preferred organic cotton were more likely to purchase organic products and were more concerned about the environment than people who preferred conventional cotton, and that people who owned organic cotton products were more eco‐literate than people who did not own organic cotton products. A profile describing characteristics of organic cotton consumers was developed which may assist organic product producers, marketers, and sellers.

This research only involved collecting and analyzing information from participants in Hawaii, therefore, more research may be needed to compare characteristics of potential organic cotton consumers in different regions of the USA.

In addition to providing researchers with further understanding of potential and current organic cotton consumers, this study may provide organic product producers and sellers further insight about their potential customers which may help develop better ways to market their products.

This paper analyses the sustainability-oriented transformation of industries from the lens of sustainable entrepreneurship. The authors investigate the co-evolution between pioneers introducing radically more sustainable offerings and (mostly large) market leaders with their responses. While sustainability pioneers introduce new products in niche markets, incumbents advance them into the mass market, together leading to the transformation of industries, markets and consumer habits.

The authors apply the sustainable entrepreneurship perspective to a case study of the German clothing retail industry with a focus on organic cotton. The analysis covers four of the ten largest German textile retailers. Data collection is based on public available sources.

The late 1970s saw the foundation of Hess Natur, which pioneered organic cotton practices and supported the development of sustainability standards in the clothing industry. In the beginning this was largely a phenomenon in niche markets, but to date some organic practices have diffused amongst mainstream retailers. This is counter-intuitive, as theory suggests that incumbents only adopt practices with significantly lower sustainability standards than companies in the niche.

The study suggests that more research should focus on the co-evolutionary dynamics between pioneering companies and incumbents and examine whether and how sustainability practices diffuse into the mass market.

The findings can help managers to better understand their organisation's role in the transformation of industries towards sustainability and, vice versa, how the transformation may affect them. Leading the transformation challenge by adopting organic and other sustainable supply chain practices can be an important measure for market success.

This study is one of the few pieces of research investigating sustainability-oriented industry transformation from a market-based perspective. Actual data on organic cotton diffusion in German retail are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to determine consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic versus conventionally produced cotton apparel, and to explore the role of purchase behaviors, apparel attributes and consumer beliefs about organics in purchase decisions.

A 2nd priced auction was used to estimate WTP, along with a follow‐up survey to collect information on participants’ demographics, attitudes and behavior.

On average, participants were willing to pay a 25 percent premium for an organic cotton t‐shirt over the visibly similar t‐shirt made from conventionally produced cotton. Participants who pay for their own clothing or make purchase decisions alone were not willing to pay a premium. Previous history of purchasing organic foods, perceived product quality, fit and the participant's race were also significant predictors of WTP.

A more representative sample and the inclusion of other product categories are necessary to generalize the relationships found in this study.

This research helps to profile the organic cotton consumer. Findings suggest that retailers need to consider the income of target consumers when making decisions about carrying organic apparel products. Further, consumers with a history of purchasing organic products appear to carry that purchase behavior across product categories. When marketing organic apparel products, the perception of a higher quality product may yield a higher WTP.

The paper is one of the first to use an experimental auction in estimating WTP for apparel. Relevant consumer beliefs about organics, purchase behaviors and apparel product attributes are also explored.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the organic apparel consumer. Is the recent upsurge in organic cotton products another fashion trend or is there a segment of consumers genuinely interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel based on the benefits of organic agriculture to the environment?

Data were collected with a mail survey of US health and natural foods consumers. Conjoint analysis revealed salient product attributes and cluster analysis identified segments of consumers with different attribute preferences. Factor analysis uncovered latent variables from among the large number of items and the clusters were examined for differences in their psychographic profiles.

It was found that the 38 percent of consumers who found used organic cotton content salient had positive attitudes toward organic and sustainable agriculture, preferred to “buy locally” and had a strong self‐identity as environmental, organic, and socially responsible consumers.

The sample of US health and natural foods consumers means that the results cannot be generalized too widely. Research is currently under way to relate the self‐reported purchase behavior of organic apparel consumers discussed here to actual purchase behavior.

Survey respondents interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel agreed that organic farming is good for the environment, suggesting that consumers would be receptive to marketing messages that place an emphasis on the environmental benefits of purchasing organic cotton apparel.

The paper provides insight into the attitudes and motivations of environmentally concerned US consumers of organic apparel and provides information on focusing marketing to these consumers.

Consumers seem to be increasingly concerned about the environmental and social consequences of their purchases. For this reason, companies are involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies for their supply chain to responsibly manage the consumption of the environmental resources and to support sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the Italian organic apparel consumer by investigating the importance of consumers’ attitudes towards CSR in agricultural products processing industries and their willingness to pay (WTP) for organic cotton clothing.

Questionnaire data were gathered in Italy on a Likert scale. Questions focussed on WTP for organic cotton, with the aim to test consumer responsiveness to a CSR initiative in Italy. A structural equation model is proposed to shed some light into this relatively unexplored area.

One of the direct implications of the authors’ study is that companies in apparel industry should try to improve their social and environmental performance to elicit the desired consumer responses.

This implies important managerial implications for new marketing strategies. If consumers’ perception of CSR practices drives their behavioural intention, firms will be motivated to be involved and to invest in socially responsible practices.

This study seeks to investigate significant factors influencing consumers' willingness to pay a premium for three different socially responsible products – organic cotton, sustainable cotton, and US‐grown cotton shirts.

Through random‐digit‐dialing, the study data were collected from 500 respondents nationally via telephone surveys. The survey data were analyzed using stepwise regression and mean comparisons.

More than half of the respondents indicated that they were willing to pay a premium for organic, sustainable, and US‐grown cotton shirts ($5.00 or more for these cotton shirts at the $30.00 retail value). Consumer attitudes toward socially responsible apparel, attitudes toward environment, age, and gender were found to be significant factors for consumers' willingness to pay a premium. Four apparel product evaluative criteria, brand name, laundering requirements, color, and fit, were also found to be important for consumers' willingness to pay a premium.

Generalization from the study findings must be assumed with care due to the telephone survey mode.

Apparel businesses planning to offer organic, sustainable, or US‐grown cotton apparel products may want to emphasize certain tangible benefits, such as strong brand, reasonable price, easy care, color, and fit, concurrently with intangible benefits, such as feeling good by helping society and environment.

The findings showed relationships among attitudes, product evaluative criteria, demographic characteristics, and willingness to pay a premium for three different options of socially responsible cotton apparel, in order to help close the gap between attitudes and behavior in consumer research.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation, product price and organic label on consumers’ perceptions of quality, trust and purchase intentions of organic apparel products by surveying American young consumers.

An intercept survey approach was used to administer a written questionnaire to a sample of college students. The experiment is a 2 (CSR reputation: poor vs good) × 2 (price: low vs high) × 2 (organic label: absent vs present) factorial design.

The results of our study suggest that retailers’ CSR reputation had a significant positive effect on perceived quality, consumer trust and purchase intentions, and price had a negative impact on consumers’ purchase intentions. Results also revealed a significant three-way interaction among the three independent variables on perceived quality and consumer trust.

This research is the first empirical effort to investigate the key factors that may influence young consumers’ perceptions of quality, trust and purchase intentions of organic products by considering joint use of CSR reputation, product price and an organic label, which represents a realistic buying condition. Consequently, the findings of this study represent an important step forward in better understanding consumers’ buying behavior toward green products.

The purpose of this paper is to examine influence of past environment-friendly behaviour, peer influence and green apparel knowledge in the context of organic clothing purchase behaviour.

Data were collected by means of a survey carried out in three major metropolitan cities and a sample of total 889 respondents was collected who were college students in India.

Past environment-friendly behaviour influenced Indian youth’s organic clothing purchase behaviour. Green apparel knowledge and peer influence, interestingly, had no impact on organic clothing purchase behaviour.

The sample was limited to students who had past experience with green products. This was deliberately done as the objective was to examine the influence of past environment-friendly behaviour and green apparel knowledge on organic clothing purchase behaviour. Youth with limited awareness about organic clothing were not contacted. This restricted the findings to a specific youth segment. Further, the study was limited to Indian youth and did not examine the purchase behaviour of other consumer segments. Demographic variables were not used for analysis as only purchase behaviour of young people as a consumer segment was studied.

The findings can be used by organic apparel manufacturers in marketing organic clothing brands to the Indian youth. Organic clothing can be positioned to emphasise green values and distinct lifestyle for environment-conscious youths. Initiatives like celebrity talk-shows, organic clothing exhibitions, and launch of organic clothing designer brands can be used to promote organic apparel. College students can be used as opinion leaders to communicate benefits of organic clothing and inculcate green values among larger population.

Organic products and brands are becoming popular among Indian consumers. There has been limited research on the subject of youths’ purchase behaviour of organic clothing to date. Companies trying to launch organic clothing brands in the country may find the results helpful in understanding green buying behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the issues currently involved in social and environmental sustainability in the clothing industry.

The paper adopts a case study approach to investigate a business that operates successfully in this challenging market.

As a consequence of increasing demand for ethical clothing, it has become standard practice for UK clothing retailers to develop CSR policies which impact upon their methods of garment sourcing and partnerships with suppliers. There is also a significant trend for retailers to offer ethical clothing ranges made from organic cotton or produced by Fair Trade manufacturers. The paper includes a case study on People Tree, which sells Fair Trade clothing sourced from developing countries. People Tree is rare amongst clothing companies in that it provides customers with a transparent view of its production sources via the internet. The company provides an example of how socially responsible and environmentally sustainable global sourcing can be applied in practice.

The study focuses on aspects of sustainability in an individual retailer. This could be extended to other ethical retailers in different countries, and a longitudinal study of such companies could be conducted.

Literature on ethical fashion companies and their use of socially responsible strategies is sparse, and there is a lack of research that covers both social and environmental sustainability in this market. This paper fills some of the gaps.