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The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ responses to prosocial marketing claims presented on apparel hang tags. Guided by the theory of reasoned of action, this study examined the impact of varied prosocial claims (environment, labor, cancer charity) upon college students’ evaluations of hang tags used to promote university-branded apparel (i.e. t-shirts) as well as their attitudes and patronage intentions toward the apparel.

An intercept survey approach, with an experimental design component, was used to administer a written questionnaire to 262 college students. The experimental design component required participants to examine a university-branded t-shirt and to read the information provided on the product hang tag attached to the t-shirt.

In total, 60 percent of college students read apparel hang tags on a very frequent or frequent basis to gain information about brand name, care instructions, and fiber content. Further, college students evaluated apparel hang tags featuring prosocial marketing claims more positively than they evaluated hang tags with no prosocial marketing claim. In turn, these evaluations positively predicted the amount of money students were willing to pay for a university-branded t-shirt as well as their attitudes and purchase intentions toward university-branded apparel.

Findings suggest that apparel companies engaged in socially responsible business practices may wish to develop hang tags that address both desired product attributes as well as company engagement in prosocial initiatives.

This study extends the understanding of the role that prosocial marketing claims play in informing consumer's attitudes and behaviors relative to apparel.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of cosmopolitan consumer orientation (CCO) on sustainable apparel consumer behavior.

A total of 469 US responses collected using MTurk were retained for the analysis after screening for unengaged responses. Structural equation modeling was used to confirm the factor structure of the measurement model and to analyze the structural model. A two-step cluster analysis using log-likelihood distance measure and Akaike's Information Criterion was conducted to explore consumer profiles and past behavior.

Based on the model results, CCO positively impacts apparel sustainability knowledge, attitude toward purchasing sustainable apparel, perceived norm and sustainable apparel purchase intention. Attitude and perceived norm also impact sustainable purchase intention. The two-step cluster analysis, based mainly on sustainable past behavior, reveals that the group of sustainability engaged consumers knows more about apparel sustainability, has a stronger intention to purchase sustainable apparel, is more cosmopolitan and shows a higher tendency to follow social norms. Consumers in this group also tend to live in metropolitan areas and are slightly younger than unengaged consumers.

This study expands CCO research linking two major trends in society and industry: cosmopolitanism and sustainable apparel consumer behavior. The study reveals that CCO uplifts consumers' sustainable behavior and provides evidence in support of CCO as a driver of sustainable consumer behavior. Moreover, results imply a positive future outlook for the diffusion of sustainable apparel, as well as a much-needed mainstream consumer adhesion to more sustainable lifestyles. Given the repercussions of the findings, this research has numerous theoretical as well practical implications.

The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury brand descriptions influence millennials’ impression of luxury, impression of sustainability, attitude toward brand and purchase intention using the impression formation theory.

A between-subjects experimental design was used to test the research model, wherein two randomly assigned groups received an online experiment with either a luxury-only or a sustainable-luxury brand description.

Findings included that the impression of luxury did not change for a sustainable-luxury brand describing the use of recycled materials as compared to a luxury-only brand without the description of recycled materials present. Therefore, millennials perceived the luxury-only and sustainable-luxury brands to provide an impression of luxury, which was the sole impression to significantly predict attitude toward the brand. In addition, the results indicated that attitude positively influenced purchase intention for both brand descriptions.

This study provides support for luxury brands to transition toward sustainable efforts of using recycled materials in their goods as the impression of luxury is preserved, and provide marketing communication that favors sustainable brand positioning. This is one of the first empirical studies that focused on exploring sustainability strategies for luxury brands targeting a specific market segment (i.e. millennials in the United States of America).

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 sustainable fashion (SF) literature is fragmented across the management discipline, leaving the path to a SF future unclear. As of yet, there has not been an attempt to bring these insights together or to more generally explore the question of “what is known about SF in the management literature and where could the SF field go from there?”. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the field to identify opportunities for societal impact and further research.

A systematic literature review was conducted from the first appearances of SF in the management literature in 2000 up to papers published in June 2019, which resulted in 465 included papers.

The results illustrate that SF research is largely defined by two approaches, namely, pragmatic change and radical change. The findings reveal seven research streams that span across the discipline to explore how organisational and consumer habits can be shaped for the future.

What is known about SF is constantly evolving, therefore, the paper aims to provide a representative sample of the state of SF in management literature to date.

This review provides decision makers with insights that have been synthesised from across the management field.

This review identifies knowledge gaps and informs managerial decision making in the field, particularly through serving as a foundation for further research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' perceptions of and consumer behaviour towards apparel labels and environmental, sustainable and social apparel.

Quantitative research was conducted, and empirical data were collected from 399 US consumers.

Findings indicate that consumers expressed positive sentiments towards apparel sustainability, yet they lacked knowledge about socially and environmental practices within the apparel industry. Overall, it is apparent that the respondents have an interest in environmental and social labelling; but they are not aware of brands that sell these types of garments nor their validity. It was also found that consumers may not have much knowledge regarding environmental, sustainable and social apparel or their meanings.

By surveying the consumers about their perspectives on apparel labels and environmental, sustainable and social apparel, valuable market information was obtained. Sustainably and ethically produced garments are of demand as transparency in the apparel industry grows. Brands looking to become more transparent about their production methods will need to find new ways to reach their target market by accurately labelling products and educating their consumers about these label claims.

This study examined whether marketing an apparel product via an advertisement with a sustainability vs a conventional message would affect consumer perception of the brand's CSR image and their attitude toward the brand.

An online experiment via a posttest-only between-group design with random assignment was administered with a college student sample from a large northeastern university in the US.

Exposure to an advertisement with a sustainability message had a direct effect on the brand's CSR image, which mediated the relationship between advertisement exposure and (1) perceived brand innovativeness and (2) consumer-brand identification. CSR image positively predicted brand innovativeness, consumer-brand identification and attitude toward the brand. Prior attitude toward sustainable apparel was a significant moderator between advertisement exposure and (1) CSR image and (2) consumer-brand identification.

This study is among the first to test the effects of apparel advertising with a sustainability message on the relationship between consumer and the brand. Study findings contribute to industry knowledge by elucidating the potential effects of an apparel ad with a sustainability message on a brand's CSR image and innovativeness as well as consumer identification with and attitude toward the brand.

The purpose of this work was to identify segments of the US teen girl market based on the importance that these consumers assign to various product attributes in the apparel purchase decision process and to characterize these consumer segments in relation to their engagement in fashion and social responsibility.

An online survey was administered to 157 teen girls (14-18 years). The questionnaire included demographic items and measures of the importance of product attributes in the apparel purchase decision, fashion involvement, materialism, charitable/social cause involvement and past socially responsible apparel purchasing behavior. A two-step cluster analysis, employing Ward’s method and k-means clustering, was conducted on each participant’s factor scores on the four dimensions of the product attributes scale.

Three clusters were identified: the Conventionalists (n = 50, 31.8 per cent), the Self-Satisfiers (n = 34, 21.7 per cent) and the Embracers (n = 73, 46.5 per cent). MANOVA revealed differences among the clusters related to fashion involvement, social cause involvement, materialism and past socially responsible apparel purchasing behavior.

Results suggest that teen girls may respond positively to trendy apparel products designed with attention to issues of the environment, labor and/or charitable/social causes, particularly if the products are perceived as esthetically appealing and provide utilitarian value.

This work offers unique insights into teen girls’ apparel consumption behaviors by employing a benefit segmentation approach to explore the role that issues of social responsibility may play in teen girls’ apparel purchase decisions.

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.

Brief loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is introduced here as a valid social marketing intervention. LKM positively influences prosocial cognitions and affects. However, it remains unclear whether brief meditation interventions can influence prosocial behavior. This study aims to provide evidence of the effects of short LKM on prosocial behavior.

This study reports the results of three experiments examining the effects of brief LKM on donations to unknown others. The results are then integrated with the results of seven other studies testing the effects of brief LKM on prosocial behavior using a meta-analysis (n = 683).

LKM increased love more than the control group (focused breathing) in the three experiments; however, its effects on donations were mixed. The meta-analysis shows that LKM has a small-to-medium significant effect compared to active control groups (d = 0.303); moreover, age and type of prosocial measure used moderate the effects.

Results suggest that LKM can nurture prosocial emotions such as love and lead young individuals to donate. However, these emotions may not be sufficient to lead adult meditators to share their resources with unknown others. This study presents the first meta-analysis of brief LKM and provides insights into the use of meditation in social marketing programs.