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Despite the growing popularity of online secondhand platforms globally, there is a lack of studies exploring how consumers worldwide perceive contamination and the use of secondhand goods differently according to the culture. Based on the consumer contamination theory, this study aims to investigate the cultural differences of South Koreans and Americans by examining three variables (e.g. transaction type, ownership duration and physical attractiveness) related to consumers' perception of contamination and purchase intentions for a secondhand apparel item.

Data were collected from 422 US and South Korean female consumers who were assigned to an experimental scenario, and their secondhand purchase intentions and perceived contamination were compared through independent t-tests and moderated regression analyses.

Consumers' purchase intentions increased, and perceived contamination decreased when the transaction type was business-to-consumer (vs consumer-to-consumer), when the item had been owned for a shorter period of time and when the item was sold by an attractive seller. Such effect was more pronounced for South Korean consumers than the US consumers in the negative contamination contexts (i.e. transaction type, ownership duration), but not in the positive contamination context (i.e. attractiveness).

The findings of the study add to the literature on consumer contamination theory through an examination of several negative and positive contamination factors in retail contexts and highlight the role of culture as a critical moderator.

One of the major concerns in the emerging phenomenon of collaborative consumption (CC) is the issue of contamination (i.e. feeling “grossed out” when sharing items with others). Guided by the law of contagion and the consumer contamination effect theory, this research investigated the ways in which companies can manipulate in order to reduce the negative contamination when renting or purchasing used fashion items from others. Specifically, this research examines this issue of contamination through the ownership type of the shared goods (e.g. corporate-ownership or B2C exchange, and consumer-ownership or C2C exchange) and its effect on consumers' CC intentions in two distinct sharing contexts (i.e. rental and secondhand purchase).

A total of 181 American female consumers were assigned to an experimental CC scenario, and their rental/secondhand purchase intentions were compared through ANCOVA analysis.

In both rental and secondhand purchase contexts, consumers displayed greater intentions to shop in B2C setting (i.e. corporate-ownership) with no direct contact with the previous owner, than in C2C setting (i.e. consumer-ownership) with a greater association with the previous owner and the shared items. Such inclination was more prevalent when purchasing a shirt than a handbag, suggesting that consumers feel more grossed out when there is greater physical contact with the shared item.

The findings of the study suggest a possible solution to alleviate the contamination effect, and the discovery of the degree of contact as a moderator provides new insight into contamination research.

This study explores reasons for and against secondhand luxury (SHL) fashion adoption among young consumers in an emerging nation, India. As a trend, SHL has witnessed tremendous growth in the past few years, but scholarly interest remains scant.

Drawing from an interpretivist paradigm, this study uses an exploratory qualitative approach with 26 semi-structured interviews with SHL buyers, analyzed using NVivo software.

The findings shed significant light on value drivers and find support for status value, uniqueness value, quality value and monetary value, while adding the role of emotional value in reasons for SHL adoption. The results reveal an interesting trait of Indian consumers: price, fashion and celebrity association outweigh sustainability concerns, where an attitude–behavior gap is observed. Also, the findings add depth to risk perceptions as a major reason against SHL adoption.

While most existing studies have only focused on the motivational drivers, this study offers in-depth insights into the growing SHL literature by drawing attention to the enablers and equally important inhibitors by applying the novel Behavioral Reasoning Theory. It also intends to enhance practitioner knowledge in understanding a culturally diverse market and developing strategies relevant to a new set of consumers. The study calls for SHL retailers to sensitize young consumers in India about the sustainability aspect of SHL consumption, which is currently less appreciated.

Due to the growing dominance of the millennials in the secondhand clothing (SHC) market, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of their SHC buying behavior. Despite such significance, it has yet to be explored in the current literature. To address such a gap, this paper aims to explore the antecedents of the SHC buying behavior of millennials.

A purposive survey is conducted to establish relationships between the antecedents. As such, the interrelationships of the antecedents are modeled using the interpretative structural modeling (ISM) approach.

Results reveal that SHC antecedents exhibit several characteristics depending upon their characterization of being driving, dependence, linkage and autonomous variables.

This work pioneers the identification of SHC buying behavior antecedents specifically for the millennial market, as well as in the provision of a holistic analysis of the complex contextual relationships of these antecedents. The findings of this work provide insights that are crucial to the extant literature in developing theoretical frameworks and paradigms that help in understanding the dynamics of the SHC buying behavior. Moreover, such results are beneficial to marketing managers and practitioners in innovating their strategies to capture the millennial market better.

Based on the learning and attitudinal theories, this study aims to investigate the direct effect of two type of experiences, attitude and the indirect impact of fashion innovativeness, materialism and financial pressure on Generation Z’s secondhand clothing (SHC) purchase intention.

A total of 180 usable surveys were gathered from Generation Z participants and analyzed by a partial least-square-structural equation model.

The results show that attitude (SHC hygiene vs SHC fashion style) and past experiences (daily use occasion vs particular use occasion) directly affect SHC purchase intention. Furthermore, materialism, financial pressure and innovativeness drive attitudes toward SHC fashion style.

This study extends the current SHC literature by integrating two dimensions of experience (daily use occasion vs particular use occasion) and attitude (attitude toward SHC hygiene vs attitude toward SHC style).

The main objective of this paper is to examine the motivators and barriers parents face when acquiring secondhand products for their children while specifically investigating the potential influence of prior experience on the relationship between these motivators, barriers and parents' purchase intention toward secondhand clothing for their children.

To address these objectives, a survey was conducted, yielding 265 valid responses. The sample comprised parents, with 96 having previous experience buying secondhand products and 169 without such experience. Multiple and binomial linear regression analyses were employed to examine the collected data.

Two motivators (economic motivation and environmental sustainability) and three barriers (social embarrassment, hygiene and risk) were tested, and our findings indicate that environmental sustainability and the perception of risk significantly influenced the intention to buy secondhand products for childrenswear. The results showed that for consumers with previous experience, the perception of risk is nonsignificant, suggesting that experience influences consumers' barriers to buying secondhand products.

This article is focused on the consumer behavior of parents who buy clothes for their children, and it is one of the few articles that proposes and tests a theoretical framework aiming to find empirical evidence about the motivators and barriers to consuming secondhand products in this market.

This study was specific to the childrenswear market, with characteristics that incentivize secondhand consumption, which might limit the findings.

The results suggest that marketers should focus their efforts on highlighting sustainability claims when advertising their secondhand products to consumers and investing in incentivizing consumers to buy secondhand products for the first time, as it might reduce barriers to their consumption in the future.

Used clothes supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, fragmented and less transparent due to rising volumes of discarded clothes and its dispersed reverse logistics operations across the Global North (GN) and Global South (GS). While it has a promising impact on circular economy and international trade growth, increasing exports of used clothes and overflowing landfills raise some negative concerns on its overall sustainability. This paper addresses the dichotomy that exists in terms of interpreting the sustainability credentials of used clothes supply chains.

A systematic literature review was carried out and 55 articles were examined to identify the triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability impacts of used clothes supply chains. TBL sustainability issues were identified, reflected through the lens of natural resource-based view and interpreted in the form of propositions.

The paper pinpoints seven TBL sustainability concerns and prescribes three sets of strategic resources required in glocal used clothes supply chains for mitigating these. These are (1) slowing the supply chain by tackling poor quality, overproduction and oversupply issues, (2) improving logistics/supply chain infrastructure and ecosystem collaboration and (2) embedding transparent environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures taken by both value chain actors and regulatory bodies, for embracing system-level sustainable development.

This is one of the first studies to analyse TBL sustainability of glocal north–south used clothes supply chains. The study is unique in terms of its scope and contribution to the sustainable supply chain literature.

Global value chains (GVCs) have been challenged by several emerging macro-trends during the last years. Among them, sustainability of production and consumption patterns is becoming a central theme given the necessity to mitigate the degradation of the environment and the over-exploitation of scarce natural resources. In this respect, scholars and practitioners increasingly propose the circular economy (CE) approach as a systemic solution to overcome the conventional linear “take–make–use–dispose” model underlying the structure of contemporary global economy. However, the international business (IB) community has introduced the topic of CE only marginally in its debate. The aim of the present study is to fill this research gap identifying the opportunities for integrating IB and CE principles. Thus, the main objective is to investigate whether and how the adoption of the CE paradigm by multinational enterprises (MNEs) may affect activities, geographical configuration, and governance of their relevant GVCs.

The authors address the issue from a conceptual point of view, identifying direct and indirect impacts of CE adoption on GVC, relative enablers, and possible broader implications. Lastly, the authors propose some reflections for future investigations.

Buying secondhand clothing is not only interesting for consumers wanting to save money but also for sustainable clothing enthusiasts. It is now among a number of consumption practices which slow down fast fashion production while saving 10 to 20 times the energy (Fletcher, 2008, p. 100). While most of the recent scholarly work focuses on secondhand consumers (Bianchi & Birtwistle, 2010; Franklin, 2011; Norum, 2015), this paper aims to examine business activities. This perspective from economic anthropology enhances understandings of secondhand clothing, as research to-date has tended to neglect the semiotic function of clothing while underlining exchanges. To gain insight into the dynamics of the sector in Germany today, two businesses from Hamburg have been ethnographically examined by the author since 2014. This study outlines their work practices and explains the development of this high-end segment of the market from the 1970s until the digital age. For businesses, the digitalization of the trade has had massive effects on their business practice because it seems to solve inherent problems connected to the selling of pre-owned clothing. I argue that the digitalization did not only promote acceptance of buying secondhand clothing in Germany but also the emergence of new businesses models.

The purpose of this study is to draw from sustainable social innovation theory and the Consumer styles inventory (CSI) instrument to examine secondhand clothing consumption habits for Russia. The secondhand market is the logical outcome of efforts to adopt resale as a facet of sustainable social innovation, with which to drive sustainable decision-making and socially responsible marketing in the secondhand high-end clothing market. Resale represents the cornerstone of business model innovation (BMi) for the retail sector, offering substantial opportunities for retailers who understand changes in consumption behaviour. More cost-effective and arguably greener, the sale of secondhand clothing is expected to be double the volume of fast fashion by 2030 but it remains an understudied field of research in the literature relating to the fashion industry.

Hypotheses are developed from the existing literature. Survey methodology is used to collect data from 250 Russian consumers in the city of Petersburg. The objective is to test the veracity of CSI shopper orientations, focusing on nascent motivations for high-end branded secondhand clothing, to examine sustainable social innovation and resale in an emerging market.

Four new shopping orientations are identified. Based on the empirical data, the authors suggest that five (out of the original eight CSI shopping orientations) are of internal statistical relevance, and that our new orientations are relevant for not only this market, but for neighbouring Eastern European countries too. The findings reflect postmodern evolution in behavioural motivations for Russian consumers, that can inform retail strategy in terms of BMi consumer for harnessing opportunities offered by sustainable social innovation and resale.

Whilst the CSI has been widely used, research for Eastern Europe is limited. Understanding the shopping orientations for sustainable alternatives to newly produced clothing has theoretical and practical implications for improving circularity, post-war entry strategies and countries facing economic downturn. This study contributes novel insights by examining consumer decision-making and shopping orientations in an emerging market.