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Communication about sustainability in fashion is complex. While fashion businesses have increasingly sought to manage their sustainability practices, their understanding of how to communicate about sustainability persuasively remains limited. The authors argue that a key problem with a firm’s efforts in communicating about sustainability is that it is a psychologically distant issue for both businesses and stakeholders. This paper aims to apply construal level theory to explore managers’ construal level in shaping communication about sustainability.

The paper used a two-phase qualitative methodology. Phase one involved undertaking interviews with ten managers in fashion firms to address communications about sustainability in the UK. In phase two, 16 consumers interpreted and reflected on the persuasiveness of communications about sustainability encompassing both concrete and abstract forms of messaging.

The authors identify the factors driving different approaches to communication (concrete and abstract) depending on the construal levels of managers, managers’ perceptions of the construal level of target stakeholders and the perceived authenticity of the sustainability claim. The paper highlights the conditions under which the (mis)match with the brands’ sustainable practices works in crafting communication. The authors also highlight three main communication strategies in responding to the complexity of sustainability in fashion ecosystems: amplification, quiet activist and populist coupling.

As an in-depth qualitative study, the authors seek to expose an under-researched phenomenon, yet generalisations both within the fashion industry and beyond are limited by this focus.

Fashion managers need to be flexible and evaluate how their communications about sustainability affect stakeholders’ evaluations of their brands. As sustainability in fashion brands grows, concrete and specific sustainability messaging may be necessary to improve sustainable behaviours.

The prevailing literature encourages symbiosis between sustainability practices and communications; such relationships are rare, and studies outside the consumer perspective are also rare. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this exploratory study is the first to understand how managers’ construal level influences decisions around communications about sustainability in fashion and how these messages are perceived by consumers.

Based on the construal level theory, the purpose of this study is to prove the effect of interaction between construal level and visual crowding on consumers' buying intention. The study tries to explain the reasons behind the different buying intention toward visual crowding among consumers with different construal level.

This study was conducted through two situational simulation experiments. The main data analysis methods are ANOVA and bootstrap analysis.

(1) the matching of construal level and visual crowding has a significant effect on consumers’ buying intention. (2) Perceptual fluency mediates the interaction between the construal level and visual crowding on buying intention.

This study measures consumers' buying intention through situational experiments but does not measure consumers' buying behavior through real scenarios.

According to the study conclusions, consumers prefer visually crowded packaging that matches their construal level. Enterprises should consider the impact of the construal level on the effect of packaging stimulation.

This study enriches the theory related to construal level and highlights the mediating role of perceptual fluency. The addition of perceptual fluency explains the mechanism by which visual crowding affects consumers' buying intention. This extends the research on the antecedents and effects of perceptual fluency.

This study innovatively introduces visual crowding into packaging and matches visual crowding to construal level, explaining why different consumers buy different visually crowded packaging.

According to construal level theory, close (versus far) psychological distance is associated with low (versus high) construal level. Despite the evidence for discount frame effect, it is unclear whether psychological distance and product nature play moderating roles. In addition, little has been known whether the effect of discount frame can extend to other dependent variables such as willingness to pay (WTP). Driven by construal level theory, five experiments were conducted to explore whether the effect of discount frame is dependent on psychological distance and product nature (i.e. utilitarian versus hedonic product).

The experimental method was used, with discount frame, psychological distance and product type as the independent variables and purchase intention, attitude towards the advertisement, perceived value and WTP as the dependent variables. Participants were presented with promotion scenarios in which psychological distance and discount format were manipulated. In order to test the generalizability of results, promotional scenarios for both utilitarian (i.e. backpack bag and shampoo) and hedonic products (i.e. scenery ticket and perfume) were presented. Data were collected via the online experiment platform (i.e. www.Credamo.com).

The authors found an interaction between discount frame and spatial distance in that consumers had more positive attitude toward percent off than amount off under near-spatial distance. However, no interaction was observed between discount frame and temporal, social or hypothetical distance.

Taken together, the current study for the first time reveals that the effect of discount frame is contingent on a specific dimension of psychological distance (i.e. spatial distance), regardless of whether the product is utilitarian or hedonic. Findings from this study for the first time pose a challenge to the notion that construal-level match necessarily leads to more favorable consumer responses, suggesting that there may be a unique mechanism underlying the joint effects of spatial distance and discount frame. The current findings can provide important implications for marketers and retailers in an effort to design effective promotional messages.

This research examines how construal level shapes the effectiveness of rational (vs emotional) messages for inducing cessation behaviors. Concrete mindsets foster self-improvement goals, whereas abstract mindsets boost self-relevance goals.

In four studies, this research examines the moderating role of construal level on health messages and the underlying mechanism of goal pursuit.

Results demonstrate that concrete (vs abstract) mindsets increase consumers’ intent to engage in cessation behaviors when exposed to rational (vs emotional) messages. Consistent with this study’s theorizing, the authors found that self-improvement goals underlie the effects for concrete mindsets, whereas self-relevance goals mediate the effects for abstract mindsets.

The reported effects are limited to health messages focusing on cessation behaviors.

This research can help public policymakers to design more effective health messages to foster specific cessation behaviors – quitting smoking and reducing drinking – focusing on concrete (vs abstract) mindsets and rational (vs emotional) messages.

This investigation highlights construal level as an important moderator for message appeals (rational vs emotional) on cessation behaviors, along with the underlying mechanism of goal pursuit, thus contributing to health marketing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of moral identity and construal level on consumer green consumption and the mediating role of pro-environmental self-accountability.

The authors examined the hypotheses in two experiment studies. In study 1, the authors measured participants’ chronic individual difference of moral identity and primed construal level. In study 2, the authors primed moral identity and measured chronic individual difference of construal level. The authors also measured pro-environmental self-accountability in these two studies.

The results reveal that construal level moderates the relationship between moral identity and consumer green consumption, specifically, when consumers are induced a high construal level, moral identity has no effect on consumer green consumption, while when consumers are induced a low construal level, moral identity has a positive effect on consumer green consumption; the interaction of moral identity and construal level on green consumption is mediated by pro-environmental self-accountability.

This research enriches the literature on how to improve consumer green consumption, and thus has some managerial and public policy implications. But the authors only chose students as participants and the dependent measures are also limited. Future research can choose other type of sample and other dependent measures to test the generalization of the conclusion.

Prior literature of green consumption lacks research on mediation mechanism. Due to prior literature gaps, the authors integrate social-cognitive perspective moral identity theory, especially the in-group circle expansion of moral identity, and construal level theory to investigate the moderating effect of construal level on the relationship between moral identity and green consumption and the mediation effect of pro-environmental self-accountability.

This study aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework to investigate how green brand positioning strategies positively impact consumer response. It focusses on uncovering the causal mechanism in which such effect is mediated by brand stereotypes. Additionally, it outlines the moderating role of construal level in this formation process.

Three experimental studies were conducted to examine the hypotheses. Study 1 tests the positive influence of green brand positioning on consumer response. Study 2 tests the dual mediating effect of warmth and competence in the relationship between green brand positioning and consumer response. Study 3 further examines the moderating role of construal level in the effects of green brand positioning on brand stereotypes.

The findings reveal that green emotional positioning strategies are predominantly stereotyped as warm while green functional positioning strategies are predominantly stereotyped as competent. Both warm and competent mediate the effects of green brand positioning on consumer response. Furthermore, a congruency between green emotional positioning and high-level construal, as well as the match between green functional positioning and low-level construal, leads to more warmth and competence perception.

This study contributes to green brand management literature by proposing a brand stereotype-based mechanism to explain how green brand positioning strategies trigger consumers’ stereotyping process, leading to positive consumer response. This study also identifies the construal level as a moderating variable that impacts consumers’ warmth and competence perceptions towards two kinds of green brand positioning strategies. Managerially, the findings of this study provide managerial ideas for developing green branding strategies.

This paper aims to identify and classify consumers’ goals associated with the consumption of environmentally sustainable products. The applicability of such goals to the positioning of environmental products is also tested.

Study 1 used 62 laddering interviews to identify a hierarchical map of adoption related goals. Study 2 used a survey design (N = 152 students) to test the effects of construal-goal fit on evaluations of environmental product attributes of a hybrid car. Study 3 involved an online experiment (N = 125 consumer panellists) to test the effects of construal-goal fit on consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium (WTPP) for energy-efficient light bulbs.

A hierarchical goal map displays consumption goals attainable through environmentally sustainable products. Consumers with a chronic, high-level construal placed more importance on product attributes associated with abstract goals than those with chronic, low-level construal. This effect was stronger for males than for females. Additionally, construal-goal fit increased WTPP.

The results suggest that marketers consider construal-goal fit to communicate the value of environmentally sustainable products. The results, however, should be replicated in other product categories and across diverse cultural settings.

This paper identifies and classifies the goals related to consumption of environmentally sustainable products. Additionally, it tests the effects of construal-goal fit on evaluations of environmental products, providing insights for marketers seeking to improve their promotional efforts and for public policymakers as they institute demarketing campaigns.

Using food brands as a case in point, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between a local vs global brand positioning strategy and buying impulsivity, as well as the mediating role of construal level. The findings add a psychological argument to the array of reasons for firms to opt for a local instead of a global brand positioning strategy: local food brands promote higher levels of buying impulsivity than global brands by lowering consumers’ level of construal.

Five experiments use student and nonstudent samples, different construal level indices and generic and brand-specific buying impulsivity measures to test the hypotheses.

Local food brands promote higher levels of buying impulsivity than global brands by lowering consumers’ level of construal. Because local brands are proximal to consumers’ lifestyles, values, preferences and behaviors, they decrease the psychological distance between the brand and the consumer, compared with global brands. The smaller psychological distance lowers consumers’ construal level and renders the immediate, concrete, appetitive attributes of the product more salient, thus making consumers more prone to impulsively buy a local brand than a global one.

For the choice between a global or local brand positioning strategy, this paper argues in favor of the latter. Local (food) branding is a concrete brand positioning mechanism that can influence and benefit from consumers’ buying impulsivity.

The research reveals heretofore unknown but important implications of local vs global brand positioning strategies for consumers’ construal level and buying impulsivity.

Service encounters are becoming increasingly virtual through the infusion of computer-mediated technologies. Virtual services separate consumers and service providers both spatially and temporally. With the advent of virtual services is the need to theoretically explain how service separability is psychologically perceived by consumers across the spectrum of computer-mediated technologies. Drawing on construal-level theory, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a theoretical framework depicting consumer’s construal of spatial and temporal separation across a continuum of technology-mediated service virtuality.

The authors conducted two studies: first, to investigate consumers’ levels of mental construal associated with varying degrees of service separation across a spectrum of technology-mediated services; second, to empirically examine consumer evaluations of service quality in response to varying degrees of spatial and temporal service separation. These relationships were tested across two service industries: education and tourism.

Consumers mentally construe psychological distance in response to service separation and these observations vary across the spectrum of service offerings ranging from face-to-face (no psychological distance) through to virtual (spatially and temporally separated – high psychological distance) services. Further, spatial separation negatively affects consumers’ service evaluations; such that as service separation increases, consumers’ service evaluations decrease. No such significant findings support the similar effect of temporal separation on customer service evaluations. Moreover, specific service industry-based distances exist such that consumers responded differentially for a credence (education) vs an experiential (tourism) service.

Recent studies in services marketing have challenged the inseparability assumption inherent for services. This paper builds on this knowledge and is the first to integrate literature on construal-level theory, service separability, and virtual services into a holistic conceptual framework which explains variance in consumer evaluations of separated service encounters. This is important due to the increasingly virtual nature of service provider-customer interactions across a diverse range of service industries (i.e. banking and finance, tourism, education, and health care). Service providers must be cognisant of the psychological barriers which are imposed by increased technology infusion in virtual services.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of leader’s construal level, which is the tendency of the leader to construe things abstractly or concretely, on leader-member exchange (LMX) quality and the moderating role of relational demography, which is the comparative similarity between supervisor and subordinate in demographic characteristics. The authors hypothesize a positive relationship between leader construal level and the quality of relationship, such that, as the leader’s construal level increases and becomes more abstract, the quality of relationship improves. Furthermore, demographic similarity is expected to moderate the relationship between leader construal level and LMX quality.

Data were collected from 159 employees with an online questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis was used for hypothesis testing.

Results show that the leader’s construal level is positively associated with LMX quality. Moreover, demographic similarity moderates this relationship such that when subordinate and supervisor have similar demographic characteristics, the effect of leader construal level on LMX is higher.

This study addresses the call for further research on leader-related antecedents of LMX by showing that leader construal level predicts relationship quality. This study also enhances our understanding of how to leverage the construal level in leadership research. Moreover, this study provides a deeper and more integrated understanding regarding the development of LMX relationships by delineating the interactive effect of leader-related features and relational demography.