Environmentally sustainable textile and apparel consumption: the role of consumer knowledge, perceived consumer effectiveness and perceived personal relevance

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive understanding of young consumers' attitudes, perceptions and behavioural intentions towards the consumption of environmentally sustainable textile and apparel products. A total of 701 responses were collected from students attending large universities in the US, South Korea and China. An extended model of planned behaviour was developed and tested based on structural equation modeling approach. The results indicate that consumers' product knowledge, perceived consumer effectiveness and perceived personal relevance significantly affect young consumers' attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, thereby affecting purchase intentions for environmentally sustainable textiles and apparel. The research findings will benefit both environmental and economic enhancement efforts among policymakers, educators and industry professionals, enabling them to formulate strategies to ensure better communication with consumers to promote desirable consumption behaviour.

Consumer attitudes towards luxury fashion apparel made in sweatshops

“…On the other hand, penalties should also be given to businesses that are found guilty for committing unlawful trade. Through media disclosure and strict laws being implemented, unlawful business operations such as sweatshops will be better controlled (Kang, Liu and Kim 2013). From the exposure to what sweatshops are like and knowing that the government is contributing at their best to minimise social issues would ultimately increase consumers' self-efficacy to boycott luxury brands that use sweatshops to manufacture their products or to boycott buying products, consequently increase their willingness to support luxury fashion apparel that are not made in sweatshops.…”

“…Mukhopadhyay and Johar (2005) have found that self-efficacy may have a significant effect on purchase intention. In the context of sweatshops, Kang, Liu and Kim (2013) cited that there is still a need to investigate if this could be a potential influence on purchase intent as well as the willingness to pay more for luxury fashion apparel not made in a sweatshop.…”

Toward sustainable consumption: Investigating the determinants of green buying behaviour of Indian consumers

“…Therefore, such products that use material safer to the environment are recyclable and require less packaging (Chen & Chai, 2010;Ottman, 2011) which are taken into consideration of ecological goodness and society at par. In the study of green consumer psychology, researchers approached "attitude-intention" model underpinned by Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) TPB to be predicted purchase behaviour for various categories of eco-friendly products, for instance; energy saving products (Ha & Janda, 2012), green packaging (Prakash & Pathak, 2017), skin care products (Hsu, Chang, & Yansritakul, 2017), organic food (Zagata, 2012;Zhou, Thøgersen, Ruan, & Huang, 2013), and sustainable textile products (Kang, Liu, & Kim, 2013). Despite the popularity of TRA and TPB, several scholars were observed no direct influence of attitude on buying behaviour for green products driven by the components of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control (Joshi & Rahman, 2015;Tan, 2011).…”

“…Moreover, the measure of PCE is conceptualized as the judgment of the self in the circumstances of the environmental related affairs (Kim & Choi, 2005;Tan, 2011). Several scholars reported that PCE is more effective than other cognitive factors like concern, attitude knowledge, and so forth to predict ecological sustainable behaviour (Roberts, 1996;Straughan & Roberts, 1999;Tan, 2011), especially in capturing the desired results of green product purchase (Kang et al, 2013).…”

Determinants of Organic Cotton Apparel Purchase: A Comparison of Young Consumers in the U.S.A. and South Korea

“…Five items measured attitude [40,41], three items measured injunctive norms [40,42], three items measured descriptive norms [43], four items measured PBC [40,41], and three items measured purchase intentions [41,44].…”