Personal Values, Beliefs, Knowledge, and Attitudes Relating to Intentions to Purchase Apparel from Socially Responsible Businesses

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to provide initial understanding of female consumers' decisions to purchase from socially responsible apparel businesses, operationally defined as the U.S. Department of Labor's Trendsetters. The relationships between three major groupings of variables were explored including the following: (a) consumers' personal values, beliefs, and knowledge, (b) attitudes relating to socially responsible apparel business practices, as well as product-specific attitudes, and (c) intentions to purchase apparel from socially responsible businesses. For the 219 women surveyed, only product-specific attitudes were related to intentions to purchase from socially responsible apparel businesses. However, greater knowledge and concern about issues in the apparel industry, as well as beliefs about the U.S. apparel industry and perceived effectiveness, were related to greater support for socially responsible businesses. Suspicion about business practices intended to solve apparel industry problems was related to beliefs about foreign apparel businesses and societal values. Implications for government and industry initiatives involving consumers in the elimination of sweatshops are discussed.

Individual values and motivational complexities in ethical clothing consumption: A means-end approach

“…By stressing fair wages and working conditions, respondents aim to help provide better living conditions for other people (Dickson 2000). Nevertheless, 'avoid exploitation' is a more important motivating construct containing a societal and a psychological component.…”

“…Littrell 1996, andDickson (2000) using path analysis, specifically theorise and demonstrate a hierarchical system of effects with global values as the most abstract level affecting more specific attitudes. Importantly, the attitude towards the behaviour of purchasing apparel in an ethical context was a better predictor of purchase behaviour than was attitude towards the apparel itself (Dickson & Littrell 1996).…”

Exploring the role of values and norms towards consumers’ intentions to patronize retail apparel brands engaged in corporate social responsibility (CSR)

“…Research pertaining to CSR and its influence on consumer purchase decisions has been conducted in numerous industry sectors and distribution channels including organic food, health, energy, and water (Dodd and Supa 2011;Arvola et al 2008;Godin et al 2005). A growing stream of research has also investigated sustainable apparel consumption (Dickson 2000;Kang and Hustvedt 2014a, b;Kozar and Connell 2013) with a focus on consumers' environmental concern, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors.…”

Impacts of sustainable value and business stewardship on lifestyle practices in clothing consumption

“…In other words, a result for recycling were similar to Koch and Domina's (1999) study that information of apparel recycling, accessibility for recycle options, and social norms for recycling could be relatively lacking. Thus, promoting jeans manufactured in an environmentally friendly way from recycled denim (Phau and Ong 2007) can be an effectual strategy which stimulates those consumer groups in favor of the concept of donating clothes for recycling and purchasing products for charity (Dickson 2000). Moreover, anthropocentrism and the ecocentrism values play an important feature in influencing sustainable lifestyle practices.…”