Social media and Chinese consumers’ environmentally sustainable apparel purchase intentions

Abstract

Purpose Social media and sustainability are changing Chinese consumers’ consumption behavior in notable ways. Few apparel industry sustainability efforts are enforced or well known in China. As China operates its own social media sites, it is necessary to study Chinese social media, rather than Western types, in order to understand its influence on Chinese consumer behavior with regard to sustainability. By extending the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the prototype willingness model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese consumers were taught their environmentally sustainable apparel (ESA) consumption behavior through social media, and also how the influence of peers affected their purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach A total of 238 survey responses were collected and analyzed from a Chinese research firm in 2016. In accord with the study objectives, an exploratory factor analysis was first conducted, and then a two-step analysis of a structural equation model was employed for hypothesis testing. To test the significance of hypothesized mediated effects, a bootstrap procedure with 2,000 bootstrap samples from the original data was used to compute bias-corrected 95% CI for indirect effects. Moreover, hierarchical regressions were demonstrated to verify the unique contribution of social media influence. Findings The study findings support the previous literature that indicated positive attitudes toward environmentally sustainable purchasing behavior increased as Chinese consumers learned about social and environmental issues. Also, results of the analysis revealed that Chinese consumers’ engagement with social media and their peers were important social influences that were directly tied to increasing sustainable apparel purchase intentions. Originality/value By extending two grand theories of the prototype willingness model theory and the TRA, this study underlines a novel link between the influence of social media and ESA purchase intentions among Chinese consumers. Results are valuable in a global context as it is one of only a few studies to explore Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions of ESA through an exclusive social media platform – WeChat – in China.

The Influence of Social Media Marketing on Apparel Brands’ Customers’ Satisfaction: The Mediation of Perceived Value

“…The TRA, developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1977), aims to understand how people intentionally perform actions and evaluate the importance before those actions by a particular behaviour, i.e., linking attitude, subjective norms, and behavioural intentions. The TRA theory emphasises that positive attitude towards a given behaviour represents the possibility to participate will be significantly high (Zhao et al, 2019). In a nutshell, action is determined by the intention to perform.…”

“…All the marketing activities on the social media platform are significant for organisations to enhance customers' overall commitment toward a company (Lacey et al, 2007). Zhao et al (2019) have studied the impact of WeChat marketing on Chinese customer attitudes and purchase intention towards apparel brands. Similarly, another study in McAlexander et al (2002) investigated that the interactions and communication on social media between different users, building community loyalty, enhancing customer satisfaction (Prebensen & Xie, 2017), are the keys to the long-term management of a community platform.…”

“…Social media is one of the most potent advertising and marketing tools adopted by numerous brands and retailers for customer attraction and retention (Pookulangara & Koesler, 2011;Hennig-Thurau et al, 2004;Ismail, 2017). China's fashion industry provides the largest consumer market in the world, where social media contributes significantly to attract and engage more customers (Zhao et al, 2019). From 2014, the usage of social media in China has exponentially increased to one hundred million, and is predicted to reach almost 580 million customers in 2018 (InternetWorldStats, 2019).…”

“…Numerous fashion retailers, such as Zara, YOOX, and Topshop, have adopted WeChat to extend their market in China (Consulate General of the Netherlands in Shanghai, 2014). Two-thirds of luxurious brands are attracting customers by using WeChat as a social media platform (Zhao et al, 2019). Since the young Chinese generation is strongly dedicated to social media and apparel brands, most of them log on to social media to search for different styles and brands.…”

“…Khan et al (2019) studied the impact of four well-known apparel brands' SMMAs on brand equity and customers' response towards apparel brands in Pakistan (Khan et al, 2019). Similarly, the authors investigated the influence of social media use and perceived value on Chinese environmentally sustainable apparel (ESA) purchase intentions by utilising hierarchical regression and a structural equation modelling approach (Zhao et al, 2019). Another study related to fashion and apparel brands assessed the impact on the purchase of apparel goods, such as market awareness, perceived brand output, and perceived personal relevance among the American consumers (Kang et al, 2013).…”