While apparel businesses leveraging the sharing economy have begun to emerge in recent years, academic research on "sharing" consumption for apparel is extremely limited. To fill this research gap, the researchers analyze current literature to present a conceptual framework that offers a durable theoretical foundation about the concept of collaborative consumption for apparel. Using a metatheory approach, the researchers develop a framework that explores how two major Internet-supported collaborative consumption modes (utility-based nonownership and redistributed ownership) manifest in an apparel context. Next, the researchers explore the implications of each consumption mode to understand the consumer's relationship with the product, peers, and businesses involved in these sharing schemes. A series of research propositions are also developed to stimulate discussion and future research about collaborative apparel consumption. K E Y W O R D S apparel consumption, collaborative consumption, sharing economy, sharing
An increasing number of studies in the fashion apparel sector has pursued multiple topics ranging from the use of environmentally friendly fashion products to the corporate social responsibility (CSR), reflecting an "emerging megatrend" (Lubin and Esty 2010, p. 44) in the current business environment. However, the existing research on sustainability in the fashion apparel industry is still limited in two major respects. First, there is no clear consensus on what it means to be "sustainable" for fashion companies or brands and how sustainability, as it is perceived by consumers, can be measured. Concepts with no clear definitions can indeed result in a methodological issue because what is understood by study participants may be different from what is intended to be measured by a researcher. Second, there is a lack of understanding regarding a discrepancy between consumers' perception toward a brand's sustainability and their behavior toward the same brand. This discrepancy can be demonstrated by the fact that fast fashion (or "disposable" fashion)-encouraging over-consumption and disposability-continues to gain profits and popularity over the last decade (Joy et al. 2012).
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