No abstract

The expanding nature of the men's casual apparel market represents a considerable economic growth area in the apparel industry. Of particular interest is the demand for casual clothing by college-age men. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the in¯uences of casualwear involvement (high, medium, low) on the purchasing behaviour of male students in relation to their shopping dimensions, personal characteristics, buying behaviour, shopping attributes and information sources.Data were collected using a questionnaire delivered by e-mail to a systematically selected sample, with 176 male college students responding from 18 colleges in Georgia, USA. The results revealed that there were unique shopping patterns which differ according to casualwear involvement, indicating a deep interest in casualwear and appearance. Most male students had a medium to high casualwear involvement sum score; however, as age increased this score decreased.Both the personal and the market information sources indicated that customers with high involvement were more experienced than either the low or medium involvement groups. The medium involvement casualwear group was composed of consumers who were likely to make purchases during the sale season. The low involvement cohort was moderate casualwear buyers in terms of volume and purchased expensive casualwear. This study shows that classifying male college students by involvement can be helpful in marketing to this group. Apparel marketers are well advised to focus on this neglected cohort of male casualwear consumers.

Examines the differences between consumers′ expectations and perceptions of service quality they received when shopping apparel specialty stores. Also takes into account consumer demographic characteristics. Utilizes SERVQUAL scale and methodology developed by Parasuraman et al., (1991). Calculates gap scores by subtracting the expectation scores from the perception scores. Using a factor analysis procedure, four determinants of service quality emerged: (1) Personal Attention; (2) Reliability; (3) Tangibles; and (4) Convenience. Findings indicate greatest disparity between expectations and perceptions for the Personal Attention factor. Consumer demographic characteristics of race, marital status, and income provided significant differences between expectations and perceptions for Reliability and Convenience. Also considers the importance of service as a patronage criterion for apparel specialty store consumers. Indicates that service ranked third in importance behind merchandise assortment and price.

The purpose of the study was to investigate male college students in the southeastern United States to identify factors associated with consumer masculinity behavior. The variables of self-esteem and media significance were tested as possible predictors of consumer masculinity behavior. A total of 219 surveys were used as the sample for this study. Pearson correlation analysis tested relationships among the variables, and linear regression was used to further test the nature of the relationships identified. Results indicated that media significance and appearancerelated self-esteem were significant predictors of consumer masculinity behavior. Limitations and implications are discussed.

This study measures the levels of satisfaction regarding retail attributes and apparel fit among speciality‐size (petite, tall, large) college women. Previous studies have measured satisfaction among older speciality‐size women, but none has focused on younger women. The study utilised a conceptual framework based on Renoux's theory of retail satisfaction which consisted of three dimensions: shopping system satisfaction, buying system satisfaction, and consuming system satisfaction. Renoux's theory of retail satisfaction was applied to speciality‐size college women when considering apparel purchases. Female students from nine geographically diverse universities completed the questionnaire. The 358 respondents were categorised into three speciality‐size groups based on their height or clothing size. Respondents who were not categorised as being speciality‐size were placed in an average category. Analyses of variance were used to measure the levels of satisfaction. Findings indicated large‐size college females were the only group who had significant dissatisfaction in regard to shopping and buying systems (retail attributes). The results were surprising because there are numerous stores specifically targeted to large‐size females; however, these stores do not appear to be satisfactorily meeting the needs of the large‐size college females who participated in this study. Petite, tall and large‐size college females indicated dissatisfaction with various apparel fit variables, with the large‐size group being most dissatisfied. The results indicated that apparel manufacturers should re‐evaluate their sizing standards; perhaps a universal, international sizing standard is warranted.