Exploring the Influence of Sustainability Knowledge and Orientation to Slow Consumption on Fashion Leaders’ Drivers of Fast Fashion Avoidance

Abstract

This research explores the complex relationship between fashion leaders' motivations toward slow vs. fast fashion, and proposing that all consumers have the potential to adopt more sustainable consumption behaviors, offers suggestions for sustainable companies aiming to better understand and target these consumers. Fashion leaders are particularly susceptible to overconsumption, yet they are also the most attuned to fashion industry information (e.g., sustainability) and influence others through their tastes and preferences. Proposing that spurring fashion leaders toward slow consumption and away from fast fashion (FF) will prompt the spread of these trends among the broader consumer market, this exploratory study investigates how fashion leaders' level of sustainability awareness and orientation to slow consumption influence their FF avoidance. Primary data were collected from 405 respondents. Reliability and validity were examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data and parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood method. Empirical results from SEM show that sustainability awareness positively influences orientation to slow consumption yet does not influence the drivers of FF avoidance. The results indicate that consumers' orientation to slow consumption positively influences many FF avoidance drivers but data also suggest that fashion leaders may not characterize the FF business model as unsustainable and as fueling overconsumption. This study adds to the body of knowledge on highly fashion-involved consumers and their motivations toward sustainable consumption. It offers insight into the pro-environmental attitude-behavior gap and how these consumers reconcile their sustainability knowledge with their consumption desires. Past research has explored the impact of the pro-environmental attitude-behavior gap on consumers' purchase intentions. However, no empirical studies have been found that concurrently examine consumers' sustainability awareness, orientation to slow consumption, and their behavioral intention to avoid FF.

Fast Fashion Avoidance Beliefs and Anti-Consumption Behaviors: The Cases of Korea and Spain

“…However, the study in Spain found that overly trendy style is reflected in the symbolic style with inauthenticity, and that irresponsibility is formed independently as a dimension of moral avoidance belief. Cavender and Lee [70] studied the US consumers' fast fashion avoidance and suggested that foreignness was not a sub-dimension of avoidance beliefs, but that localism as the orientation of slow consumption can influence fast fashion avoidance beliefs. The findings imply that negative beliefs about fast fashion are due to the evaluation of the fast fashion brand's products and services as well as the invasion of individual identity in the process of fashion diffusion.…”

“…Kim et al [25] suggested and confirmed the conceptual structure of fast fashion avoidance beliefs and we reconfirmed and showed its satisfactory validity and reliability in Korea and Spain. Cavender and Lee [70] also identified fast fashion avoidance beliefs based on Kim et al's structure [25] in the US. This study's findings also revealed that the conceptual structure and its sub-dimensions of fast fashion avoidance beliefs can differ based on the growth stage of fast fashion and consumers' accumulated experience.…”

“…Foreignness represents the psychological dissension and cultural distance caused by individual identity damage under cultural pressure during fast fashion consumption. Cavender and Lee [70] explored the fashion leaders' motivations and attitudes toward slow versus fast fashion. The findings showed that sustainability awareness had a positive effect on the orientation to slow fashion consumption but did not have any significant effect on the drivers of fast fashion avoidance.…”

Benchmarking the barriers of sustainable consumer behaviour

“…The author concluded that the consumers are not willing to pay for that kind of products about which they are less aware of and have never seen any advertisement. Lack of awareness/advertisements regarding sustainable electronic product among the consumers reduces the probability of further purchase/usage (Wheale and Hinton, 2007;Biel and Dahlstrand, 2005;Young et al, 2010;Annunziata and Mariani, 2018;Cavender and Lee, 2018). Thus, the lack of awareness/advertisement is also a significant barrier of sustainable consumer behaviour.…”

The Impact of Slow Fashion Orientation (SFO) on Socially Responsible Consumption (SRC): Moderating Effects of Industry Irresponsibility and Consumer Irresponsibility

“…Cavender and Lee (2018a; 2018b) introduced the concepts of industry responsibility and consumer responsibility as two distinct aspects of socially responsible consumption and disposal. Apparel production relates to industry responsibility while apparel consumption attaches to consumer responsibility (Cavender et al, 2018a;2018b). On the industry side, high levels of production have exacerbated the negative environmental (e.g., natural resource depletion) and social (e.g., working conditions) impacts of the clothing industry.…”