Influencing Factors of Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intention to Sustainable Apparel Products: Exploring Consumer “Attitude–Behavioral Intention” Gap

Abstract

As the rapid economic growth and over-consumption within the largest population worldwide has resulted in harmful environment deterioration, a shift to more sustainable consumption behaviors is required in China. Although public interests in sustainability have increased and consumers' attitudes are positive, their behavioral intentions are not consistent with attitudes. This study aims to uncover psychological drivers and barriers (consumption values, social norms, and attitudes to sustainable apparel products) of Chinese consumers' behavioral intentions toward sustainable apparel products (SAP) by exploring the attitude-behavioral intention gap. Online survey data were used to examine the moderating impacts of consumption values and social norms on relationship between Chinese consumers' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward SAP. Results from moderating regression analysis suggest that (1) Chinese consumers' SAP attitudes had a strong positive effect on the purchase intention toward SAP, (2) aesthetic values positively moderated the relationship between the SAP attitude and purchase intention, whereas conspicuous values negatively moderated the relationship, and (3) utility values and social norms did not show any significant moderating influences on the relationship between the SAP attitude and purchase intention. Our study validates the attitude-behavior gap model in sustainable consumer behavior and discusses how the current findings can assist researchers and practitioners in the Clothing and Textiles field alike to fine-tune sustainable programs and marketing strategies in China.

Professional Competence or Personal Relationship? Research on the Influencing Mechanism on Repeated Purchase Intention of Agricultural Resources

“…Therefore, compared with extant research, it explores a step deeper, and enables the role played by interpersonal relationships in marketing to be understood in the depth and detail that it deserves. Previous research has shown that professional competence is closely related to repeated purchase intention [59,67]. The results of this study show that professional competence has a significant positive impact on repeated purchase intention in the agricultural resources market.…”

“…As competition is increasingly intense, the brands and prices of products supplied by agricultural retailers in the same village are very often the same, thus the economic benefits brought by the correct guidance of purchasing agricultural resources are prominent. Effective guidance will benefit farmers, making them believe that the resources introduced by competent retailers are the right products for them to purchase [59], thus naturally leading to repeated purchase intention. Therefore, it is proposed that, when all else is equal: Hypothesis 2 (H2).…”

Why Do Consumers Make Green Purchase Decisions? Insights from a Systematic Review

“…There are also some consumers who choose to purchase environmentally friendly vehicles to show their identity or to obtain a good social image [ 28 ]. As for clothing, as one of the most direct representatives of personality, its aesthetics has a greater impact on product selection, but its practicability has a relatively small impact on decision-making [ 3 , 29 ], and even product durability preference has a negative effect on consumers’ purchase behavior of sustainable clothing [ 30 ]. Housing is an important fixed asset for families, so the behavior in respect to purchase intention is one of caution.…”

“…The study on the green purchase intention of Indian residents by Fleith and Duarte [ 124 ] also supported this finding. In contrast to the residents focusing on their own benefits in Western countries, Chinese people emphasize their own group goals, so they will do what others expect them to do in order to integrate into the social group [ 3 ].…”

“…They abandoned products that are relatively polluting to the environment or harmful to human health and turned to environmental protection products. Although manufacturers have produced environmentally friendly products, many consumers are not interested in their products due to their consumption values, resistance to new technologies, or their resistance to the premium prices charged for these new products, which leads to sales obstacles for these products [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to understand the influencing factors of consumers’ green product purchase behavior for green marketing.…”